Bubble tip anemone and Maxima clam

[Starganderfish]

Looking for advice.
I have a small Maxima clam in my 20 gal mixed reef. Been in there for about 3-4 months and has happily increased in size in that time. He’s happy and gorgeous and always has his mantle extended. Being a Maxima (light lover) he’s on top of my live rock as close to directly Under the light as possible.
Added a gorgeous bubble tip about two months ago to the reef. Initially placed it in the front of the display in the perfect spot for viewing and he stayed there happily for about 4-5 weeks. Then I made the mistake of futzing with the flow and he started to move. He’s now ended up on top of the rock, under the light and quite close to the clam. And he seems to be inching just a little bit closer every day.
Both are looking pretty happy. The anemone has started to bubble up again after having lost its bubbles when first added to the tank, so it seems happy and the clam continues to grow and spread its mantle.
Are these two likely to cause problems for rash other or should they cohabit happily?
I lost a beautiful little 24 carat gold torch after the anemone started to move around. Got right up next to it and a few days later the torch started losing tentacles and withering away.
Really don’t want to lose me Clam the same way.

 

[blaxsun]

Place a small rock between them. If the anemone latches onto it then you can easily relocate it.

 

[Starganderfish]

Place a small rock between them. If the anemone latches onto it then you can easily relocate it.

Hmmn, The Clam is on a cradle thingy because I wanted to be able to relocate him if necessary so I have been inching him away. The problem is there's limited space at the top of the rock and they both seem to want the maximum amount of light - the bubble tip has gradually moved as high up in the tank as possible and even now seems to be stretching up higher. And Maxima's are light hungry, so I can't really move him down.
I suppose I could encourage the bubble tip to grab onto another rock and then use that to raise it a bit higher, or build another platform for it up top...
I don't really want to relocate the Bubble tip because it will just move back to where it's happy, or even move to somewhere worse like near the wavemakers or something. And the clam is doing really well where he is and I don't really have a spot that would let me see him as well.

 

[mehaffydr]

Also keep in mind that the Bubble tip is small now but will grow rather quickly. Before long it could easily spread out 8" wide or more
May be time for a larger tank if you desire this selection of inhabitants

 

[Starganderfish]

Also keep in mind that the Bubble tip is small now but will grow rather quickly. Before long it could easily spread out 8" wide or more
May be time for a larger tank if you desire this selection of inhabitants

Yeah, that could be tricky. No capacity or interest in a larger tank for the foreseeable future. I might see if I can rig together an additional pillar more to the side for the Clam so the BTA is more isolated. If I can find a safe space for the Clam, the BTA can have the main pillar to itself. It’s a fairly pretty red and green rainbow so the LFS would probably be happy to take any splits off it.

 

[JoJosReef]

The maxima will also get quite a bit larger eventually--so maybe push forward your tank upgrading plans. Spectacular BTA and clam! I don't think you mentioned what light they are under. Maybe addition of supplemtal lighting will calm the BTA down. You can't watch the BTA 24/7, so might need to relocate it soon or find a moveable barrier between them. The maxima can also close up if the BTA starts stinging it and you'll know it's time to intervene.

 

[Starganderfish]

Well, that was a complete and utter disaster. No longer worried about BTA/Clam interactions...
Tried to set up a new pillar for the clam to the side. The aquarium epoxy wasn't curing properly, I pushed a little too hard trying to fix it in place, and caused a complete rock collapse. My entire scape collapsed in a heap.
I've just spent the better part of an hour trying to grab onto everything, find all the fallen corals, stop the anemone from drifting into the wavemaker and recreate some kind of rockscape.
I could weep. Everything was coming along so nicely!!
Massive rearrangement, multiple attempts to glue stuff back in place somewhere.... anywhere.
Then a 50% water change to try and clear out some of the silt and mess that was inevitably stirred up.
Went from this:

To this, over the course of one nightmare afternoon:

It's now an ugly mound of rock, with corals slapped on higglety-pigglety.
The BTA is now on the front and will no doubt spend the next week or two migrating around the tank again; I'm pretty sure I lost at least one zoa frag somewhere under the rock and sand, and I can only hope and pray that everything survives and the shock doesn't wipe out half my livestock.

The water cleared up pretty quick after the water change, so hopefully the sandbed was pretty clean and didn't release a heap of waste. I'll do another large water change tomorrow once my saltwater reservoir is refilled, let everything sit for a few days and then maybe try and do a more careful rearrangement this weekend.

It's heartbreaking when crap like that happens

The maxima will also get quite a bit larger eventually--so maybe push forward your tank upgrading plans. Spectacular BTA and clam! I don't think you mentioned what light they are under. Maybe addition of supplemtal lighting will calm the BTA down. You can't watch the BTA 24/7, so might need to relocate it soon or find a moveable barrier between them. The maxima can also close up if the BTA starts stinging it and you'll know it's time to intervene.

It's only a 20 Gal tank under an AI Prime 16 so I think that should be plenty of light...assuming everything returns to normal. So gutted, especially about the anemone, he was really starting to bubble up nicely again!!!

 

[Starganderfish]

Found the missing Zoa's. The Clam, Hammer and Torch are starting to open up. Half the zoa's are showing some life but they're usually pretty resilient corals so I'm not too worried. The smallest Gonio is emerging and the Alveo has poked out a couple of heads. The largest Gonio is shut up tighter than a camel's butt in a sandstorm but that one's always been hypersensitive. The Anemone is gripping on in his new location and has pulled in kinda tight but not completely gone. Hopefully the stress doesn't cause it to split.
All the fish are still there, though the Bullet Goby was pretty ticked that his cave is buried. Spat out a blast of sand so fast I thought it would scratch the glass.
I have no idea how my Abalone is doing - he normally clings to the underside of the rock during the day and is still under the mound somewhere. I'll have to keep an eye out tonight and make sure he can still get out and clean the walls.
The Coral Banded Shrimp are not very impressed and seem to be roaming all over poking and prodding at stuff.

The new scape is a little bland but it does free up space for more corals, and there's room to go a little higher with some additional rockwork, as long as the base is secure.

 

[minus9]

Sorry for all of your troubles, but you know that the BTA will never settle where you want it to, right? As mentioned earlier, it’s small now, but will get bigger, much bigger and you’ll probably have to make the choice if it’s worth keeping in such a small tank with other animals or not? At some point it will be too big and it can do irreversible damage to the clam and other corals. Also, you’ll more than likely end up with more BTA’s soon enough.

 

[Starganderfish]

Sorry for all of your troubles, but you know that the BTA will never settle where you want it to, right? As mentioned earlier, it’s small now, but will get bigger, much bigger and you’ll probably have to make the choice if it’s worth keeping in such a small tank with other animals or not? At some point it will be too big and it can do irreversible damage to the clam and other corals. Also, you’ll more than likely end up with more BTA’s soon enough.

Cheers
Im aware that the BTA will go where it wants to go. That’s fine. Just keeping an eye out for whats nearby currently. Should settle down soon enough (assuming I don’t keep screwing ull ok the scape) and at that point I can move things around to suit
Not too worried about long term, if it gets too large, and can no longer fit, I’ve got folks who will take it off my hands.

 

[Starganderfish]

A month on and the tank is settling down nicely. Some new additions, a few more minor re-arrangements and it’s looking good again. My AWC unit failed while we were away on holidays but I avoided losing anything. Took a few days to get things looking nice again but I’m pretty happy for now.
Clam and Anemone have found nice spots and settled in happily for now.

 

[minus9]

Looking good. I forgot, are planning on getting a bigger tank? That banded sleeper goby is going to out grow that tank super fast, if it hasn't already?