Dj`s Clown blog

[Djkao]

ok so this blog is going to be about the clowns i own. i started off with a pair of ocellaris clowns the hosted with a bta the first day the were added to the tank. A friend of mine is being stationed back in the states short noticed so he gave me his lta and a clarkii clown yesturday since the lfs by him wont take them back. Now i know you are not suppose to be able to have two different types of clowns together cuz they will fight. but i am going to try and make this work.

Params:
nitite-0
nitrate-between 0 and 5ppm
amonia-0
Alk-300ppm
Ph-8.2

Here are the tank spec
tank:160L
filtration:about 50lbs of lr, UV filter, Berlin airlift 60 skimmer, Megapower 9012 canister filter(for carbon and i like canisters)10lbs of live sand
lights: 4 8w bulbs 3 carribean blue and one t5 HO 10000k white.(im the process of build DIY LEDs its going to be 4 blue strips and 2 10000k strips plus 6 moon LEDs
sump: In the process of trying to find one or going to build my own.
flow: UGJ`s that i bult myself with a rio+ 800 as the pump will eventually upgrade to a rio+ 1700 for more gph flow

Inhabitants
snails- 10 asterias and 8 or 9 queen conchs
shrimp- 1 pepperment (will be adding another one later
fish- pair of false percula clownfish and pair of clarkii clownfish
nems- 1 BTA and 1LTA
Corals- none at the moment but will be adding some.

(Will post picas soon as the site stops giving me error messages)
PS: any comments good or bad are appreciated. i would love to learn some one elses tricks or failures so that way i can try and improve.
(also at the first signs of fighting i will be moving one pair of the clowns into my 14g bb biocude)

[Djkao]

ok lets start with the ocellaris first. they are established in a bleached bta.
the bta gets fed a half a silverside in the morning and half in the afternoon. i will do this till he is recovered and then i will gradually go to feeding him once a month. i started this feeding routine last wedensday and since the the bta has recovered some of its color on its tenticles and it is opening alot more and now has bubbles in its tenticles. the ocellaris get fed every three days or when ever i want to feed them since my queen conch population is so high the left over food is eating with in a hour. the ocellaris were bought as a juvenile pair and have since turned into a mated pair.

Now the lta has stayed in the same spot on the sand where i put it and i believe it is trying to dig a hole in the sand to find a place to latch on to(i could be wrong but he inflates his foot and deflates his foot every so often) i fed him today since he did not move he ate a whole silverside( the banded even pulled it towards his mouth). since he is not bleached i will feed him every day for a month then i will switch to once a week for a month then to once a month. i bought another clarkii so i can have a pair they have not left the folds of the lta i believe they are still geting use to the tank. they look like juveniles so i am hoping they will become a mated pair.

[Djkao]

So this morning I checked on the clowns and the bleached nem was shriveled due to expelling waste. So I watched the oscllaris swim down to the LTA and one stayed in the nem with the clarkii and one stayed by the bta. Here is a pick of the oscllaris and clarkii together

[Djkao]

Well the clowns have survived all day togehter in one nem the BTA is still shriveled but has lots more brown in him than yesturday. i fed the clowns today and all of them ate healthy and the three are still together and one is hanging out by the BTA. i left 2 silversides swimming in the tank for the off chance one make a mistake and swims in to the LTA. well i now have 1 in the tank they do swim into the LTA but it cant hold them long enough, so i had to intervene and held the silverside long enough for the LTA to get a good hold of it. he ate the whole thing(it was cool the silverside was still twitching as the nem closed its mouth around it)

[Djkao]

so the BTA is no longer shriveled i had given it food on the off chance it would eat and it took the piece of silverside and is now fully extend and both oscllaris are in it now.

[Djkao]

So the clowns are doing great one of the ocellaris can't make its mind up if he wants to be in the bta or the lta. The lta has finally set him self. he is streched between two rocks and blocking on of my ug jets. He ate another whole silverside today and he is bigger than my hand with my fingers streched out. The bta has been open more than I have seen it since I got it it is doing really well where he has gotten color back gets a little darker each day and he eats like a champ still.

[Djkao]

Here are some pics from this moring

[Djkao]

The BTA is shriveled again this moring from expelling waste. I feed him last night so now I will start feeding him one a week. LTA is doing great its open and the clowns are looking good. I sometimes have to move one of the oscellaris back to the BTA but other than that no fighting. The clarkii are out swimming around the LTA so they are use to the tank now and they are aggressive eaters. Lol. They try and eat as much food as they can in a second its funny to watch.

[Djkao]

Here are some pics