[obring]

Heila everyone! I have a couple of new things for anyone that wants to chip in: I have a pair of Tomato Clowns (i think they are "melanopus" as opposed to "frenatus".... GEEZZ...i feel sooo educated! ) for about seven months and they are doing great! I am sure they are paired and have their corner of the tank staked (they lately have been battling with the worm goby, who has dug from "his" territorry into theirs). My question is...I really really would like to give it a shot with anemones again... and would like to know if anyone has had any luck with these clowns and a host.

I should update everyone on my 90 gln tank too... 85-90 #s of LR; 1 Horned Cowfish (the STAR of the tank!); 1 Dwarf Lion; two coral catfish (i have not been able to confirm these classification yet); 1 Worm Goby; 1 Neon Goby; and "Fisty", yellow tail damsel from the initial cycling crew; and of course "ManDamme" and "Pippott" the two clowns ; 13 (at last count) blue mushrooms, some polips, two "christams tree" dusters; and an Urchin (how he/she got here I dont have a clue...spotted it about two months ago and from the looks of it it is thriving!!)

Assorted additional critters critters include bumble bee snalis, turbo snails, red and blue legged hermits.

From my readings I know that lightning is an issue with my tank... currently I have 1 40W Power-Glo Intense Light bulb and 1 40W Coralife. Have plans on adding a 40W actinic to the roof of the canopy in addition to these two.

After a four week fight with water parameters in which my calcium was too high and Alk too low....my current parameters are as follow (for last two weeks): ALK 4.0 mequ/l; Ca 500 (and it wont go down!); PO4 .05; PH 8.2 (pretty stable betwee 8.0 and 8.2). Nitrates & Nitrites negligible (or so i think!)



MMMM...did I miss anything?

Thanks in anticiaption of your help and unput!
Jose

[Ninong]

Hi Jose,

Ah, yes! Now I remember your tank.

Horned cowfish, dwarf lion... AND... coral cats (maybe) with some mushrooms.

OK, here's the deal: You do NOT have sufficient lighting for any of the host anemones at the present time. Adding another normal output fluorescent will not take care of the situation. You would need VHO fluorescents or PC fluorescents at the minimum, but metal halides would be better.

IF you were to upgrade your lighting, the only host anemone I would recommend would be a captive cloned Entacmaea quadricolor (Bubble Tip Anemone). It is a natural host for both Amphiprion melanopus (Cinnamon Clownfish) and A. frenatus (Tomato Clownfish).

But... I have no idea how risky it may--or may not-- be to introduce an anemone into your tank considering it's present occupants. We certainly don't want anybody upsetting the cowfish. How are the maybe-coral-cats coming along?

Ninong

[obring]

Thanks Ninong.... about the coral cats... I am almost certain that it is not what they are...the other day i found what looked to be a juvenile of what i have... and in between getting this and that i forgot to ask the LFS.... like i mentioned before they are pale green...long body, and yellow vertical stripes along the body. I am almost certain that they are a pair becasue one has a more pronouinced orange crest-like and is briughter than the other as far a s colors.... I really need to take some pictures...