Starting a reef tank

"Don Geddis" wrote in message ...
Who said here that an anemone should be the first thing he should buy?

This all started because the original poster suggested that he was new
(although it turned out he had kept sal****er fish before), and asked for
advice. One suggestion was that he get a clownfish as a first fish.
You replied that he ought to get a clownfish and anemone together.

Can you quote with a msg-id of this post, please?

I challenge you again: please back up your assertion that having a single
clownfish in a tank will cause that clownfish to be stressed. Can you offer
ANY evidence that this is true?

Think of some reasons why clownfish are not seen in the nature alone,
without an anemone, and you will find the evidence you are looking for.

No, that doesn't support your point at all. Clownfish in nature are not
found without anemones, because there are predators in nature, and
clownfish require host anemones as protection.

Why do they require anemones as protection?

But we don't need to put those predators in our own tanks, so that
"evidence" in nature tells you nothing at all about how a single
clownfish would fare in a home tank without an anemone.

How a clownfish behaves in a tank without anemone?

Its instinct forces him to desperately search for ANY protection
he can possibly find: frilly mushrooms, soft corals or even a water
pump mounting bracket. Put clownfish in a tank with larger fish
and you will not see clowns in the open much except when hungry
during feeding.

So, rather than all your speculation, and turning the question around, try
answering it directly. What positive evidence do YOU have, that supports
your claim that a lone clownfish in a reeftank will be "stressed"?

See above.

Nano tanks are just exception, because single clownfish is usually also a
single fish in the tank, so it has no larger fish in the tank to be affraid
of... But even in such situation single clownfish looks odd, confused and
without a purpose in life as opposite to a mated pair kept together.

I agree that smaller fish in a tank can be terrorized by larger aggressive
fish.

Not with an anemone... that is the whole idea.

If that's your only claim, then you have to explain why you think this is any
different from any other small fish in the same tank with the same large
aggressive fish. _All_ the small fish, of any species (with a few minor
exceptions) get stressed in that situation.

You were claiming some special problem for clownfish in particular, different
from other small fish. Please back up your claim, about why clownfish -- but
apparently not other small fish -- "need" to be kept in groups, or else
they'll be "stressed".

Clownfish are stressed much more because the way they swim.
They are very poor swimers compared to other small fish.
They "know" very well their handicap and are stressed much more
without a proper hideout.

Because the actual evidence seems to be the opposite. Namely, that clownfish
naturally live in very small territories in nature, so they're among the very
best fish to adapt to captive conditions in our limited-volume tanks.

Again, where did I say that we should not keep clownfish in our tanks? :-)