clownfish

Age of Aquariums

I have had clownfish in a tank that I took down last month (they are in another now) for 3 years. The salinity was 1.026 for the corals and inverts. Clownfish are beginners fish, they are almost as hard to kill as Damsels.

Most tank guides say that the clownfish can handle 1.020, and they can because they are hard to kill. Most fish won't though.

jumpman23

Well, this is my tank

This is the beginner tank, 1.5 ft PH (55+ litres) 8.2 Salinity 1.020 - 1.023 Feeding JBL MariPearls Using ADA (Aqua Design Amano) 15 W NA Lamp
Some modification on the Rio Nano Skimmers, and the Hang on filter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8DI7kzR0DM

Here's some modification, actually i plan to have a bigger skimmer & canister or sump but it will looks bulky in taht 1.5 ft tank, hence, i tried to improve on the filtration by manually adding JBL filtration product.

jumpman23

A modified Rio nano skimmer

Pasfur

First, this debate about salinity is fruitless. There a great many factors that contribute to the health of your fish. To imply that your salinity is the reason your fish are healthier, without a discuss of the entire tank specs, is a simple waste of time.

Second, lets regress to the early 1990's. This debate was much more common. You will be surprised to hear that many hobbyists ran their fish only systems at 1.017 to 1.019. Reefs were run at 1.023 to 1.024 due to the sensitivity of the inverts and corals. I am sorry to tell you both that fish show very little effects from these salinity changes. I have personally kept a great many species at 1.017, including the Blue Hippo Regal Tang and Clownfish. About the only exception are fish from the Red Sea, which seem to require slightly higher levels of 1.024 to 1.026.

As to the setup from Jumpman. I certainly do not consider it an "upgrade" on a marine system to add a biological filtration product such as the JBL filtration product. How is this an upgrade exactly? You added a product designed to pump Nitrate into the aquarium. Not exactly what i'm looking for in a marine tank.

Finally, this thread is not helping to promote the hobby, which is the goal of any internet forum. It would help tremendously if you would offer information so that we can understand why you hold the opinions you hold, rather than stating your view as a hard fact and attacking each other. There are many ways to run an aquarium in this hobby, and rarely can you make blanket statements of fact, such as "Only damsel and hippo tang will survive".

As an example, I think all of you are familiar with Eric Borneman and his contributions to the hobby. If you follow his writings then you are aware that he does not use supplements for his reef aquariums. Most of us would pass out at the idea, but I am certainly not one to question his method of success. This is just an isolated well known example of differing techniques, both which work well with proper husbandry.

Pufferboy- to answer the question, no, Clownfish do not require an anemone. And yes, the dominant male will change from male to female if the domanant female dies.

connorsclownfish

That may have been a Condalactis Anemone, which clownfish never see in the wild, hence why it isnt in there nature in captivity to host one.
Yep, clowns host usually stuff with long tentacles such as they euphyillia species like Torch's....mine hosted in everything before i added my Bubble Tip :D