My new clown fish.....

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Jason

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Oct 14, 2004
Messages
510
Location
GA
So Friday, I went to my LFS and one of the guys showed me something that he put up when it came in because I told him I really wanted a nicely colored clown fish for my reef tank.

So I go over to the aquarium and I saw the most brightly colored maroon and gold Clownfish I have ever seen and fell in love with it instantly. I told the guy I didn't care how much it cost and I had to have it. Then the other guy that was working came over and said "so are you buying the crazy clown fish"....... Earlier that day a guy had brought the clown in because it had bit him. Apparently it was a bad bite and cause the guy to bleed a little and bruise really bad. Did I forget to mention that the Clown is nested in a rose-bud anemone? Well, it is. Well, the guy tried to take the anemone out of his tank because it had killed something and when he went to pick it at the foot without the fish the fish bit him. So the guy decided to get rid of botch of them. Good for me!

So after telling me that if I try to separate the two the clown will bite me the guy at the fish store showed me how I would have to get the pair out of the bag when I got home. So I get home and put them in the aquarium and leave the light off afterwards since he already had a stressful enough day and It was going to go off in a few hours anyway.

now the sad part...

I guess the stress just got to the anemone the next day and it had sucked all of it's tentacles back into it's body and turned a green color. So I freaked out and spent most of the day pacing around the living room praying that it would be okay. What made it even worse was that the Clownfish was nudging it like dolphin mothers do their children that are still born..... needless to say it was one of the saddest things I have ever seen. The clown did it all day non stop he wouldn't eat or anything. When I did put food in there the clown would grab it and put it on the center of the anemone to try and get it to eat. So I tested everything in my water and it was perfect then I took some of my water to the store to make sure I tested it right, still nothing. So one of the guys at the store told me to just turn off the light and gave me a solution to put in it that he said would help.

The next morning the anemone was bigger than it was in the store! The clown was inside of it and happy as it could be! All I did yesterday was watch him play inside the anemone. He never goes more than 3 inches away from the anemone. He constantly snuggles up to it all day long. Now the anemone has moved where it wants to be I guess (is it weird that it is my back glass?) and seems to be really happy. The coolest thing that happened so far was when the guy at the store gave me a freeze dried shrimp and told me to feed it to the fish. I got home last night about 6:00 and dropped the shrimp right above the anemone the fish went up and grabbed it and shot back down to the anemone. Almost as soon as he got back to it the anemone closed around him and the only thing you could see was his tail then it opened back up and the shrimp was gone, it was amazing.

I am going to borrow a digital camera from one of the guys at work and post pictures of it as soon as I can.
 
That is a great story! The thing about anemones are that sometimes they will close up and shrink to clean themselves. They will also expel a stringy waste. Dont fret to much over your new anemone. Just keep good water conditions. Cant wait for a pic! :wink:
 
awsome, I want to see some pics!!! I love maroon and gold clowns!

never heard of one drawing blood though. thats weird...

hope everything works out well, WELCOME TO AQUARIUM ADVICE!!! :smilecolros:
 
second hand fish can be a great thing sometimes... my "pre-loved" ocellaris is one of my favorites.

glad to hear your giving them a good home, cant wait to see those pics!
 
Sounds like you got a great combo.

Maroon's are known to have nasty attitudes when you get too close to their homes.

If you already haven't you might want to anemone proof your powerheads and intakes so the anemone doesn't get sucked in and chopped to bits. Anemones are known to wander the tank sometimes even if they were sitting in the same spot for the past 8 months. A method used to anemone proof your tank is by placing a sponge over your intakes.

Lets see those pics :)
 
That is awesome? I started getting a little teary eyed until I read he was o.k Apparently clowns can be right nasty if you mess with there anemone. I wish my clown would host :cry:
 
unfortunately I do not believe there was enough light getting to him :( . he is doing fine though, and I will be getting a new light fixture so I can double my light tomorrow. I think the reason he is doing fine is that he climbed up the glass a little bit until he got where he wanted..... here is a pic of him.

there is one right after the clown killed a feeder and brought it to him here:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=34872

the coolest thing is watching a clown snag a feeder and drag it back to the anemone.....
 
oh yeah I can't use my friends digital camera at all so sorry for the crappy pic....
 
So how old is your tank? According to your other post that its less than a month old....most people say you shouldnt put an anemone in a tank less than a year old... Good luck hope all turns out well.
 
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