KeeperOfTheZoo

I have a tomato clown that needs a new home! Its too aggressive with my ocellaris to stay in my tank. I've only had it about a day but it seems to be a healthy fish, very nice coloring. I WOULD NOT put this guy with other ocellaris / non aggressive clowns. It's about 1 1/2" I would like other non aggressive reef safe community fish. A healthy medium sized ocellaris would be ideal. I'll also consider coral frags but no Kenya, Xenia or blue,red or striped mushrooms. I live N of Austin, can drive to meet you but would prefer not to drive all the way to Austin and I won't deliver unless it's a really great trade.

I bet the floor is nice and clean now though.

Hey Christian, You've gotten a lot of good and patient advice and I think it's time you heed it! What I would suggest is that you go home and take note of your lighting and general hardware. You've been asking and having a lot of basic issues/ problems with things and I'm not sure If you're understanding the signifigance of the questions folks are asking in an effort to help you. You need to know the type (PC? T5? Halide?) & wattage of your lighting. That should be a given for any reefer. If you can't rattle off the specs and basics about your lighting then there's no way you'll know if you are meeting the needs of your photosynthetic corals. That's why you keep getting asked about your lighting. I'll venture to say that if you don't know and understand your lighting capacity you should stop buying corals until you do! Water quality is hugely important. You should have a general idea of your parameters from previous testing. Params do change but you should be seeing a small healthy range of normal params indicating that your tank is stable and can support corals. The great thing about knowing what is normal for the tank is that if any parameters change youll know right away that the needs of your tank are changing. For example, as I've been adding more hard corals and those corals grow I've been watching my kh and calcium closely anticipating an increase in consumption. Good lighting and good water quality are just the start when trying to resolve a problem. So, when you have a problem but don't even know basic info about your tank it makes it hard to help you as well as frustrating for those who are dedicated enough to know all that info as well as they know their own names! Reading up on the coral is good. It's also something you should do before you buy. It can be hard to keep things alive in this hobby even when you're doing everything right. If you start making poor choices because you don't understand the needs of the creatures you want to keep then you're just setting yourself up for failure.

Well, all my pm's and posts here were for the ocellaris, hubby was just the pick up guy. He's not into the fish. Sadly the tomato is extremely aggressive and is harassing my clown horribly. The little ocellaris looked a little thin/harassed and the tomato was picking on him in the bag they were in together. I lost the little guy overnight. Ill probably just take the tomato to a LFS for credit. Thanks for being willing to take it back though.

None of the ocellaris clowns have fought. The new ocellaris were all much smaller, about 1/2 the size of my female. There was no aggression at all. The first one she adored, they paired right up and she had him hosting in her hairy shrooms with her the same day I put him in the tank. He did great for a couple weeks then died. The other two clowns didn't last long enough to do much, but there was no fighting at all. My ocellaris is not impressed with the tomato clown, but she's bigger. They went to sleep in opposite corners of the tank. We'll see.what happens in the morning. I'm really frustrated with the loss of the little clowns. I can't find any reason for it.

Well, I give up. I drip acclimated the 2 clowns for an hour. At the tail end of acclimation the little ocellaris was swimming side ways. The tomato clown was fine. I put them in the tank and the ocellaris sank to the bottom and couldn't swim. I pulled him out and put him in my sump and he appears to be in the process of dying. The tomato clown seems ok so far. It fought with my big female ocellaris a bit, nothing too dramatic. I turned the tank lights out for the night and it seems to have gone to sleep behind a powerhead, still coming out and swimming in that corner of the tank a little. What am I doing wrong with the clowns that I've lost every small ocellaris I've put in my tank? This makes 3!! All my water parameters are good (and have been for a while, the tank is pretty stable). When I did a water change last week my params were: nitrates:0 phosphates:0 pH- 8.3 kH- 8 (this is lower than normal, usually is at 9. I drip buffered Seachem buffer 1/2 the dose for the tank in my top off water to add a little buffering capacity to the tank. Haven't checked it since. I didn't want to do anything dramatic because 8 is still in range, thought I'd add a half dose slowly, check it, then dose the rest if needed) calcium- 420 temp- 80 +/- a degree or so as the lights cycle off and on It's about an hour and a half drive to my house for the fish, plus acclimation. Is this just too much stress for them? Could there be some toxin in the tank that is specifically affecting the clowns? I've added a mandarin (that was very beat up, wasn't sure he would live) and a fire fish in the same time period and both did just fine. My more sensitive inverts like my sea star and urchin are doing great. Why am I loosing the clowns? GRRRR!!!!

Thanks so much guys! Now I just hope these two clowns will stay healthy and happy in my tank. Tim may have cursed me by calling my current ocellaris girl a black widow. I better not tell my 9 year old about all the clowns getting along. He wants a maroon clown so bad and I keep telling him we can't get one because the clowns would fight. I have to agree with him though, the maroons sure are pretty.

LOL!! We have Cinderella books too. Yes plural. My poor daughter, she is SUCH a girly girl and she's stuck with 3 brothers and a tom boy for a mom. I love the animation of the old Disney movies, I watch them now and appreciate them so much more than I did when I was a kid. My favorite movie as a kid was the Black Stallion, then as an adult I got to meet one of Cass Ole's sons (Cass was the horse that played the Black). I was just silly giddy about it. And of course the son was... you guessed it... a black Arabian stallion. Oh be still my heart. I better stop or the poor sweet chestnut Arab gelding standing out in my pasture is gonna get jealous. Ok back to fish! Sorry about the hijack Lamont. I did mention your tank looks gorgeous though, right?

Thanks for the clownS! Plural. That was sneaky! Kendal is on his way home with them now. Have you had any aggression issues with the tomato clown? If it picks on my other clown I'm bringing him back to you.

A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you're fast asleep.... Oh someone save me from 6 year old daughters who watch Cinderella obsessively! Ahhhh!!!!!! Sorry August, just had to do it. Phew, I feel better now.

Oh the perils of letting husbands pick up fish. My sweet hubby agreed to pick up a fish for me on the way home from work today. The guys (uh-hum, thanks for conspiring on this one John) didn't know which fish I wanted so my husband took both an ocellaris clown (the one I wanted) and a tomato clown (not one I wanted). He's on his way home with the fish now. So, what do y'all think the odds are of two ocellaris clowns (I already have one, she's very mellow) and a single tomato clown getting along in a 125g tank? I want a pair of ocellaris, really had no intention of getting any other clowns. I've lost two small male ocellaris' to bad luck (first one was a mystery death after having him about 2 weeks, the second was stress from shipping lost him in less than 12 hours) and I'm getting very frustrated. All my other fish are fine and thriving, no losses of established tank members. It's just the new clown additions (I've added a couple other fish with no problems, well... until the fire fish decided to jump out of my open top tank but that's another issue all together. Lesson learned). I have a fairly non-agressive tank so I'm a little worried about adding the tomato into the mix. Here are the fish I have now: yellow tang (small) ocellaris clown 2 green chromis green mandarin pacific pygmy angel (this is my current problem fish, she's mean. Chases my poor clown around. I've been debating getting rid of her but I'm dreading trying to catch her) I eventually plan to add a blue tang and that's pretty much it. Opinions? Should I find the tomato a new home or try it? I hate trying to get fish back out of the tank.

Looks fabulous!!

I'd like the false perc clown please. Hey Teoahnna, ya wanna pick it up for me? seriously though, I'd like the fishy.

I use it too, all my fish like it though I get it specifically for my tang. Just check the ingredients and make sure its not flavored and that there are no additives. Seems obvious but I realized when looking at packaging that what seemed like plain nori, wasn't.

Was just reading an article that said stress is a top reason BT anemones split. Guess your guys wild adventure stressed him to pieces.

Target mandarins are supposed to be easier than the green or red to get eating frozen so I'm not surprised to hear one is eating. I got a clown at FB and it died in less than 12 hours, luck of the draw but it still sucks. Next time I'm in Austin I'll pick up some different types of meaty foods. I have a real limited selection out where I am. I'm sure the rest of my fish would enjoy the food diversity too. Its great to hear about other mandarins eating frozen. I feel guilty even buying these fish because their captive survival rate us so poor. They're so beautiful though I had to try!

Thanks y'all. Do any of the Austin fish stores sell arcti-pods? I hadn't thought of adding that to the mix but I'd like to. Cyrus, so sorry about your pair. I'd be devastated by a loss like that. I have a lot of rock and a good pod population but I worry that it still wont be enough. I'm really hoping my mandarin will start eating some frozen.

I was watching my green mandarin tonight as I fed 'meaty' foods to the tank (combination of frozen mysis and enriched brine). For the first time he took a little piece of mysis off a rock! I was getting ready to do the happy dance when the little booger spit it back out. He proceeded to do this several times with mysis and brine. Pick it up... spit it out, peck around some more. I'm hoping this is the start of him being willing to accept frozen. Has anyone else had a mandarin behave this way? Did the fish eventually decide to go ahead and eat the frozen foods instead of spitting them out?

I have 2 good sized frags / mini colonies of fuzzy green pocillopora 1/2 to 2/3 of the way towards the top of my tank. I'd like to move the larger frag down to the bottom of the tank. Right now both frags are growing well and have colored up nicely. The catch is I have a bit over 3 wpg of PC lighting. If I moved the coral down would the reduction in light kill it? It's a pretty sps, but I don't need two colonies taking up prime lighting real estate. Either I move it or find one a new home.

I know Gabriel and nothing you said was untrue. I just don't want to see Christian's enthusiasm for the hobby or desire to ask questions squealched. I don't think Christian is being any more irresponsible that a lot of adults in this hobby and he IS asking questions. I'll stop being a mother hen. For the record, I'm not taking exception to the advice just the strong tone. And Christian don't take offense to me calling you a 'kid'. I still call my 21 year old brother a kid all the time, drives him crazy!!

Lets do remember that we're helping out a kid here. I just spent an entire weekend hosting a camp out on my farm for one of our teen groups. Love the kids, but they are KIDS and they don't necessarily go about things the way adults do. The quickest way to get kids (many adults too) to shut down and stop asking questions is with snippy answers. Yes there are great resources online. There are great resources on this list too and if asking questions and getting interactive feedback is ones preferred method of research there's nothing wrong with that. I've read a lot about lighting and still find myself with a lot of questions. I'm not sure I would have had the patience or dedication for this hobby when I was a teen. Christian, do read other resources but don't feel like you can't ask for clarification here.

This thread is interesting! It's also very similar to every forum discussion I've read on tests/testing. When I first had my tank and realized it had major nutrient issues I tested obsessively to see if the myriad measures I was taking were helping. I think maybe because my nutrient levels were so high all I really needed to see were gross changes and any half way decent kit will show that. Since my tank has 'cleaned up' (no phosphates or nitrates showing) I've stopped testing so much. Usually just every other week with water changes. More than that, I've had the tank long enough to see that it's healthy. I may have 'trates or 'phates that aren't showing up on the API kits, but my tank is doing awesome so who cares. Between the test (that will show if things get out of hand) and just watching the tank I figure I've got things covered. Is that over simplifing things? I do need to get a magnesium test. I had a kinda funny realization the other day. I got rid of hair algae but then had some derbesia growing on a few rocks. Its a pretty macro and my tang likes to graze on it but I really had it set in my head that I needed all nuisance algae GONE in my display. Well, its mostly gone now and I'm wishing it would grow back! My tang is gonna miss it when its gone. How's that for being fickle?

I have 2 API kits and have taken water to Aquatec & RCA to double check my results (when I first got my tank), got the same readings across the board. All using API kits. After doing a lot of reading/research it seems that none of the home kits are extremely accurate, especially for phosphates.

Great job!