My Clown Babies

[Melissa]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=skbbSyTP1rs

Here's a video clip of my clowns they are a mating pair... Norman and Al.

[Davy]

Oh you lucky thing.

I had a thing about clown fish ever since I was in aquarium shop and went over to look at this bare tank apart from a sea anemone that had plonked it foot right on the front of glass. I bent down to have a look and all of a sudden this clown fish came out and gave me the dirtiest look that a fish could give. I’ve been in love with them ever since.

[Karlin]

Wow, how big is your tank? The anemones are gorgeous as well as the clownfish!

[Melissa]

Davy, man can clowns give you looks! I love their movement it's so different then other fish.

Karlin, our tank is a 37gal. We started in a 10gal nano tank with one clown. They are hosting in a mushroom instead of and anemone because anemones scare the stuffing out of us. We had one for about a week and we were so paranoid that it was going to start moving around out tank and eat our fish (they like really good light and ours could be better). One morning my husband found our fire fish stuck in it. It was really pretty but we returned it to the store.

Next stop is to change out 29gal freshwater into a simple saltwater... maybe with a lionfish

[Karlin]

I've been too wary to do salt. I have a 29 gallon planted community tank but would like to do something larger. Cichlids I know are what lots of people like to get into with larger tanks, but I like rainbowfish and angels. Also like all the bottom dwellers.

[Melissa]

My husband loves his saltwater tank. our 29 was a planted community tank too... but we have slowly been rehomeing out fish so that we can turn it into a saltwater. I love angels too. Chichlids are cool but I've heard they can be as picky at some saltwater fish.

[Davy]

Back in the 70s we had a south american Chichlids tank. It was given to us by my Dads workmate who had decided to get rid of the tank and fish because he got too upset with the fighting in the tank. He kept buying snakeheads and they didn’t last two seconds in there with the other fish.

So he gave the tank to my brother to look after. The tank had Oscars, Jack Dempseys, convicts and a catfish you only saw once a year when the tank was striped down.

With the in fighting we ended up with just one of each but oh I love the oscar, I would sit by the side of the tank and he would swim over to me and stay there until I moved away. I only learned years later how intelligent these fish are and that they can be hand fed as well. My mother would just lob the raw meat into the tank.

The Jack Dempseys are one of the most beautiful fish you could ever find and no photo on the net can do justice to the colours of this fish. You really need to see one in a tank. But you couldn’t find a better name for a fish as they are fighters and caused most of the trouble in the tank.

I was told with the African Chiclids you need to overstock the tank to stop the fighting. At the aquarium shop the owner said that the fish start chasing one fish but get sidetracked by another fish and start chasing that and then get sidetracked again and again just like they do in the wild.

I used to keep fresh water puffers but had to give the tank up after a bad accident meant it was difficult for me to keep the tank clean. I also got the dreaded eczema.

One day if I win the lottery I get the biggest salt water tank I can get with a puffer fish and pay someone to do all the cleaning.

[Melissa]

Sounds like a really nice freshwater tank. I think my husband cleans the saltwater less then the fresh water... just weekly water changes. We're still trying to figure out what to do with the 29gal.

[Scouty girl]

Years ago, when I was married, my husband and I had several fresh water aquariums. We had two clown fish and they used to 'sleep' on the bottom of the tank. The first time I saw it I told him the fish were dead. They lived for a few years.

[Melissa]

When we first saw them sleeping we were very confused so Dustin tried to wake the one up and he gave him a pissed off look like "dude I'm sleeping. Sadly our first clown passed away earlier this week so the other one seems a little lonely. Every time Dustin puts is hand in the tank the fish bites him... weird to watch.