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Hey everyone thanks in advance

So I want to have a percula Clown fish or two. I want to have a Anenome..are those suitable for a tank so small? I was thinking of a little live rock, and some crabs, shrimp, snails, or a sea star!! Any ideas or stuff that wont work? And can somebody please take down my Sea horse post. Thank you.

In a 20 you could keep two percs and possibly all the inverts you listed as well. However, Most anemones need a lot of care and should be left to the veterans. Expecially in a small tank like a 20. That said there's no reason it wouldn't work if you kept the tank very clean of waste, provide enough light for the anemone, and feed it well.

A good list of stocking might include:
The two percs
3ish Blue legs or scarlet reef hermits
3ish astrea snails
2ish nassarius snails
1 serpent star(the smaller the better, most of these get big)
1 red bubble tip anemone

As for setup you'll want at least 20 lbs of live rock, an efficient protien skimmer, like the coralife super skimmer, or an aquaC remora, and a healthy amount of lighting. I'd go with a 150w metal halide pendant. Less might not work so well for the anemone. Laminar flow isn't very good for anemones, so make sure you provide some extra turnover coupled with a wave maker of some sort. I recently upgraded my powerheads and wavemakers so you can check my thread in general marine for that if you like.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

And as if proof was needed that doing the research is ALWAYS a good idea, here's a little revelation. I knew that corals needed intense lighting because of the presence of symbiotic zooxanthellae, but I wasn't aware - until I read this thread - that the same applied to anemones. Another update to my ever growing database of uesful information. Hat tip to Matty to adding to my knowledge store!

With hindsight (which is ALWAYS a wonderful commodity) it makes some sense - aneomnes and coral polyps are, after all, fairly closely related. But I had grown up with the idea that anemones were exclusively predatory, and unfortunately I've not been able to afford to add more recent textbooks to my library that tell me otherwise. I just checked my Burgess' Mini-Atlas (a 1994 vintage copy) and it makes NO direct mention of zooxanthellae in anemones. It simply says (on page 686) the following:

So, for the health of the algae it is necessary either to supply fairly intense overall light, containing enough of the reds and blues to suffice, or to supply plenty of red and/or blue even if the light is deficient elsewhere. This is particularly true of the algae, zooxanthellae or zoochlorellae, embedded in the cells of corals and other invertebrates, where light is further absorbed by the tissues of the host.

No further elaboration as to which other invertebrates contain zooxanthellae or related algae is provided in that text.

It might be a good idea for someone among us with the requisite data to hand to compile a database of aquarium invertebrates that DO contain zooxanthellae or other symbiotic algae, and pin it up in the Reef section. A job for AcidRain perhaps? (Not that I want to add to your workload you understand AR, it's just that this is likely to be one of your fields of expertise )


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Here's another that you might not think would be photosynthetic....I surely didn't. Lettuce Nudibranch

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Now oddly enough I DID know about that one Matty - TFH featured it back in the 70s under the old taxonomic name of Tridachna crispata. It obtains its chloroplats in a different manner though - it eats macroalgae, then filters the living chlroroplasts from the digesting cell remnants in the gut, before transporting the still living chloroplasts to the dorsal membranes. Somehow it has evolved a truly remarkable gut chemistry which allows it to keep the chloroplasts alive while the containing plant cells are being digested - which when you think about it is an astonishing development!

There are other Nudibranchs that perform similar marvels in their digestive systems - these eat sea anemones, and process the anemone's cnidoblasts or stinging cells in the same manner in the gut, somehow protecting them from being acted upon by digestive enzymes while the rest of the anemone tissue is being digested, then the still living cnidoblasts are transported, without being triggered to fire, to special appendages on the back of the nudibranch!

Eubranchus species are documented as processing cnidoblasts in this fashion. Here is a page devoted to these remarkable nudibranchs.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks a bunch!

Oh, and I move that we keep the Sea Horse thread because it'll be useful to anyone else contemplating keeping these fishes. In fact, if you're prepared to put in the effort, you could still run with that project, just be prepared to put in a fair amount or work to make it a success!

As for the Percula Clowns, again, they'll require some work in a 20, but less work than the Sea Horses.

Anemones could be a fun source of trouble - apart from the lighting issues. The trouble is that some anemones sold as suitable partners for Clownfishes grow BIG. Some Stoichactis anemones grow to 3 feet in diameter in the wild!

This page purports to list Clownfish and anemone matches. Be prepared to do a LOT of searching on this topic though if you want your Clownfishes to coexist with a suitable anemone that also won't take over your tank!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002