Two clowns, or one?

[DustinKeating]

My tank is finally cycled, and i think i'd like to have a pretty straight forward little sw display. I was thinking the oscellaris clown, mainly because they're relatively inexpensive and available around here.

But i'd like to have two, i hear they're territorial and aggresive, can i put two in the tank? I'll be adding them at the same time.

I also want to add an anemone at some point, i hear it's hard to keep an anemone in a small tank (it's a 10 gal). But i have 5 wpg (give or take) and i have around 8 pounds of liverock to keep it filtered. think it could be done with any amount of success?

Lastly, i want some hermits and what not...some random cleaner guys around to keep the ground and rock interesting, and to clean the tank a little. any suggestions for a 10 gallon?

 

[ecotank]

If you want two clowns, you need to find a mated pair, but I certainly wouldn't put more than one in a 10g anyway.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

Well i only have one...never saw aggressivity from it. Peacefull little fellow.

 

[DustinKeating]

Do you really think more than one is a bad idea?
i've seen plenty of nano's online with more than one clown, is it a bioload problem? or do you not think they'll get along, or have enough space?

 

[1979camaro]

a pair of ocellaris would be fine in a ten but you do need to make sure they are a mated pair when you buy them...an anemone is a bad choice for your tank...you don't have enough lighting and the water quality in such a small tank is way to variable for them to do well

 

[zanoshano]

find a pair, then ur prolly alright. If theyre not paired, they might be territorial, especially with the anenome(wouldnt recomend anyway)

 

[DustinKeating]

yeah, alright sounds good...i'll ask for some paired ones.

any suggestions on some corals or something interesting beside's fish and inverts?

 

[zanoshano]

are you asking what kind of corals we're recomending for your tank?
give us soem info, lighting, sizes of what your looking for, etc. I really would recomend waiting until you have it established for a while and your sure you still want them and can handle them. Some corals arent as hard to care for, but none of like fish.

 

[DustinKeating]

Oh yeah i've got patience on my side, it's more for future reference.

Sounds like some tank specs are in order.

10 gallon, normal size
little aquaclear 200 filter, with a sponge.
powerhead
10lb crushed coral
heater...of some wattage, it works...but it's old.
8 lbs approx of live rock.
i've got 3 flourescent 18" that can support 20w bulbs. Right now i've got 3x15w, but i'll change that soon

I dont know what kind of coral or size i want, something that will fit into a 10 gallon, will coincide nicely with two oscellaris clowns. maybe some zoo's?

 

[dbacksrat]

zoos would do pretty well w/ that lighting, as would mushrooms (mine have stood up to my abuse), and maybe sinularia corals (leather corals)--but they might outgrow your tank
xenia are fast growers and if you get lucky, you might be able to frag them often and trade/sell them to the lfs for cash or credit

 

[1979camaro]

i wouldn't put xenia in a tank that small unless that is all you want

as dbacksrat said zoos and shrooms would do well as would most of the leathers and green star polyps

 

[dbacksrat]

is xenia that fast and overgrowing? i've heard it is a fast grower, but i dont know cuz i dont have any yet

 

[zanoshano]

a nice bunch of zoos would be a pretty nice addition.

 

[1979camaro]

depending on the variety xenia can grow very quickly and in a tank that small it will quickly cover a large area

 

[S.Reef]

I would get a pair of clowns...not mated. Mated are a whole lot more expensive then two juveniles who just paired up. Also you want to give them time to grow a little.

 

[aresgod]

ageed and yea xenia, with optimal conditions could take over a tank that size in a little over a month, month and a half, depending on what variety, the encrusting ones grow much slower, but will still encroach upon other corals, really the only way to keep them from growing everywhere is to surround them with stinging corals, which will impede their growth, or get something that eats them, I would go with a nice big leather for your 10, have it be the center piece, maybe a herd of 2 or 3 cleaners and the clowns and thats it, good luck

 

[DustinKeating]

Sounds awesome, where i live there isn't a good selection of good corals. and they're all incredibly expensive if there is. Any suggestions for some online ordering (for coral).

How fast growing are we talking, like 2-3 months i'll see a problem? i'm just curious, it's interesting to watch things grow like that. If i could arrange to sell it to one of the LFS it might be fun to grow it and sell it.

Anybody have any suggestions on some cool "cleaner crews", because i'm only putting in two or three, i'd like some interesting ones.

 

[dbacksrat]

the problem with ordering coral or any other livestock online is that shipping will kill you.
as for a cleaner crew: maybe 10 hermit crabs, an astrea snail (or 2)...start with these and add more if algae becomes a problem

 

[aresgod]

yea well the thing is with xenia is that any LFS worth its salt can get it for dirt cheap, and it is always available, so they rarely will buy it back off you, but if you can find some one to take it off your hads you should try it, but yes in about 2 months it will take over your tank if water parameters are correct, depending of course on how much u buy to begin with, if you start with one stalk it will take longer, but if you start with 4 it will take 4 tiems less, i guess you could figure out some exponential formula for finding the growth rate of xenia, but it would be beyond me at this point

 

[1979camaro]

it would be easy to do a formula, but you would need to know the actual doubling time...so yah...it grows fast