Mystery in my tank - Input please!!!

[herman]

Can someone please tell me why is it that my tank does not do too well with fish whereas various anemones, crustacians, all sorts of pods etc are doing fine.

Take for example my oscellaris clown. I have two of them they seem a little disturbed. they dont go into the anemone. They stay closer to the top about half of the time and they dont eat much it seems.

My fish in the past have developed ick in the past and I dont understand why. I have used greenex to treat it and it dissapeared but every time I bring in new fish at least one of them gets it. I dont get it! The only fish I neverhad any problems with is my six line wrasse. He is just cruising around the rocks popping out of everywhere.

Here are my specs:

Ph: 8.1~8.2
Temp: 80 (The temp was raised as from previous ick treatment from 78)
Sp. Grav.: 1.024
Nitrates : undetectable
Nitrites: undetectable
Ammonia: 0.10

Water changes 10% every two weeks and 25% every two months.

If anyone has any ideas, please help.

Thanks!!!

[Ninong]

Can someone please tell me why is it that my tank does not do too well with fish whereas various anemones, crustacians, all sorts of pods etc are doing fine.

Take for example my oscellaris clown. I have two of them they seem a little disturbed. they dont go into the anemone. They stay closer to the top about half of the time and they dont eat much it seems.

If anyone has any ideas, please help.

Thanks!!!

Hi Herman,

I believe your Ocellaris Clownfish are afraid of your anemones. None of the anemones in your 55-gal tank are a natural host for Amphiprion ocellaris. The Condy and the Curly Q are Atlantic anemones. The Long Tentacle and the Sebae are not natural hosts for Ocellaris Clowns and they will not usually accept them.

While it is possible to keep more than one anemone species in large tanks (6' long or larger), it is not a good idea to do so in smaller tanks because anemones will conduct chemical warfare with each other. There may be other reasons why your clownfish are acting strangely but I suspect that they are probably freaking out over the five anemones. Ich outbreaks are stress-related, so if there is a lot of stress in your system, you can expect problems with ich. That could be part of the explanation for your ich problems.

Your tank is too small for any of the natural hosts for Ocellaris Clowns -- Ritteri and the Carpets -- but it is large enough for a BTA (Entacmaea quadricolor), which is usually accepted by Ocellaris Clowns in captivity. I think you would be better off with only one anemone in your tank. If you want to keep one of the ones you now have, I suggest keeping the Sebae (H. crispa). It is the natural host for 14 different species of anemonefish but not Ocellaris. They may or may not eventually accept it. It is a natural host for Percula Clownfish (A. percula). Or you could trade off all of your anemones and get one BTA which probably would be eventually acceptable to your Ocellaris Clowns.

[herman]

Hi Herman,
I suggest keeping the Sebae (H. crispa). It is the natural host for 14 different species of anemonefish but not Ocellaris. They may or may not eventually accept it. It is a natural host for Percula Clownfish (A. percula). Or you could trade off all of your anemones and get one BTA which probably would be eventually acceptable to your Ocellaris Clowns.

Wow Ninong!!! Never thoght of it from that angle. Amazing you are indeed!! Can you tell me how to get them out though? All of the anemones decided to create homes in the rocks. My sebae (H. malu not the crispa variety) came with the rock along withan anemone crab. That was a really nice surprize. It was white with purple tips at first but bow it is a light beige color with blue/purple tips. And I thought that it was sick at first. The Curlies almost dissapear at night and rise in the morning about 3 inches off the rock. Its the "mother" nd her kid. I was wondering where that thing came from.

Also ninong, I thought anemones sting. These guys dont sting. Every time I am cleaning the condy just grabs my hands. Its really hard to convince that thing to let go of me without damaging it. The guy at the LFS told me to feed it a guppy a week and the condy is getting huge. s that a normal feeding schedule? When fully stretched the disc is about three inches and the tentacles stretch about ten inches.

How to remove them??

Ninong, thanks for yor insight!!!!

[Ninong]

Herman,

Maybe someone with experience moving anemones will see this post and respond.

I read a suggestion in another thread once that using long handled tongs to hold an ice cube next to the anemone will cause it to release its grip but I really don't know if that works or not, it's just something someone recommended in another thread.

[zhenya]

Herman,

Maybe someone with experience moving anemones will see this post and respond.

I read a suggestion in another thread once that using long handled tongs to hold an ice cube next to the anemone will cause it to release its grip but I really don't know if that works or not, it's just something someone recommended in another thread.

I don't have that much of experience of moving anemones but I did removed couple of clones in my tank. If it is possibile,I remove the rock from the tank into separate container and then using edge of the credit card I carefully pry edge of the pedal disk from the rock,tiny piece at the time .It usually lets go after about an inch of it had been peeled.Actually,once you able to peel a small part of the disk,you can use your fingers and carefully peel it away from the rock. "Carefully" is an operative word here.Take your time and do it slowly and I'm sure you can do it.
I usually have to fend off a fury of my A.clarki when I'm going after one of her anemones so it takes much longer for me to do anything

Here's her criminally inclined mug looking at me and sort of telling me:"I dare you to try anything!"

[herman]

Here's her criminally inclined mug looking at me and sort of telling me:"I dare you to try anything!"

Thanks for the reply. I really appreciate it. I just posted a few pics of my tank in my gallery. There yo can see the anemones. Your anemone is so nice!!! Like the fish too!

I will give the credit card and ice thing a try. I currently have a chopstick in the freezer. Hopefully I will have a chopstickle by tonight. I will keep you guys posted on this.

Thanks!!

[miareefer]

Hi Herman
I am frequently removing anemomes from my setups all of the time my BTA are always splitting and dividing and being a pain.They are can be a very agressive anenome as well . As Gene said the best way to remove is the credit card method being gentle as well just pry a bit of and use what base you can lever the rest of . I try and keep mine limited to one rock in my tanks and when they start splitting and moving around i remove to prevent a major outbreak at the moment i have about 8 on one rock so theres almost always one splitting and trying to take over my tanks.
Good luck

[herman]

Hi Herman
I am frequently removing anemomes from my setups all of the time my BTA are always splitting and dividing and being a pain.
Good luck

I have tried it last night. I managed to get the atlantic anemone off the rock because it was just attached to the surace of it. The condy is in a cave and when he is closed you cant even find him or see him because the base is deep inside the rock.

The curly Q's are getting huge but their "stalk" is so thin and I have no idea how deep the base is of that thing. The curly came with the rock I did not even see it in there. That was a surprise. Even more of a surprize when she split and her offspring settled right next to het. Combined they take up a large amount of space especially when fully stretched out.

Any ideas? I am currently filing down a small plastic spoon to make sure that there are no sharp edges I will dip it in polyurethane for extra smoothness.

Well see how it goes. Can anyone tell me which anemone I should remove first? Curly Q, Atlantic, or Condy. Which is potentially the most harmfull to the fish. In my gallery I have a pic and the condy is the largest one. In the pic it is not fully extended though.

[rededteck]

I don't know how big your rock is, however you may want to consider removing the species with the rock attached. It would be best if you did this when it is closed.

The danger of removing off of rocks is the texture of surface, holes you cannot see, etc. If you pull too hard and it rips from the foot, you will simply kill it.


Let us know how you make out.

[tonyb]

i have also heard if you point a powerhead at the foot of the anenome, it will let go of what ever its holding on to... this way you dont have to try the pry method...

[Juvv]

i had a large bta in my tank , stuck to 3 rocks, i jsut grabbed the live rock and pulled it and it just came off. ive done it a few times, just use my nadn and put it at the base of the foot and slowly pry it off, one you get a bit off teh rest is easy . before i was real scared to do it aswell , one of my mates did it and ripped a huge hole in it and it cam eback fine