Anemone choices

[daplatapus]

I have a pair of Ocellaris clowns who have so far shown no interest in hosting in anything. I don't have an anemone yet so I can hardly blame them. I do have a huge toadstool leather that looks nice and comfy to me, but apparently not to them
I also have a big torch, a small hammer and a frogspawn. Nothing even gets a second glance. And they do tend to hang out in the back corner of my 80.
The reason I haven't yet gotten an anemone is my tank is just coming up on it's 9 month birthday and wanted to wait until my tank had matured a bit. But I think I'm there now. I've never had any major issues with water parameters, and I dose Mg, Ca and Alk regularly with dosing pumps. I'm also running both GFO and Carbon reactors.
Here's the thing though, I've got 2 fish - a yellow watchman goby and a purple fire fish that get bullied pretty good in my main DT. I am in the process of building a 20 gal cube for them (18"X18"X18") I really am impressed with some of those cubes out there and was thinking of also adding the pair of clowns with them along with an anemone. The tank is going to be running a fairly high end DIY led light and tied in via my basement sump with my main DT. Water quality should not be an issue as there will be a total of roughly 160 gal water capacity that has run without incident for the 9 months.

My question:
What type of anemone would you all recommend for a 20 gal cube and which is most likely to be hosted by captive bread ocellaris?

[paddyob]

2x occellaris in an RBTA in my tank.

[msjboy]

I do not recommend an anenome especially if it is less than a 30 gallon setup... simply too small. They also require a mature tank. ( ie sand, rock , etc. )..and if you get a nem, good chance they will move, reproduce, and eventually sting various corals in its path.... I know because I now have 4 nems in my 34 gallon re sea max tank.

also have a read thru this lady's site: http://www.karensroseanemones.net/

BTW, someone on canreef in Coombs was selling a redsea max 34 gallon.. you should consider that tank as opposed to making you own smaller 20 gallon one for nems.

regs
msjboy

[subman]

Clowns won't host in a mini maxi at all and a carpet will eat everything else in there and get wayyyyy to big. I wouldn't recommed any but if you really want to try rbta would be the best choice.

I voted maxi mini because its the best for the tank size but it's not one clowns will host in. (I should read the whole post before voting lol)

I didn't vote but I'll share my experience. My clowns who are 8 yrs old never hosted my bta (24 gallon JBJ). They did host everything else though. Similar to the poster, The bta split and went on a rampage throughout the tank, killing everything else. If you plan to only have a bta, then sure why not.

You can put them into a quarantine tank or a 5lbs bucket with just the torch or frogspawn coral. A week by themselves should teach them to host the coral in no time.

[tang daddy]

Yah FYI to the poster, some clowns will host while others don't... All up to the fish, which most are captive bred these days. I have a black perc that hosted a Rbta when it was in the breeder container with the anemone, after the Rbta was sold it hosted a fungia plate and now doesn't host anything. Your corals are like a piece of furniture for the clown, sometimes they don't want to sit or sleep and rather free float as per say....

As most have said it isn't a good idea to put a bta in a small tank because if it moves then bye bye to the rest of your corals, on a side note if you do still decide to get one, go with a green bubble tip as they require less light, the Rbta needs metal halide or equivalent.

[fishytime]

clownfish hosting in a coral sometimes works out, but Ive seen clowns both kill corals (xenia and torches) and be stung by other corals (frogspawn), ending up with black marks and bacterial infections from the wounds......the best relationship is with a nem.....that being said I think nems is evil and will never put a BTA in my tank again, or clownfish for that matter as I dont want them hosting in something they shouldnt.....

[subman jr.]

Originally Posted by fishytime

clownfish hosting in a coral sometimes works out, but Ive seen clowns both kill corals (xenia and torches) and be stung by other corals (frogspawn), ending up with black marks and bacterial infections from the wounds......the best relationship is with a nem.....that being said I think nems is evil and will never put a BTA in my tank again, or clownfish for that matter as I dont want them hosting in something they shouldnt.....

My clowns are hosting in my torch.

[reefme]

My clowns hosting Pulsing Xenia.

[Cliff]

I would suggest a much bigger tank, and a carpet anemone, either a gigantea (Stichodactyla Gigantea), or a haddoni (Srichodactyla Haddoni). Those are about the easiest anemones to get a clown fish to host in. My clowns completely ignored my RBTA anemone, but as soon as I added my haddoni carpet anemone, they started hosting in it right away

But you would need around a 90 gallon tank for either of those anemones