My condylactis anemone ate my ocellaris clown

No I got rid of the damsels when i bought the clowns. I only used them to help cycle the tank and whatnot. One major thing i've learned here is not to trust a LFS. I appreciate you guys helping me, i just felt like they knew what they were talking about. After doing some research i actually discovered that what they sold to me as a percula was actually a teardrop ocellaris. Now all i have in my tank is the teardrop oc. and the goby. is there anything in particular that I can do to help them both out? They both seem pretty healthy and really active. The oc. that was eaten by the anemone was actually only bought last week from somewhere that i had questions about to begin with so i guess this is what i get for that. i just feel lost now because everything the LFS told me was apparently untrue. Any help would be appreciated. By the way, I'd rather you be straight and honest with me, no matter if it does sound bad, then lead me on and tell me its ok with a lie. Trust me, im used to it. I just want to know some tips and get some advice to help everything along and keep the fish healthy. I already have some pods for the goby. the LFS told me that he would just go around and clean up the bottom, and was easily kept, obviously not after some of the stuff that I've read here. I do have 2 years with 2 GSP's. I feel like i know a little bit but obviously saltwater is a new thing for me. I just need help. and I am thinking about corals but now am thinking that maybe its too soon??? I don't know, any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think the best think would be list all your equipment and everything about the tank to get started bud

 

i agree with everyones statements here. as someone said the advice is hard to swallow sometimes.

i had to remove my condy nem from the new tank i started as well because of the problems it was causing. i also had an issue where i acclimated two clowns a month after i started this particular tank and one made it and one didnt. the one that didnt died due to the stress levels and the little minor spikes in nitrate over the first few cycles.

 

sorry is it just me or dont condys just eat fish in general? whether or not it is clown it doesnt matter.

 

I've heard Condy's are more agro than BTAs. There are videos on YouTube of people feeding live fish to their nems, and most are condys. In nature it's their mode of feeding, to sting reef fish that stray too close. I don't think you could consider any true anemone to be 100% fish safe.

To the OP: Mandarins need a lot more pods than you're going to want to buy in the long term.... if you can afford to buy pods you may as well set up a larger system with a refugium, and plenty of live rock.

with the clowns you can't really mix species, not easily, and certainly not in a small tank - in nature they form large very complex social colonies, with one pair and some juveniles per anemone. In a confined tank I've seen very few examples of more than a single pair in tanks smaller than 500 gallons. And with pairs it's best, and usually only viable, to introduce them at the same time when they're very young, or already an established pair from another tank. Wild caught clowns should be avoided, since so many tank raised are available.

And yes, please list your tank, hardware, livestock, and water parameters for us, it tells a lot about a tank. Lights, pumps, powerheads, even what salt and test kit brands you're using.

As for the LFS you've been going to.... don't give up on them entirely yet. A lot of times you'll find an employee that gives better advice or isn't in for a fast hard sell, and would rather see you succeed that spend a little money and fail. There's a lot of general info about what makes a good LFS, here's what I look for:

Are they a saltwater / reef specialty (or only) fish store, and if not do they have a separate staff for the saltwater fish that are well trained and know what they're selling? Are the tanks clean? Do the fish look healthy, are there any dead fish in the tanks (except fish used as food, like silver sides)? Do they stock a good variety of quality equipment, or only one or two "high margin" brands that move fast and provide a larger profit. Is the owner there, and can you talk to him or her? Will they tell you where they get their fish from, i.e. what distributors and brokerages they use?

The LFS I go to meets and exceeds all the above criteria. I have seen them push a hard sell on someone, but only on hardware, never with live stock. Usually they're trying to upsell a tank or lighting system. They're running a business after all. But if they care about live stock they will tell you what you can and can't put in a tank if they know what you have tankwise. They should at least tell you "it's probably not a good idea" and will suggest other ideas before they sell a fish they don't fel will work out.

And of course, always ask us if anything the LFS says sounds fishy (har har)

Welcome to 3reef!

-Doug

 

heh that confused me for a while....

Green Spotted Puffers....

Around here "GSP" stands for Green Star Polyps, a type of coral.

... I got it now.

carry on.

 

you realize that you can target feed that mandarin cyclops to supplement his diet. i have had one before in my nano for awhile before moving him to my 55g. He was not missing any meals trust me. He is awesome looking with the tall dorsal and got him on sale for 12.99. just couldn't pass it up. i just made sure he wasn't going to starve.