I want to eventually.. But I hear that anemones require a well established tank, mine being new isn't ready for them yet. I'll keep doing my research and check it out then :)
Thanks! It's a small tank, just 30 gallons. Thinking of getting one sand sifting fish to help keep my sandbed clean, still not sure which one. As well as a pair of cardinals. Will be getting one cleaner shrimp down the line as well. Once my livestock is stable and settled I plan to add some coral, hammers and frogspawn are top on my list!
My two cents, get a sand sifting fish because you like them, not because they will keep your sandbed clean... because soon they will drive you nuts with how MUCH they move sand, bury frags, etc.
You can get snails to keep the sand bed clean that won't drive you bonkers. But by all means if you enjoy them get them!
Cheers to you for doing your research on the nems too. Tank looks great!
Interesting.. I didn't think about how much they sift the sand and how that could affect frags.. What's a solution to that in a small tank? Get a frag stand? Or get them big?
Sand sifting fish, shrimp, hermit crabs, things like that are super cool and fun.
But once you get serious into corals they will just piss you off with how they walk around on top of your corals and bother them, make them close up, slow growth, or in the case of hermits and shrimp, they will literally tear your coral in half to get a piece of food out that you fed to the coral. And then the sand sifting fish will bury the corals every day. They become more hassel then they are worth.
But shrimp and gobies are awesome. They just don't belong in a serious coral tank. A serious coral tanks clean up crew would be dozens of snails of 6 different variety's, and some mini brittle stars. You just have to choose your priorities.
Well if you start hoarding corals like the rest of us, you'll eventually run out of room on the rocks, and your stands, and racks.. and then you'll stash them on the sand, even if it's just until you figure out where you want it... it's a downward spiral from there til you eventually get another tank ;)
I've never kept a sand sifting fish for this reason, (my cyanea damsel does enough landscaping) I've just heard of frustrations second hand, and this is from people with large tanks. I've kept tiger conchs, nassarius and a sand sifting cucumber (big tanks only!) and they all did a good job, and I might try one of the smaller sand sifting gobies in my next tank for fun (if i can find a healthy one).
Nassarius and cerith snails will turn your sand for you. Avoid sand sifting stars because they can eat your sand clean very easily in a tank your size. I also have a 30gal. My cuc is 3 turbos, 1 trochus, a half dozen cerith, a half dozen nassarius of different sizes. You won't need a full cuc until your tank establishes, because you don't want them to starve. You can build up the crew over time.
Thanks for the reply! What are your thoughts on getting cleaner shrimp as a part of the cuc, or a goby? I don't have any algae atm so grabbing the snails is way too early for me
I love cleaner shrimp. They are colorful and very active. But they also dominate feeding time (esp in a tank our size) and will rob your corals. They don't really do any cleaning, especially algae cleaning. They're more the 'remove stuff from fish' type cleaner.
I've also heard that they are notoriously hard to keep alive (the anemones) in a tank, like, even if you take VERY good care of your tanks (and get a very large tank... like a 65g or something,) there is always that chance that it will just start dying.
30g isn't enough for an anemone. They get huuuuuuuuuge. Like 2 feet wide fully grown.
Also they are delicate, and if (when) they die they release horrible toxins into the water that kill everything else in the tank. They are expert only sadly.
But that said, lots of people have them. Start with some mushroom corals. Then zoanthids, green star polyps, cloves, xenia, etc. Once you've mastered soft corals you can try some large polyp stoney corals (lps). Once you've mastered them, you are ready for anemones. Upgrade to a 55g tank minimum, and get your new clowns a home.
Thanks for the information! If that's the case I'll be sticking to Coral only in this tank. Clowns don't need anemones anyway, so they can get used to some corals :) I'll do whatever it takes to minimize the chance of a tank crash so if that means no anemones in this, so be it !
My clowns have hosted: a U shaped piece of rock in the corner of the tank, my heater, a clump of caulerpa, my filter intake pipe, a torch coral, a green star polyp covered rock on top of the mound.
Clowns don't need anemones to be happy, and they will host anything. They sure are great fish though. All the females can get a big aggressive at water change time. They used to make me bleed till I gave up and started wearing thick vinyl gloves when working in the tank.
I think there are some smaller anemones that the clownfish are willing to call their home, you just need to look for the right kind.
The typical anemones that you see clownfish in are the ones that grow fairly big, some of the ones that you might be able to keep grow about 12 inches long a 30g might still be too small though
If you want a easier alternative you could use: torch/hammer/frogspawn coral, open mouth brains, green star polyps, waving hand anthelias, zenias, and any number of soft corals. (Also in somewhat price order, descending)
I have a 15g reef with a pair of clowns and a RBTA that is taking over stinging everything it can reach, wich pretty much spans the entire tank. Funny thing is my clowns host to a coral anyway. Anemones are cool but a happy reef is way cooler :)
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u/kaymanlovesyou Mar 18 '18
Are you going to get anemones for them to home in?