Clowns eating anemone

[scramer74]

Hi! I'm new to the hobby. I have 2 paired osceola clowns, one keeps biting off pieces of the new nem I put in the tank yesterday. Nem keeps going coming out then going back under a rock. Is this normal or ok?

 

[gpwdr]

Yes the clown fish I had were biting off pieces of the carpet Nem.

 

[scramer74]

Did they stop? I don't want them to kill the poor nem.

 

[gpwdr]

They stopped, my impression was the biting and the aggressive behavior was part of the process of the clowns acclimating to the nem poisons or stinging cells.

Gene

 

[scramer74]

Thanks Gene! It's stressing me out. Lol

 

[saltyphish]

The biting and eating pieces of the nem is part of them building a resistance to the nems sting. But I don't think they should be eating a lot. Clownfish can harm anemones if they are to aggressive with it. If they seem to be hurting the nem I would separate them.