Percula Clown and Anenome

[Guest]

You have a yellow tang and a panther grouper in a 15 gallon tank? Wow im just gonna skip this before I get in trouble. I would not expect that anemone to be around for long thats all.

 

[fishyfabio]

The yellow tang and the panther grouper are actually quite small. I bought the smallest in the store. I would say that the yellow tang is about the same length as my clowns, and the grouper is just a tad bigger. We're probably going to get rid of the grouper soon since he's taking food from the other fish now, and in a couple of months I hope to get a 55gallon. So hopefully by then, the yellow tang won't get too big and we'll be able to get a REALLY small grouper so we can keep him for longer.

 

[Atari]

Do you plan to upgrade again after that? Because the tang will need more than 55 gal eventually too.

 

[Guest]

IMHO don't buy a fish unless it can live it's full life in your tank. The whole idea of returning it when it gets to big, is not very smart. Many fish will stunt their growth. I can assure you the tang is stressed very badly now, and the grouper as well. A 55 is way to small for any tang. For a 15 gal 2 clowns should be all you keep, and all you plan to keep.

 

[ogden10]

This goes back a way but the question of does the Anemone stop stinging at night and why the clownfish is not stung. You might take a look at this article, it is pretty good info about the different theories of the symbiosis between anemone and clownfish.

 

[Kets]

I can't help thinking there's some deep genetics involved (afterall they're immune to the sting

Hmmm, from what I understand, they are not actually imune to the sting and can in fact be killed by an anemone. I believe the trick they use is to slowly blend into the anemone and incorporate the anemones proteins into their own mucous. That way the anemone actually thinks it's rubbing against itself and not an intruder and therefore it doesn't actually sting after the clownfish has acclimatised itself to the anemone.

If the clownfish dives in too quickly, it will get stung enough to not survive.

Robert

 

[Atari]

Yeah I've read about that theory before, though not sure how I feel about it yet. But even if this is true, how do they know to do it? It's a heck of a coincidence for them all to do this if there's no predisposing factor.

 

[fishyfabio]

You know what's weird. My one clown fish took to the anemone within 4 days. The other just hung around it but never went in. Yesterday, the two clowns found a piece of shrimp that the anemone hadn't taken in from the previous night's feeding and they ate it. The clown that never went in i guess was interested in finding more food and he went into the anemone looking for more. Since then, he's been in the anemone all the time and he won't let the other clown near the anemone.