Newbie Research Tank

Can't really find all those clowns but here is a full tank shot of Mobert's clown tank 8)

 

If you could explain your research, hypothesis, etc we might be able to help more.

 

He doesn't need a skimmer, hes not keeping coral....he doesn't even need live rock. All you need is some good canister filters. Load them up with bio media, ceramic rings or stars. That should be all you need. Live rock will help but filters should be sufficient. Clowns don't mind some nitrates, just not a lot and of course, no ammonia.

I would re-evaluate your project. 20 clowns in a 55....highly unlikely long term. 10 clowns, more likely but if you just have an open tank with no live rock, there are no spots for the clowns to claim as theirs. Your going to have to put some decorations or something in there to segregate the tank. I would also find a local 3reef member that can give you verbal advice and physical help. Good luck. ....and don't think you can do this project without posting pictures. I'm sure there would be a couple people out there willing to donate equipment for you too.

 

I highly recomend checking out mobert's amazing tank and also Joyce Wilkerson's book on clownfish Amazon.com: Clownfishes (9781890087043): Joyce D. Wilkerson: Books .

As Inwall said, knowing your hypothesis would be helpful. Depending on how you have things set up in a tank that size, you might only have one female. I suspect that you might be able to get 2 or 3 females to develop if you had multiple anemonaes but this presents its own set of challenges.

 

One female is exaclty what I'm aiming for. The point of the experiment is to find how the female clownfishand mature male in the colony prevent the other males from changing sex. I'm looking for hormonal, behavioral, and visual cues that trigger the formation of the colony. That's the reason that I'm not talking about LR. I wouldn't be able to be sure that any substances in the water were from the fish or the organisms in the water if I used LR. I was planning on using rock in the tank to form hiding places for the fish, just not LR. If you guys would like the background research paper and the experimental design that I've written, I'l post it. Just tell me when!

 

I would love to read the background research paper and experimental design, hopefully be able to give so helpful hints also...

Is it a school or a college that is funding the experiment?

Plus how will you monitor hormones/hormone inhibitors in the water, with all the bacteria and other cycles going on in the tank?

 

I've just found a scientific paper for a similar experiment that was done at a french university. Thought it might help you with the design of your experiment and how you can get only males to observe them changing sex.

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From my understanding, any rock that you put in there will eventually become live rock. If my understanding of how this works is correct, I would bet that anything you put in there will eventually become cultured with bacteria. The main question would be how much. To limit bacterial colonization, limit surface area.

Anyone with more experience care to chime in?

Also, when purchasing your aquarium, keep in mind that height is the most useless dimension of a tank. You might be able to pull this off with greater success if you put these clowns in an expansive short tank.

 

It is impossible to stop bacteria colonising your rock. I don't think that this is what is trying to be avoided. By adding live rock, you add a lot of other organisms algae, and inverts which could affect hormone analysis and scientific control. Bacteria is essential for the fish and aquarium to work. If a rock has bacteria on it would you call it live rock, essentially it is alive but has no where near the amount of life the live rock has that you would buy at your LFS as live rock.

 

That's just right. I just meant that by no LR I didn't want the random inverts, just the bacteria.
To monitor the hormones in the water I'm planning on using a plate reader and ELISA assay that measures for 11-ketotestosterone, the main sex hormone in fish, and another for different types of estrogen. I'm also planning on putting a model clownfish in the tank when all of the fish are still juvenile, to see if the presence of a large clownfish is all that is needed to prevent teh sex change of the other fish.