anemone

[kennyman]

What is the best way to get an anemone? I have been reading about rose bubbletips, is that a good one for a beginer reefer?

My new tank is not quite settled in yet but I would like to begin looking for a RBTA and see how much one is going to cost so I can budget for it.

[darkphreak]

Hopefully this link will give you some answers. Taken from Reef Central FAQ's.

http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf

[gvv]

From what I read/heard Rose BTA is especially famous for wandering around the tank. If you will be able to create a "nice spot" for it in one loaction of your tank, it will stay there, but what exactly this "nice" mean here, is a good question: what water flow, what light can be determined only by experiment.
This is the info I got from i-net, no real experience with rose, only very little with green

Regards

[kennyman]

Thanks for the input guys. And thanks for that link Dark. I learned a lot from reading it. I have to admit there is some stuff there I did not want to hear.

I don't have MH lighting and I wont for at least this summer. That really cuts down on the types I can try and eliminates all the ones listed as hosts for my tank raised Ocellaris 

There is a blennie in my tank I am quite attached to and I don't' want to take a chance on him getting eaten. He is very quick and bold but he rubs against my Xenia and mushrooms every time he passes buy them. I don't think he would like what happens when he swims through the tentacles of an Anemone.

But I really do want my clown to be more at home in the tank. Right now he jumps at the opportunity to hang out with my Blennie, who never seems overly impressed by the attention, when ever he comes out his cave. Or swim up into my fingers when Im trying to work in the tank. He is very cute but seems kinda lonely.

[gvv]

...That really cuts down on the types I can try and eliminates all the ones listed as hosts for my tank raised Ocellaris  ...

I also looked for some host for my ocellaris clowns and was unable to select anything from the list. At least my GSM clowns are happy with BTA...
BTW, there are corals that clowns use as host besides anemones. My GSM even now when have BTA sometimes getting back to hairy mushrooms, I even heard about frogspawn clowns used as host, so you may go in different direction.
Good luck!

[kennyman]

I had the opportunity to see CN's tank recently and he has a frogspawn that is hosting his clowns. However the clowns prevent it from opening fully. I was warned that the coral will decline if used as a host for long term.

I know that I can always get some good LPS from the people here, but I would really like a small colourful anemone. Also I was told that its good to get the anemone in before you get most of the corals as the anemone will move about to find a home and sting the crap out anyting it goes past. So IF I am going to do it I think I should get one as soon as my tank settles back down from the move. I just need to find one that has lower light requirements and a good chance of hosting Ocellaris as well as not take up too much space in my rather small reeftank.

[Ironman]

I encountered that problem when I bought a BTA for my two percs. The percs were hosting in my open brain and were killing it. The brain would not open anymore and was declining in health. The BTA moved around the tank over the course of 1 week before it found a place it liked. I was worried for a while because I have allot of sps and didn't want to lose any to the BTA. I had to block off certain areas with lr to keep it from climbing up to the top of the rock structure. My clowns are now hosting in it and everything is ok.

[kennyman]

BTW, there are corals that clowns use as host besides anemones. My GSM even now when have BTA sometimes getting back to hairy mushrooms,

I was doing more surfing today about this topic and this article on the GARF site has tiped the scales for me. Unless I can get one captive bread I'll let it go 

[mseguin]

AS much as I agree that corals and anemones should be captive raised as much as possible, that article was very questionable to me. "captive Clown Fish need anemones about as much as they need a bicycle." Huh?

[az]

my captive bred 5percs never went close to any of my 5 different lta/carpet/flower or even any mushrooms/xenias, i was told by BA that tank raised ones arent always used to, so they might might not.

[gvv]

BTW, you may have a look at the carpet anemone in BA Kanata... If not the price I really wish to have one of them...

Regards

[Aiglos]

AS much as I agree that corals and anemones should be captive raised as much as possible, that article was very questionable to me. "captive Clown Fish need anemones about as much as they need a bicycle." Huh?

It means they don't need it....  I thought it was pretty clever. 

[gvv]

Don't know, but as I can see the sting is stimulating clowns and they like it so much that even bringing food to anemne/mushrooms. Maybe they don't need it but they like it
Cannot say, but even tank raised like to have a host. You cannot change the nature after one captive bred generation... The problem is that anemones are not easy held in captivity, some of them just simply not good for tanks. Once again, I wonder how long it will take them to be lost in BA, as they are in the low light tanks

Regards

[dannypd]

Just a point out of the host relationship with creatures could be a survival one too.  The clowns bring food etc back to the anemones, anemones happy, anemones keep fish alive?

Another interesting combo are a type of shrimp/crab (I cant remember) and knight goby.  crab makes hole, but it blind and easy prey, knight goby seals hole and leaves when no danger is present...

[kennyman]

That Garf article suggests clowns hosting in captive raised xenia. I think I am going to try that route although xenia dont seem to be the easiest critters to keep alive either. Garf has a page talking about triming xenia to keep it healthy. Something I have never heard before 

[darkphreak]

I find it extremely difficult to kill xenia. I hate the it because no matter what I do it always comes back.

[FishPassion]

One of my tanks has some tank raised clowns and one wild caught seabae which I have had for almost 3 years. The sebae took to an anenome within 5 minutes the tank raised show no interest at ALL in anenomes. As for Xenia I agree with James it seems to be extremely hardy in my tanks, it was the first frag I bought from Marx and its kinda like a dandelion will grow anywhere.None of my clownfish have ever hosted in Xenia frogspawn mushrooms etc. I agree with az tankraised clowns may not have the instinct in them to "host".