My bratty little Clownfish

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Kristina

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So, I have this bratty little Clownfish. She isn't the typical "Nemo" Percula Clown, she is a Red Saddleback Clownfish, a.k.a. Fire Anemonefish, they are quite a bit rarer and you don't see them in the pet industry often. I got lucky with mine, they had her mislabeled at the fish store as a Damsel and I bought her for $3.99, which is considerably less than what they would normally cost.

A cool thing about Clowns is that they are all born male. If you get two fry out a of a tank of babies and raise them together, the more dominant will turn female and you will have a pair. If you have a group, and the female dies, the most dominant male will turn female. Any clown kept alone for a period of time will be female eventually. Once they become female, they cannot go back to being male.

Anyway, she is very, VERY territorial. She HATES my hands being in the tank, and she bites!!!

Well, the other day my furnace wasn't working (fixed now!) so I had turned the heater up in the tank. I stuck the very tip of my finger in the water, and she saw it. She shot up from the bottom of the tank towards my finger. I jerked my arm back because I saw her coming, and she KEPT COMING, followed my movement, leaped completely out of the water at bullet speed and SPLAT!!! hit the hardwood floor.

You know the old Wiley Coyote cartoons, where his jaw would drop open and his eyes would get all big? Yeah, that was totally me. I screamed and grabbed her and threw her back in the tank. She shook herself a couple of times, swam up to the front glass and flared her gills at me. Little witch, lol.

(Please don't judge my tank harshly. It is not a display tank, it is a grow out tank and I am seeding some base rock in it, because I don't believe in using wild collected live rock. I will have a display tank in a couple of months.)

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The whole thing. The smaller tank on the left is an in-tank refugium. It is a 2.5 gallon Minibow aquarium with multiple holes drilled in it and a 66GPH pump pulling water into it from the main aquarium. It houses my Teddy Bear crab.

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Here is what the Teddy Bear looks like. I HAD to have it, but he eats corals, so that is why he is isolated.

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Some Colt corals

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Texas Trash palys

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Ricordia mushroom

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Frogspawn coral

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I have a few more corals that I didn't take pics of, some trumpets and candy canes and gorgonians, etc. There is nothing as amazing as a saltwater aquarium. It is impossible to know everything that lives in the rock. It is amazing to put food in and watch tiny starfish arms come out and sway in the current, or the nassarius snails pop up from the substrate in seconds and begin zooming around. The variety of life is just amazing. I wish I would have taken some pics of some of my macroalgaes, but the whole thing is just completely cool.
 

onarock

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Lucky!! We cant keep corals here in Hawaii. Only live rock. Your clownfish is cool. I'm trying to pick up a true Hawaiian flame angel from a friend that breeds them, but hes got a waiting list and never gets as many as he thinks he will.
 

CtTortoiseMom

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I have never even heard of a Teddy Bear crab, very cool! That story is crazy, naughty fish! Your coral is awesome and your tank's look amazing to me, thank's for sharing!
 

dmmj

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Sorry I can't comment on the pictures I am to busy judging your tank.
 

terryo

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Absolutely amazing Kristina. What I want to know is, where oh where do you get the time for all your animals???? And....everything else you do. You are a SUPER WOMAN!!!!
 

Tom

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I love the personalities of the saltwater fish. I had a niger trigger with a personalty like that. He put holes in more than one person.

Thanks for the tour of your tank.
 

Isa

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Totaly awsome! Now i want salt water fishes :D. I did not not that about clown fish, thanks for the info I founf it very interesting. I am curious, how do you change the water in the tank? Do you have to mix something in the water first? And what do you feed the fishes and all living things in there, is it regular fish food?
 

Kristina

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onarock said:
Lucky!! We cant keep corals here in Hawaii. Only live rock. Your clownfish is cool. I'm trying to pick up a true Hawaiian flame angel from a friend that breeds them, but hes got a waiting list and never gets as many as he thinks he will.

I have heard that before about Hawaii, it does really suck but it makes sense. If some idiot (and there always is THAT idiot, look at oscars and RES and pythons in FL) were to dump his tank in Hawaiian waters, it could be an ecological disaster of monster proportions.

Flame Angels are gorgeous fish, for sure! I will be having a custom shallow lagoon tank built for me, and eventually Mr. Teddy Bear and my Clown will move to a 10 gallon Half Moon aquarium. I have an Aquaclear 70 that I am going to mod for a HOB refugium. My display will be about 59 gallons, a shallow lagoon style with lots of flowy type stuff, and not big enough for an angel though.

I'm not sure what my final stocking will be, but one of the fish I will have will be for sure a Blue-headed Jawfish. I have PVC pipes buried in the substrate for him to live in.

CtTortoiseMom said:
I have never even heard of a Teddy Bear crab, very cool! That story is crazy, naughty fish! Your coral is awesome and your tank's look amazing to me, thank's for sharing!

I had never seen a Teddy Bear crab before I got this one. It was an impulse buy, I'll admit. I have always joked about wanting a Yeti Crab (definitely google that one) and this was like a miniature. Someone turned him in at the LFS because he started munching her corals. I had the Minibow and the pump already, and the Minibow had some stress fractures in the front and I new it would never hold water, and as soon as I saw the crab I had a flash of inspiration. At $2.99 I could not leave him there ;)

dmmj said:
Sorry I can't comment on the pictures I am to busy judging your tank.

Hardy har har har! ;)

terryo said:
Absolutely amazing Kristina. What I want to know is, where oh where do you get the time for all your animals???? And....everything else you do. You are a SUPER WOMAN!!!!

LOL, it is a labor of love ;) I have little tricks and things to make things easier. It is kind of like once you get to a certain point, adding a couple more doesn't really make a difference. I'm not sure I'm super woman though, lol ;)

ascott said:
Your tanks ROCK hard....way cool :} And LMAO Captain Awesome !!!!:D

Why, thank you!

Tom said:
I love the personalities of the saltwater fish. I had a niger trigger with a personalty like that. He put holes in more than one person.

Thanks for the tour of your tank.

My mother has a Niger, but he is very laid back. I love the personalities too. Blennys, gobies, mandarins, etc. are my absolute favorite.

And you are welcome ;)

Isa said:
Totaly awsome! Now i want salt water fishes :D. I did not not that about clown fish, thanks for the info I founf it very interesting. I am curious, how do you change the water in the tank? Do you have to mix something in the water first? And what do you feed the fishes and all living things in there, is it regular fish food?

I feed several things. The fish gets cichlid flake. I also use golden pearls and baby brine shrimp for the corals, especially the gorgonians because they are non-photosynthetic. Most corals receive their nutrition through lighting only or mostly through the lighting. I have a couple of Mini Maxi Carpet anemones, and once a week I feed them a little piece of raw shrimp. The crabs get krill pellets and shrimp every so often.

As far as changing the water, I have a 30 gallon Roughneck tote that I pre-mix my water in. I add the water and salt and some Prime and there is a powerhead in there that mixes it all up. I test the salinity and adjust it as needed until it matches the tank. I only do a small percentage water change each week, the tank is 30 gallons and I usually change 4-6 quart pitchers worth. I also top it off daily, because it evaporates fast (saltwater evaporates at a greater rate than fresh water) and that is usually about 4 cups. It is really simply to change, I just dump the old water down the drain and because the new water is premixed in the tub I just scoop it out with the pitcher and pour it in.

I have a 20 gallon sump and an overflow box that I will be adding as soon as I find the time to get a new stand built, the sump won't fit under this one. The stand that this tank sits on was actually the first one I built completely by myself, and it is perfectly level and square and I am quite proud of it. Then I can put my UV sterilizer, heater, skimmer, and all that in the sump and free up some space in the main tank, too.

Anyway, thanks all for the nice comments ;)
 

Isa

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Kristina said:
Isa said:
Totaly awsome! Now i want salt water fishes :D. I did not not that about clown fish, thanks for the info I founf it very interesting. I am curious, how do you change the water in the tank? Do you have to mix something in the water first? And what do you feed the fishes and all living things in there, is it regular fish food?

I feed several things. The fish gets cichlid flake. I also use golden pearls and baby brine shrimp for the corals, especially the gorgonians because they are non-photosynthetic. Most corals receive their nutrition through lighting only or mostly through the lighting. I have a couple of Mini Maxi Carpet anemones, and once a week I feed them a little piece of raw shrimp. The crabs get krill pellets and shrimp every so often.

As far as changing the water, I have a 30 gallon Roughneck tote that I pre-mix my water in. I add the water and salt and some Prime and there is a powerhead in there that mixes it all up. I test the salinity and adjust it as needed until it matches the tank. I only do a small percentage water change each week, the tank is 30 gallons and I usually change 4-6 quart pitchers worth. I also top it off daily, because it evaporates fast (saltwater evaporates at a greater rate than fresh water) and that is usually about 4 cups. It is really simply to change, I just dump the old water down the drain and because the new water is premixed in the tub I just scoop it out with the pitcher and pour it in.

I have a 20 gallon sump and an overflow box that I will be adding as soon as I find the time to get a new stand built, the sump won't fit under this one. The stand that this tank sits on was actually the first one I built completely by myself, and it is perfectly level and square and I am quite proud of it. Then I can put my UV sterilizer, heater, skimmer, and all that in the sump and free up some space in the main tank, too.

Anyway, thanks all for the nice comments ;)

Wow you are very well organized :). Thank you very much for the info! I showed the pics to my hubby and he loved them, now he wants one saltwater aquarium too ;) :D
 

pugsandkids

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My hubby is a salt water aquarium keeper too. I now want a teddy bear crab! Every once in a while I put in my two cents ;D You guys are amazing, its so much work. But absolutely beautiful! He has basic Clowns right now (in a tank full of other fish and corals, but I don't know all the names), and they are very easy going. Today he got a chainlink eel...already bit him twice!
 
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