marine 5 gallon aquarium

Question

clarkii   QUESTION: hey,
can I have one (or two) clarkii clown in my five gallon (marine)? i'm verry experenced in fresh water and did my saltwater reading. also they were in little anemones. could i get an anemone with him???

ANSWER: hey zach,

It is possible to keep a clarkii in a small tank... but, it is really cramped, not much room to swim around in..  and somewhat 'boring' to watch, imho..

The anemone will have problems in that size tank.. lighitng selection and power is limited in that small of a size.. anemones ned a good amount of light, and perfect water...

My guess is, that my the time you setu pthe tank and got it established and running stable, it will be about six months or so, before you could 'responsibly' consider the anemone in a tank, and Im guessing that by that time, you will be wanting a larger tank.., hehehehe

I would try setting up the small , 'PICO' tank, and cycling it, and getting used to doing water top offs, daily, and diong bi-weekly water changes.. and if you can handle that for a month or some, try adding one clown.

If he survives, maybe you can try another fish or critter, ir two...


If you would like, maybe you can join my new forum at www.thelittleocean.com  and start up a converstaion iwth some others.. some of the other members have small tanks too, and they can share thie rexperiences with you...

Or you can chat live, with me, or with anyone else who migt be online at the same time as you are..

anyways, good luck and i hope to see you and hear from you again


bill

www.thelittleocean.com



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: did i mention i have been keeping brackish for about two years so i am used to water changes. annywhoo, are there any small clown fish that could live by them selves in that small 5 gal. for a wile also, do clowns take kindly to cleaner shrimp?
 sincerely, zach

Answer
Hey Zach, congrats on the brack tanks...

those are kinda hard from what i hear... at least something i wouldnt be interested in... :)

as for smaller clowns, yea, you can get them smaller, but they will grow eventually.

again, what i like about watching my clown is how she bulids up her nest, and tries to shoo other fish away, and or how she and the other fish interact..

A tank with one fish is kinda 'slow' for my taste, but, it might be ok with you and many others...

i have never seen my clown interact with the cleaner shrimp, ever... sorry.


good luck


bill