Interested in SW...

[Krib32]

I wouldn't worry about an anemone. Most clowns never even seen one so you don't really need one.

 

[Colin_T]

@Colin_T, you don’t need more than 1 inch of sand in a marine tank, correct?

An inch of sand is heaps in a small tank unless you want mantis shrimp or gobies that dig burrows and most of them are plain and ugly.
If you have a huge tank then you can have 4-6 inches of sand if you want to use it as a de-nitrating filter, but an inch is fine in your tank.

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I’ve been looking at 2 different ones, both seem good:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077MRHWSJ/?tag=ff0d01-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007R52C2K/?tag=ff0d01-20

Most marine fish do best on frozen or live foods and only captive bred marine fishes will take dry floating foods. You have to remember, most wild marine fishes don't take food from the surface and most will refuse dry and or floating foods. The anemonefish you want should be ok because they should be captive bred, but contact the place you are buying them from and get the same food they use. You should also get the shop to put a bit of food in the tank so you can see if the fish actually eat what is offered. Try and do this the day before you get the fish, or a couple of hours before you take them so they don't have a gut full of food in the bag.

I prefer to use marine mix (prawn, fish and squid blended up and frozen in cubes), frozen brinesrhimp, mysis shrimp, daphnia, and some live foods when available.

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The freshwater test kit will be fine, just use the saltwater colour chart. We used the same kits for fresh and salt water in the shop and never had an issue.

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Here is the artificial anemone I have now:

(I put it in my 20g long just to see how it looked underwater)

The neon green ones are kind of cool, but what color do clowns prefer?

Amazon has a bleak selection, so I may check at my LFS.

They prefer real ones.
They will take one look at that, turn their nose up and swim away.

If you get a leather coral later on, they will hang out in that. Or you can get a bubble tip anemone and they will live in that. However, anemones can wander around the tank and don't always stay where you put them. And they can die if they are handled badly by the shop or collectors, if they damage the base when trying to remove the anemone from the glass or rocks.

 

[cdelly]

i had tank bred common clowns that hosted a hairy mushroom patch rather than the rbta that was just above that patch.

in a bare tank with just some rock you may find they host the powerhead or return pipe. the artifical anemone is just to give them something if they want to host it and a bit of safety when spooked.

yes the real things are so much better, but OP not wanting corals at the moment. when wanting to upgrade (and it will come) he may then get live corals

 

[cdelly]

also if wanting to get a anemone to realease it's grip, i found a clean soft paint brush to tickle it's foot worked for me.

p.s. a proper paint brush not a little artist one

 

[PheonixKingZ]

An inch of sand is heaps in a small tank unless you want mantis shrimp or gobies that dig burrows and most of them are plain and ugly.
If you have a huge tank then you can have 4-6 inches of sand if you want to use it as a de-nitrating filter, but an inch is fine in your tank.

Ok, I’ll probably just add the whole bag, because it should come out to 6/8 of an inch.

Most marine fish do best on frozen or live foods and only captive bred marine fishes will take dry floating foods. You have to remember, most wild marine fishes don't take food from the surface and most will refuse dry and or floating foods. The anemonefish you want should be ok because they should be captive bred, but contact the place you are buying them from and get the same food they use. You should also get the shop to put a bit of food in the tank so you can see if the fish actually eat what is offered. Try and do this the day before you get the fish, or a couple of hours before you take them so they don't have a gut full of food in the bag.

I prefer to use marine mix (prawn, fish and squid blended up and frozen in cubes), frozen brinesrhimp, mysis shrimp, daphnia, and some live foods when available.

Hm, ok, I didn’t know that! I’ll ask my LFS what they feed, when I go today.

I’ve never tried live foods, but I would be willing to give it a try for these guys.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

They prefer real ones.
They will take one look at that, turn their nose up and swim away.

If you get a leather coral later on, they will hang out in that. Or you can get a bubble tip anemone and they will live in that. However, anemones can wander around the tank and don't always stay where you put them. And they can die if they are handled badly by the shop or collectors, if they damage the base when trying to remove the anemone from the glass or rocks.

Lol, that’s a shame. Picky little buggers.

I won’t buy any more, but I’ll just put in the fake one I have now and see what they do with it.

yes the real things are so much better, but OP not wanting corals at the moment. when wanting to upgrade (and it will come) he may then get live corals

Definitely will get live corals at some point, just not to start out. My wallet is already crying... ?

 

[Colin_T]

also if wanting to get a anemone to realease it's grip, i found a clean soft paint brush to tickle it's foot worked for me.

p.s. a proper paint brush not a little artist one

How do you do that?

 

[cdelly]

just move around the edge of it foot with the brush and it will slowly start to lift, repeat until it's free

just turn off the powerhead so it does get sucked straight into one

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I actually won’t have a powerhead in my tank, but my HOB can be adjusted, so I’ll just turn it up all the way.

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How much time should I set aside for catching the GBFT’s? Probably will take me 20 minutes. The tank is heavily planted, so I’ll probably have to remove a ton of plants.

 

[cdelly]

like catching all fish anything from a jammy first go to "I've been at this for hours now and both the fish and i are stressed out"

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Tell me about it. Took me 40 minutes and this is the end result of my once beautiful tank:

So much for entering the TOTM contest.

——

Moved all the floating plants to my 29g:

Going to my LFS/Lexington and I’m super stressed right now. I need to leave in 4 minutes.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Uh, er... there’s still 1 Bloodfin left in there. ?

UGGHHHH. I thought I got all of them, but that one is still in there. I thought maybe one had died, and I didn’t know about it, but low and behold, he’s just swimming around! Now what am I supposed to do!? ?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Asked my LFS what they fed their clown fish, and she said frozen + ‘pellet food’, which I assume is just dry food.

Should I try to feed dry food first, and then if they don’t take to it, get frozen food?

 

[cdelly]

Spend another 40 kins trying to catch that one lol

I once sold all the fish and plants from my tank, drained it down but left the substrate in to clean the next day.

The next found BN that I had missed, lying in less than 1/4 inch of cold water. Had to take it to the lfs and they wouldn't take it to sell, so gave it to a member of staff instead

 

[cdelly]

I fed various foods to my marine fish, some are funny and only eat certain foods.

Likehasbeen said most clowns nowadays are tank bred and prob. have only been fed pellet, flake or frozen