A quick tomato clown question!!

[kev]

When I bought my tomato clown(about 9 months ago) he was about 1.5in. He hasn't really grown much in this time period(he's prolly 1.5-2in now,) I would think that after all this time he would have grown more than this.. My water quality has been great(nitrates 0, calcium 500, phos 0, ph at a stable 8.2, salt at a stable1.025, and alk 12) as far as fish are concerned(I had been using tap water and copper in the tank) which isn't to great for keeping corals if you know what i mean. And I feed my fish twice a day, so its not like he's starving or anything. Anyways, when I went to the LFS the other day they had these HUGE tomato clowns.. they were about 4in long, and about an inch wide. They were the biggest i've ever seen. My question is, how long will it take for my clown to get this size??? Any input would be great as far as you guys' experiences with the growth of your clowns...

 

[carrie1429]

I do think that clowns grow rather slow because I have had my clowns for a while now and haven't noticed much change in size. They porbably take a while to grow because they live 15-20 years so it takes a while for them to reach full size. The ones at the LFS were probably very old.

 

[krusk]

I have 1 pair cinamon clown.
The female grown close to 2" with in 1 year
I have them when they are still 2" - 2.5"
Now the female is 4" - 4.5" and the male is 3.5" - 4"
give them more Nutrition (Selcon, ZoeCon etc) diferent foods.
Not to over feed them (ammonia spike)

 

[frankl15207]

I put one in last October that was about an inch long. It is now approaching three inches. That doesn't necessarily mean you're doing anything wrong and I'm doing anything right.

 

[holacanthus]

Clowns do seem to grow rather slow but (personal opinion here) I think that in the presence of other clowns that there are behavioral cues that cause one or more of the clowns in a group to grow larger. I've had a Tomato for about 9 yrs now and he's only about 2" and was about 2" when our store first recieved him. And also that maroons are one of the larger species of clowns and tomatos don't really grw as big on average.

 

[clarkiiboi]

(I had been using tap water and copper in the tank) which isn't to great for keeping corals if you know what i mean.
Just curious, but you have no coral, as far as I seen (or its not posted), and copper effects the LR, LS and inverts you have. So why are you using copper?

 

[heavenly damsel]

I inherited a tomato clown that is about 4", I have no idea how old he is but I can tell you he the tank terrorist. He moves whatever he wants to arround the tank. He can carry rocks larger than he is and place them in a new location. Have him in with 3 yellow tangs that are about his same size...he leaves them alone.
Be careful what you wish for.....

 

[kev]

When I first set up my tank, 9 months ago. I filled it up with conditioned tap water, and was using this water to do top offs and water changes. Before I knew of this site, my fish came down with ick. So I used copper to treat it(this was about 8 months ago.) After I had put the copper in the tank I realized that I made a mistake. I tried to get it out using a heavy metal sponge(which didn't really help.) After I got my copper to minimal lvls I put in my inverts. They did fine, and they are still OK. I'm not using copper at this time and I haven't done so since that time. So after all this, it turns out that I have really crappy tap water. And I started using RO water about 2 months ago. I don
't think I will ever be able to get the copper out completly, or the
"toxic substances" in the tank. HTH

 

[clarkiiboi]

Whew, thats a relief with the copper explanation, it was me that read it wrong, just caught your original post said had not have. I was just concerned, I dont know if copper ever leaves, creeps into the silicon (sp) in the tank corners I believe. Glad all is good

 

[kev]

Well everything will be good when I get my new tank set up. I'm starting over from scratch again. I figure it would be best to do this so I don't have to worry about copper or unwanted minerals, everytime I go and buy a $50 coral. All of my inhabitants are now in the QT for now.

 

[clarkiiboi]

Have you ever raised the question here about the use of copper and the effects of the tank months later, if and how long it stays? and if it stays? Do you still show readings? I just feel for ya to have to go through the cycle all over again, but at least u got a QT. Thats a plus

 

[kev]

Once a tank has had a copper treatment the copper is there for good. From what I hear the copper bonds with CaCl(?), and this gets stuck on rocks, any type of substrate, filters, and maybe even the freakin heater! I used copper safe in my tank and I hate myself for it. After the ick went away, I put in the sponge and it made the copper lvl go to 0 temporarally. After about a month the copper lvl slowly started creeping back up! So I put the sponge back in(which made it go back to 0 again), only for the copper to come back 3 weeks later. Since I've alrdy drained the 20, I'm not sure what the copper lvl was. Whatever amount of copper it was, it was enough to make all my corals slowly deteriorate within a weeks time. I have the knowledge and equipment to keep up a reef tank now that I found this board, its just the copper incident and using the tap water that made my reefing experience so far... crap. Now I just need to save up the funds for a new system. Guess I got one good thing out of this, a bigger QT tank LOL. It sucks that I had to learn the hard way, but hey, now I know.

 

[clarkiiboi]

It was late, and the thought never crossed my mind about the copper in EVERYTHING, well at least it wasnt a 100+ tank, ouch, that would of hurt the wallet. Good luck keep us posted.