any special ways of getting a clown into an anenome?

[sin]

ive had my tank running for a while now (some of you may remember i posted when i started it XD)ive had a maroon clown fish and a blue devil damsel but i had to get rid of the damsel because he was too aggresive.ive got roughly 4 snails and 5 hermit crabs.its a fairly empty tank but its only 20g and i dont want to overload it. ive got a UV steralizer i got as a gift from my father for christmas im not sure the wattage but he told me it would be perfect for my tank.ive also got a emperor400 bio-wheel filter.i have a power compact lighting with 2 65watt bulbs in it.heres a video of how i have it set up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uftNQSFsuUw

well after I tested my water i decided i wanted to go out and get my clown a little present and ended up buying a nice green long tentacled anenome.its a fairly decent size i will update with a video of the anenome soon but my camera is bad quality and the anenome is too bright and all you see in the video is a huge ball of light.but basically since ive put it in there the clown has been swimming around it.near it.but not IN it.hes gone into some places in my tank ive never seen him go even hes been more mobile since ive gotten the anenome so i know hes noticing it but for some reason he still isent going in.ive tried tempting him over with brine and ive gotten him close but he wont go in the anenome.are there any ways i can get him to go in it?

[sin]

*UPDATE*

ok heres the best video i could take of the anenome sorry for the bad quality :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtTuCRtKFQU

BTW this is my first saltwater tank how do you think my progress is?

[JimD]

Looks like your anemone is in serious bleach mode. How old is the system? Its not recommended to introduce any anemone until the tank has aged for three months at the very minimum, six would be better,.. Fill the tank to the top, it looks kinda funky with the water line below the rim. Give us some details on the settup...

[sin]

i just picked the anenome up yesterday and hes looked like that since i bought him.the tank is about 7 months old going into the 8th month.

Cureently ive got about 15 lbs of gravel,10lbs of live sand on top of that,about 20lbs of live rock,ive also got another 40 lbs of fiji rock curing in a bucket in my garage.

nitrate is 20
nitrite is 0
alkalinity is 240
pH is 8.4

anything else you need to know?

[copperband]

what is you ammonia and so fare your tank is looking nice

[sin]

what is you ammonia and so fare your tank is looking nice

i have no way of testing my ammonia currently

and thanks :)

[copperband]

what do you plan on keeping in your tank. also it was smart getting the anemone before adding corals because this way the anemone wont be fighting for a place to attach.

[Bill S]

1) it may take weeks for the clowns to host in an anemone

2) Long tentacle anemones are generally from the Atlantic, and in nature do not host clowns. They aren't usually a good host for clowns.

3) The clown/anemone symbiosis is clown/anemone species spacific, in nature. In other words, the type of clown you have, ideally, should be matched with its natural anemone. That being said, clowns will many times host in all sorts of things. Especially false percs.

4) Most anemones require decent lighting. If that tank is over 6 months old, it looks like it might not be getting enough light to support an anemone (from the lack of coraline algae).

5) I think Jim is right about that anemone being bleached. I also agree about adding water to the tank.

6) A 20g tank is WAY too small for a maroon clown. Just my opinion, though.

[sin]

yea i was told that in time i would have to get rid of my maroon clown fish becuase it would get too big.Hes the only fish im planning on keeping the rest i want to be corals i dont really have anything specific yet becuase when i decided to start a saltwater tank a clownfish and an anenome was my number one that i wanted to get.Now that ive got it i want him to go in the anenome.I filled the water back up (it drops like an inch a day i dont have a top)
If the anenome is bleached how can i fix that?

and not enough light? ive got 6.5 watts per gallon i was told this would be more than plenty

[JimD]

Think about this, you say you evaporate an inch or so a day, that means that your salinity is going to be very unstable, most salt water inhabitants thrive in a stable, balanced environment, I suggest some type of auto top-off system. 6.5 watts per gallon is a meaningless number, what kind of light are we talking here? If I take a gallon jug and place a 100 watt incandecent light bulb over it, do I have 100 watts per gallon? I would attempt to feed the anemone small pieces of silverside or krill and see if it will accept it, if it does, feed it maybe once, twice a week and keep an eye on it. Judging by where it decided to attach, it looks like its going for the brighter light at the top of the rock...

[copperband]

if it is bleaching try and lower it

[sin]

well i have power compact lighting with two 65watt bulbs.
the anenome dident choose to be there i placed it there.actually originally i placed it somewhere else but it dident stay there so i placed him where he currently is and hasent moved yet.The place he chose was actually in the bottom lefthand corner of my tank.

What is an auto-top off system? ive never heard of these

[copperband]

an auto top off system adds top off water to your tank when the water level goes down

[JimD]

www.autotopoff.com (http://www.autotopoff.com)

Not sure but I think they're a MAAST sponsor or we're at one time.

[Bill S]

www.top-off.com (http://www.top-off.com)

Bleaching is generally caused by stress. What Jim said. Be careful about feeding in that small a tank, it's REAL easy to polute it. Feeding a silversides to an anemone is like having a fish die in your tank.

I have a RBTA in my daughter's nano. It almost never gets fed anything except what it manages to snag from daily fish feedings. My RBTAs in my big tank get fed about once every 2 months...

Your lighting SHOULD be ok for your anemone.

[cpreefguy]

I have a top-off.com unit and I generally leave my tank anywhere for 7-10 days at a time. It always keeps my salinity at the consistent level of 1.025

[Fish4life]

this might sound weird but i've heard that some ppl use pictures of clowns hosting anemones to try to get their clowns to host. simply tape it to the side of the tank (picture down-ofcourse).

goodluck,

kurt

[mattymalcolm]

I have a maroon clown and a bubbletip anemone. The clown starting to host in the anemone right away. That tank is a 29 gallon with 2x65 watt power compacts. My anemone splits in there about every 6 months or so. My anremone bleaches when the bulbs need to be replaced. If your tank is 8 months old and those are the original bulbs it might almost be time to replace the bulbs.

[erikharrison]

this might sound weird but i've heard that some ppl use pictures of clowns hosting anemones to try to get their clowns to host. simply tape it to the side of the tank (picture down-ofcourse).

goodluck,

kurt

Are you playing tricks on people? lol! My two ocellaris clowns finally took to my RBTA. I thought they were NEVER going to grow up and pair but they did and they lay around in the anemone all day long! If possible, try and get a 150w clamp on halide and an auto top off. All you need is a bucket with fresh water with a maxijet. You hang a little float switch in the tank and once it gets low the sensor alerts the power module which activates the maxijet and pumps the water from your bucket to your tank. It will make your life easier!

[caferacermike]

What Kurt said.

I listed that trick about a thousand posts back. I've read it in magazines, online, overheard it at least a hundred times. Something about taping a pic of a clown hosting to an anemone and they tend to get the idea pretty quick. One thing to not is that most ofo the clowns in the market these days are captive bred. Captive breeding will sometimes remove certain characteristics of wild caught fish. It seems that captive specimens have yet to realize, as they would in the wild, the importance of hiding in an anemone for their survival. It isn't necessary to host in captivity.

[sin]

well as an update i think i did have him too close to the light becuase when i woke up this morning he was at the bottom of my tank and he had planted himself in the sand so this is where im going to leave him since i figure hes got to know what he needs better than i do.about hte auto top-off i have a maxi-jet but its going into my UVsteralizer

[erikharrison]

You would need to purchase another one, or plumb the UV in with, I am assuming, your canister filter.