BTA & Clown Behavior

[dankolle]

I got an awesome Green BTA when I was down state last week. It was too good of a deal to pass up. Within 2 days of it being in my tank, the larger of my 2 ocellaris clowns hosted to it (which is awesome because that is the whole reason I have a reef tank!!)

However, the clowns used to "hang out" together all of the time no matter what...and now the larger clown chases the smaller clown away from the anemone almost 100% of the time. It chases and "nips" at the smaller clown.

I also noticed the clown spends a lot of time around the foot and "trunk?" of the anemone.

Is this normal behavior?

 

[Sir Alex]

I don't know why they're suddenly being aggressive but I do know that that anemone is really bleached. But it should be fine if under proper lighting.

 

[dankolle]

I thought bleached too, but he said it was wasn't bleached that was just the way the color was.

 

[Waddi]

What is your lighting?

 

[BL1]

They may have said that but, it definitely looks bleached. My female showed similar aggression when my hairy mushroom started hosting her. After about a month or so, both my clowns had made it their home. It's also pretty small so she may be more protective of it, when it grows some there'll be room for both and you should see a change in attitude. Also, it's normal for them to swim and nestle in under them by the nems foot.

 

[Sir Alex]

Your not the first person to get told by a LFS that white anemones are special. Someone else on the forums got an anemone who the guy said it was a rare kind. It was just bleached...

 

[Bifferwine]

It looks pretty bleached to me too. :( Sadly, "white" anemones are sold in the hobby all the time. The good news is, it will come back and regain its color with good nutrition, water quality and lighting. It otherwise looks very healthy.

 

[dankolle]

good to know the clowns are normal...I would hate for one to kill off the other due to aggression, etc. Yes, the nem' is only big enough for one of them so far. The lights were off tonight and the other clown was "begging" for some anemone time but the other one chased it away.

As for the bleaching...I have it under 175 MH with new bulbs arriving this week. We placed it last week and it only moved up the rock about 6". I'm going to watch it and if I need stronger light I'm thinking about supplimenting with an LED "high noon" light.

Nutrition brings up an interesting question tho. My LFS is petsmart (it really sucks) they always change up their frozen food selection and they didn't have silver sides or mysis this time around. I got some brine shrimp and I still have some 6 - 8 month old silver sides in the freezer, but they are freezer burned pretty bad. My fire shrimp loves them, but should I try to feed them to the anemone without risking some issues? What about live feeder gold fish?

I also was thinking about getting him some uncooked, unseasoned squid from the grocery store...my sun coral loved those! Any ideas?

 

[BL1]

You won't need stronger lighting then those 175w MH for your tank.

As far as the feeding goes, I would stay away from feeding silversides. While some have success with it, I've read a lot about nems dying suddenly after having been fed them. Also, I wouldn't worry so much about spot feeding it. I'll feed my fish and my nem will pick it's food out of the water column that the fish miss.

 

[BL1]

Also, you don't need any "special" food for the nem. Whatever meaty foods you feed your fish, the BTA will eat as well.

 

[dankolle]

Sounds good