clowns and anemones

[kelbri]

In your experience, do/should clowns (false percs/Oscellaris) have to have a host anemone to be happier? I wonder because I am going to set up my first SW tank within a couple weeks , and I want to start off right. Knowing if I should get an anemone or two would mean an upgrade in lighting and other hardware. I want to set up a FOWLR tank to start off. Any help with this is appreciated. Thanks.

Brian

[new but handy]

Morning I have 2 clowns, so I bought a nem. The clowns hosted a powerhead.
I bought a different nem, The clowns hosted a different powerhead. Now the clowns host the corner of my overflow There is nothing you can do to make the clowns host. They don't even notice either nem.

[kelbri]

So in your experience, they don't even care the nem is there? I have read that they don't always host a nem, but I didn't know if it was nessecary in the tank with them or not... for them to he happier that is. I know they don't NEED one, just wondering if it is better to have one. Thanks for the quick reply.

[new but handy]

They couldn't care less. You never know they might host eventually.
Nems are apparently hard to keep. If you are going to keep a nem you might aswell keep a reef. Same water parameters. No you don't need a nem to have clowns, It is easier if you don't

[digital-audiophile]

I have two false perc happily living in a big BTA. Do they really need one? Not really, I've had clowns hosted by frogspawn, powerheads, rocks, glass in the corner.. lol they really are odd creatures.

In the long term if an anemone works for your tank they clowns would like it but it is not really needed.

That being said, 'nems are hard creatures to keep alive and happy, they need a well established mature tank to keep them properly. If you are just starting out the tank you should consider letting the tank mature for a while before you add an anemone to the stocking plans

[kelbri]

Awesome. Thanks for the help. I want to do a tank journal of my first go at this, so watch out everyone... lol.