New User here with DUMB question.

[myJUMBOshrimp]

Hi all you saltwater fanatics! I am so happy I have found this forum. This hobby is amazing, and I am just dumbfounded with my tank. Here is a brief description just to introduce myself.
I am 24 years old, male,and a 2 year newly wed. I needed a hobby to keep myself out of trouble, so I decided to visit the pet store. I actually saw saltwater tanks before but i always imagined them to be out of my leage. Well, about 2 years ago I decided to dabble in this hobby. The pet stores seemed eager to sell me anything it seemed, ( now i see it it was probably because I looked young ,stupid,and gullable). So they would sell me a lionfish and shrimp, then the shrimp would be eaten by the lionfish and the store owner would just say "wow, that never happened before lol". So I spent about 2000 dollars on fish and they all died.
I just recently decided to visit a different pet store (about a month ago), and the owner informed me I needed live rock. I had no live rock in my 55 gallon tank, and he was very amused that i was never told about this. So i now have 60 pounds of live rock, and I was never told "why" it is called live rock. So last night, I was browsing this forum for the first time and I noticed a post about bristle worms and bugs that crawl around at night. I decided to take a look in my tank with a flashlight ( about 3 AM) and sure enough i had about 1000 bugs crawling around. I was amazed. So i looked some more and I saw pinkish worms crawling around in the crushed coral. Again , i was dumbfounded. I have never seen these creatures before , and now I looked and there were hundreds. I was so excited I woke my wife up screaming ( LOOK AT THESE WEIRD BUGS AND WORMS!) She almost punched me lol.
Anyways , today I went to the store again and purchased a pair of Black Percula Clownfish today, two cleaner shrimp, and 15 more snails. I decided to wait on a Anemone because the owner was waiting on a new shipment.

HERE IS MY QUESTION: Does anyone here have these Black Percula Clowns and recomend a certain Anemone host for them? I want to give them a perfect home, so any suggestions would be GREAT help.

This seems like a GREAT community, and I hope I didnt write too much or bore too many of you with my "book". I am just a very excited person, and I think i have found a GREAT forum to share it with.

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note: copyrighted image removed - glmclell 8/9/03 10:53 pm

 

[fishfreek]

Does anyone here have these Black Percula Clowns and recomend a certain Anemone host for them?

I would recommend aganst an anenome on the sole stance that most people have extremly bad luck with them. They can live for an unknown amount of time in the wild (belived to be over 100 years) yet many hobbists struggle to get them to live beyond 1 year. If you must get one try to get a tank rased anenome. The reason is they should be more adapted to aquarium conditions than wild ones.

Also you did not describe your lighting setup. Anenomes should be placed under high power lights as they get a portion of their food from photosynsis.

You did not bore anyone with your book. In fact I got a kick out of the

I was so excited I woke my wife up screaming ( LOOK AT THESE WEIRD BUGS AND WORMS!) She almost punched me lol.

as i can imagen what a non hobbists would think when someone in a craze runs in and wakes them up just to look at some 'bugs and worms'.

We are glad you found the site aswell. Please feel free to shair the word with others you know.

 

[two11devan]

Welcome!....first off, when did you get that LR??? Was it cured when you bought it? OR did you let it cure in your tank...Hopefully it was already cured or you let it cure before you put in your new fish. If it wasn't cured, you could have some problems with your new additions! :? Live rock should be cured before it is put into your tank, or you can cure it by letting it go through the ammonia cycle in your tank, but you cannot have any fish in there while it does this....its can take a couple of weeks. As far as the anemone, most would discourage you from getting one...i have 2 precula clownds with no anemone....you don't need to have them in a tank. From what i understand, they only need them in the wild b/c they are used for protection....in your tanks they have no threats so they don't need one...and some might not even take to an anemone....just my 2 cents.....hopefully someone with a little nore experience will chime in and correct me if im wrong at all!

 

[myJUMBOshrimp]

Wow

Wow, what a great response! I thought I would be laughed at by the expert saltwater hobbyists here, so thank you. I bought the live rock directly from the pet stores personal supply. They were currently out of live rock, so they said I can just by the rock that was already in their established tanks ( for over a year I was told). They were very reluctant to sell me 65 pounds of their live rock, but I guess they did it out of the kindness of their hearts. I bought the rock about 3 weeks ago, added it to the tank, waited, and decided to add fish today.
I also have two 50/50 40watt light bulbs ( still thinking about adding more). One is a very bright white bulb, and the other is very blue, kinda like a blacklight. The bulbs make the natural colors in the tank just glow basicly, absolutly beautiful. The owner said I shouldnt purchase certain types of coral because some species need a lot more light. But he did show me a few that will thrive in my tank like Green Star Polyps, Leather corals (or something with leather in the name), and some anemone species like the pink tipped anemone etc etc.
I am currently watching one of my cleaner shrimp beat the snot out of the other cleaner shrimp I just purchased today. Um, in fact, it killed it. Ok, my cleaner shrimp just killed my other cleaner shrimp. I bought them together , from the same tank not even 2 hours ago lol.
I will be right back, and thanks again for all the help.

 

[fishfreek]

Are you sure you was not just seeing the old exoskelitin from a shrimp molt?

Shrimps will molt and their molt will look very complete and some beginners have mistaken a molt for a dead shrimp.

the blacklight you refer to is an actinic bulb. Its very near the end of the visable blue spectirum. Corals are more sensitive to blue light because blue penitrates the water much better than any other specitrum.

 

[myJUMBOshrimp]

lol

Yeah, I'm sure. It either died because of natural causes, or the other shrimp turned psycho. Oh well, it happens i guess.

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

i have had luck with a tank raised bulb tipped anenmome i think if you have to have an anenome i would recomend a bulb tipped of some kind ive seen many different types of clowns in this type. i will also tell you that once a clown hosts an anenome it will most likly increase in its aggressiveness 10 fold.

 

[Hara]

you should not consider an anemone until your tank is at least one year old.

 

[alrmc4]

most clowns will take a coral to host i would strongly suggest you leave the anemone out besides caring for it's difficult needs i believe you also have the problem of them roaming your tank killing your other livestock.

 

[EMS503]

I agree with leaving the Anemone out of the tank. Out of three I have had only one make it (3 years and thriving) some people do have very good luck with the Anemone but they are the minority. Just for an example Hara's carpet Anemone is known for dinning on her fish in her tank. As for Clowns hosting an Anemone my two false percula's are using my Colt coral and a clay pot as there home.
Good luck and stay away from the first LFS you mentioned.

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

along with my bulb my clowns too like my colt and toadstool corals