Ocellaris and/or Percula Clownfish

[E.Otter]

My wife is dead set on getting "nemo" (personally I would rather get minnows
or danios).

I would probably get the Percula Clownfish. I've already found some info on
its requirements (pH, specific gravity, temp)

Anyone got the details on these fish:
Are they schooling fish?m
What is the in min tank size and the # gallons/fish?
How necessary are plants in the aquaium?
How important is it to have anemone in the aquarium?

What filter do people like to use for salwater tanks that are the size
needed for these fish? I currently have a 29g freshwater tank with Pengiun
boi-wheel fitlers on it, any problem in transfering a biowheel from that
tank to a sal****er tank?

Thanks,
E.Otter

[Dave Cobb]

Bio-Wheels can work for salt water, but you also need several other pieces
of equipment (protein skimmer, power heads, etc). You may also have to
augment the bio-wheel with another bacterial filter or live rock to increase
the filtering capacity of your tank.

Sal****er tanks are much more complex (and expensive) than freshwater... be
sure to read at least one book about sal****er tanks before you take the
leap. Here are some decent books: "The New Marine Aquarium: Step-By-Step
Setup & Stocking Guide " or "Sal****er Aquariums For Dummies® "

Once you do get a sal****er tank going successfully they can be very
rewarding... and much more interesting than danios.

"E.Otter" > wrote in message
nk.net...
> My wife is dead set on getting "nemo" (personally I would rather get
minnows
> or danios).
>
> I would probably get the Percula Clownfish. I've already found some info
on
> its requirements (pH, specific gravity, temp)
>
> Anyone got the details on these fish:
> Are they schooling fish?m
> What is the in min tank size and the # gallons/fish?
> How necessary are plants in the aquaium?
> How important is it to have anemone in the aquarium?
>
> What filter do people like to use for salwater tanks that are the size
> needed for these fish? I currently have a 29g freshwater tank with
Pengiun
> boi-wheel fitlers on it, any problem in transfering a biowheel from that
> tank to a sal****er tank?
>
> Thanks,
> E.Otter
>
>
>

[Don Geddis]

"E.Otter" > writes:
> My wife is dead set on getting "nemo" (personally I would rather get minnows
> or danios).

But Nemo is so cute!

> I would probably get the Percula Clownfish.

Ocellaris (the kind in the movie) is more common, and cheaper.

> I've already found some info on
> its requirements (pH, specific gravity, temp)

Those parameters don't vary much for any (tropical) sal****er fish.
You need to learn more about just keeping a sal****er tank at all.
These clownfish are some of the easiest of all sal****er creatures to
keep, but you still need a functioning sal****er tank.

> Anyone got the details on these fish:
> Are they schooling fish?

Ocellaris is, yes. Other species of clowns may or may not be.

> What is the in min tank size and the # gallons/fish?

You could probably keep on in a 5 gallon tank, but it's pretty hard to
maintain stable water chemistry in such a small tank.

People generally talk about "inches of fish" per gallon. It depends a little
on what style of filtration you set up. With huge mechanical filters, you
could pack them in pretty tightly. But many people these days prefer "reef"
tanks, with natural biological filtration. You can keep a lot of corals with
reef tanks, but only a limited number of fish (inches).

You need to learn a lot more about any sal****er tank before that question
makes much sense. But just as a rough guide, an inch of fish per gallon is
probably an upper limit in a reef tank. And the clown fish will probably be
2-4" each.

> How necessary are plants in the aquaium?

Macroalgae, not at all. If you have a reef tank, you'll get lots of
microscopic algae growing on the sand, rocks, glass, etc. But you don't need
to do anything special for them.

> How important is it to have anemone in the aquarium?

Not at all, to keep the clownfish happy. (Tank-raised clowns might not even
know what to do with one.)

Your happiness is another matter. Many people (esp. having seen the movie)
would love to watch the clownfish play in the anemone. But you need to match
up the species correctly. And you should know that, while clownfish are some
of the easiest sal****er creatures to keep alive, anemones are among the
most difficult. For sure, you need _very_ bright lighting to keep most of
them, as they get a lot of their energy photosynthetically.

> What filter do people like to use for salwater tanks that are the size
> needed for these fish? I currently have a 29g freshwater tank with Pengiun
> boi-wheel fitlers on it, any problem in transfering a biowheel from that
> tank to a sal****er tank?

One popular method uses "live rock", "live sand", and a protein skimmer, with
no biowheels at all. But there are other methods.

It might help you get started to read an overview like this:
http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/melevsreef/overview.htm

Good luck,

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
"So what do we do if we get bitten by something deadly, then?", I asked. He
blinked at me as if I were stupid. "Well what do you think you do?", he said.
"You die of course. That's what deadly means."
-- "Last Chance To See", Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine