Clowns and Nems

[Jeana Morgan]

We’ve had our clowns in our tank for a while now, they stay in the top corner of the tank and ignore all of our nems, torches, frogswpan and anything else they could be hosted by. Last night I got them and put them in a basket with the nems to see if they would go in and so far they haven’t even touched them. How long should I keep them and the nems isolated together? I don’t want to cause them stress at all (they aren’t showing signs). I know it takes time, period no matter what method you use...just want to get opinions on the timing of the isolation method.

They are 2 Wyoming Whites, small, pretty sure 1 female and 1 male.

 

[hijinks7]

From what I hear Wyoming Whites are the hardest to get to host.

 

[Jeana Morgan]

From what I hear Wyoming Whites are the hardest to get to host.

When we first got them they immediately went and hosted the nems we had in our old tank, like literally within 12 hours. Then all of a sudden they stopped and haven’t since. My husband is frustrated with them because they just stay in the corner all day and don’t ever swim around the tank. I really don’t want to trade them off.

 

[hijinks7]

If you can catch them you can try a large piece of like PVC piping that goes from the top of the water to the nem. Then dump the clowns in the pipe and hopefully they go to the bottom into the nem and settle down there.

 

[Flexin]

JMO, let it happen naturally. The clowns have to build up a tolerance to the anemone. If you force them in a small space and they can't get away to heal, you can hurt or kill the fish.Nothing good happens fast, just give them time.

 

[Jeana Morgan]

I think I’m going to release them back into the tank. They’ve been in there for 12 hours and I feel bad enough. Y’all are right, patience and time

 

[Flexin]

I have two tanks, one where the couple is mature and mating. For some reason bubble anemones grow like weeds in my biocube and split all the time. I remove about 5-7 ever other month. The clowns hosted a frogspawn, lol.

 

[Oldsalt01]

Trying to figure out fish will make you crazy! Sometimes clowns will take up residence in the wackiest things. I had a bonded pair that would only reside in a pvc tube, despite a perfectly good saddle 'nem not one foot away. Others I've had wouldn't go near anything. Give them time. They may come around.

 

[davocean]

JMO, let it happen naturally. The clowns have to build up a tolerance to the anemone. If you force them in a small space and they can't get away to heal, you can hurt or kill the fish.Nothing good happens fast, just give them time.

This.

There is a lot of misinformation put out there on this topic, but the truth is it has nothing to do w/ what type of clowns you have or if they are tank bred or wild caught, the issue is many people do not give the clowns the type of anemone they are found in the wild, so they often take much longer to recognize it.

If given a natural host match, they usually will dive in right away.

You did not specify what anemone was given, but being they are most common, I would assume BTA, which is not a natural match for ocellaris