Clownfish host anemone in very small aquarium?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I know all the standard comments about clownfish host anemones in very small tanks, but I'm wondering if anyone has first hand info on what happens.

Specifically, I'm interesting in seeing if anyone has kept a gigantea, crispa, or magnifica in a tank under 30 gallons, and if so, what happened?

I'm aware that it could nearly fill up the tank when grown out for a few years. That does not mean it necessarily wouldn't work with appropriate care. i've keep a number of these anemones long term in larger (90+) gallon tanks.

The idea is a tank with mostly just the anemone and a small group of ocellaris (preferably) or percula clowns.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TX_REEF]

I've seen success on the youtubez with BTAs in small (10 gal) tanks, can't say I've personally seen gigantea, crispa, or magnifica in a tank under 30 gallons. Would be a heck of a showcase, though.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This setup Orion has is close to what I am thinking of...

Is it possible to keep an Magnifica in a Biocube?

FTS of my 24 gal Oceanic, no sump and no overflow. I have a HOB filter mainly where I put the heater in and keep the tank well aerated with a ventury protein skimmer that does not skim. FTS and picture of my Yellow Magnifica Anemone. The Female clown was about 1.75-2 inches. Light was a DE...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[MoshJosh]

I am currently trying to keep a magnifica in a 15 (short term obviously) i’ll let you know how it goes.

I have kept 3 long tentacle nems in a 9 gallon where my midnight Ocellaris happily hosted two of them. . .

 

[Battlecorals]

Definitely doable with bubble tips

Happy Clown and nem in , my sons 2 1/2 gallon pico in his bedroom. just a green bubble tip generic

 

[OrchidMiss]

Definitely doable with bubble tips

Happy Clown and nem in , my sons 2 1/2 gallon pico in his bedroom. just a green bubble tip generic

My little pair of clowns in my 10 are ready for their widow

 

[BeanAnimal]

I know all the standard comments about clownfish host anemones in very small tanks, but I'm wondering if anyone has first hand info on what happens.

Specifically, I'm interesting in seeing if anyone has kept a gigantea, crispa, or magnifica in a tank under 30 gallons, and if so, what happened?

I'm aware that it could nearly fill up the tank when grown out for a few years. That does not mean it necessarily wouldn't work with appropriate care. i've keep a number of these anemones long term in larger (90+) gallon tanks.

The idea is a tank with mostly just the anemone and a small group of ocellaris (preferably) or percula clowns.

Thanks in advance.

I have seen several modestly small tanks with larger carpets. I think the things to consider are that are naturally somewhat hard to keep and very dependent on water quality and generate a lot of waste as a large living organism.

They can't be fragged like some other species, at least that has been my general understanding. The parent and cutting may both appear to heal, but will waste away over months. So once they outgrow the smaller tank (wall to wall or close) they will need to be re-homed.

You will need to carefully plan filtration to keep water quality in check, but I think it is very doable.

 

[JoJosReef]

My worry with big nems in a smaller tank is the powerhead and the overflow. If the nem takes a walk and sits on the overflow, you're going to overflow the tank--my experience with AIOs at least. Even a trochus crawling across the overflow weirs causes the levels in the back to drop, triggers the ATO and raising the water level in the tank too much. With complete blockage, the pump raises the levels over the top (depending on your ATO and level of control). With a 30gal, this might not be as big of an issue as with a 20 or a 10, since you have more volume to fill before overflow.

That's why I like the emergency overflow in the IM AIO tanks:

The drop in the back wall means no overflow outside of the tank. And if you are worried that your fish could jump through, you can just take some silicone and plastic mesh embroidery sheets and make a screen so that the fish can't get through at any angle.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Definitely doable with bubble tips

Happy Clown and nem in , my sons 2 1/2 gallon pico in his bedroom. just a green bubble tip generic

Thanks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

My worry with big nems in a smaller tank is the powerhead and the overflow. If the nem takes a walk and sits on the overflow, you're going to overflow the tank--my experience with AIOs at least. Even a trochus crawling across the overflow weirs causes the levels in the back to drop, triggers the ATO and raising the water level in the tank too much. With complete blockage, the pump raises the levels over the top (depending on your ATO and level of control). With a 30gal, this might not be as big of an issue as with a 20 or a 10, since you have more volume to fill before overflow.

That's why I like the emergency overflow in the IM AIO tanks:

The drop in the back wall means no overflow outside of the tank. And if you are worried that your fish could jump through, you can just take some silicone and plastic mesh embroidery sheets and make a screen so that the fish can't get through at any angle.

Thanks. My plan was no powerhead.

Use flow from one or maybe two sump returns.

A couple of different paths for water to get to sump in case the anemone blocked one of them.

 

[Reefering1]

I glad to hear you're considering setting up a tank, again, Randy!!!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have seen several modestly small tanks with larger carpets. I think the things to consider are that are naturally somewhat hard to keep and very dependent on water quality and generate a lot of waste as a large living organism.

They can't be fragged like some other species, at least that has been my general understanding. The parent and cutting may both appear to heal, but will waste away over months. So once they outgrow the smaller tank (wall to wall or close) they will need to be re-homed.

You will need to carefully plan filtration to keep water quality in check, but I think it is very doable.

Thanks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I glad to hear you're considering setting up a tank, again, Randy!!!

Early stage thinking about what might be doable...

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I know all the standard comments about clownfish host anemones in very small tanks, but I'm wondering if anyone has first hand info on what happens.

Specifically, I'm interesting in seeing if anyone has kept a gigantea, crispa, or magnifica in a tank under 30 gallons, and if so, what happened?

I'm aware that it could nearly fill up the tank when grown out for a few years. That does not mean it necessarily wouldn't work with appropriate care. i've keep a number of these anemones long term in larger (90+) gallon tanks.

The idea is a tank with mostly just the anemone and a small group of ocellaris (preferably) or percula clowns.

Thanks in advance.

I tried that with bubble tips and a group of sibling tank raised clowns. The anemones were the Shedd Aquarium clones that split like mad, Se we constantly had to cull them. As the clownfish matured, they started to pair off, but there wasn’t enough space so we had to remove the singletons, but then the pairs started to squabble……it looked great for a couple of years though!

 

[BeanAnimal]

The few I have seen have been almost full bottom carpets. One here at an LFS for many years. There was somebody back at RC that had a really nice looking full tank carpet as well, but for the life of me would never remember who.

 

[JoJosReef]

Are you thinking a cube? 25g Lagoon?

This "clown prison" 10g tank was meant to be 1 BTA for the clowns and softies/macros for fun. The clowns spent about 1-2 weeks in the BTA and then switched to the toadstool, which became large. Now they live in the toadstool. Goal was to eventually move them into an ~25gal lagoon for the long haul, but looks like it'll be a toadstool tank instead of a nem tank :~)

I think a 20-24 inch cube with sump + refugium, gulf live rock/sand, magnifica/gigantea/crispa, 2 clowns = super easy mode. That's more volume than your original post, but still easy maintenance, I think.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I was thinking of some sort of cube type of tank. Not sure on size. If I go the anemone/clownfish route, it would be bigger than if I just go for a more standard nano/pico. Advantages to each, but when I had larger tanks, anemones with clowns in them was always my favorite part of the tank, so a tank with mostly just them seems appealing.

These were the two giganteas in my 120:

And this was the H. crispa in my 90:

 

[reefchi]

This is exactly what I’m doing now. I’m setting up a 10g qt for a magnifica that will then go into my 10g innovative marine AIO which currently only has a pair of clowns. This of course temporarily while I finish my 25G lagoon tank.

The end goal is to move everything to a 25g lagoon tank.

I know it goes against what everyone says and the care tips for magnificaa but I’m going to see how it goes.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This is exactly what I’m doing now. I’m setting up a 10g qt for a magnifica that will then go into my 10g innovative marine AIO which currently only has a pair of clowns. This of course temporarily while I finish my 25G lagoon tank.

The end goal is to move everything to a 25g lagoon tank.

I know it goes against what everyone says and the care tips for magnificaa but I’m going to see how it goes.

I think many of the “rules” of reefing often generalize from something that shouldn’t be done by an inexperienced reefer who may not know what can go wrong or how to avoid it or fix it when it happens, to it just should not be done.

So in that vein, I want to be sure I know what has happened to others trying the same thing.

 

[jonelder68]

I had a large green carpet with two percula clowns in a 37 gallon tank for years. All was well until a heater malfunction and nuked most of the tank inhabitants including my carpet nem. The clowns survived and later got a rose BTA that they enjoyed for 7-8 years as well. Hosted both as soon as both nems were added. Sadly my grandma and grandpa percs. are just enjoying the rocks now. The carpet nem. did catch and consume a few fish. It basically took up half the tank. I loved the BTA’s a lot more due to size and seemed easier to care for. But 1 will soon become many!