Clowns trying to be hosted by euphyllia, experiences?

lucyretz · Mar 28, 2022

Hello hobbyists!

My young clown has decided to move from the rock corner he was living in to the beloved large walling hammer colony. He’s not being rough with it, but if he smacks his head into a polyp the one polyp will retract a bit. currently the hammer is happy and open.

has anyone actually had a hammer accept a clown? my biggest fear is the clown stressing this gorgeous colony out and in that case the clown would be rehomed.

just curious on experiences, warning signs from the coral etc…

Pistondog · Mar 28, 2022

lucyretz said:
Hello hobbyists!

My young clown has decided to move from the rock corner he was living in to the beloved large walling hammer colony. He’s not being rough with it, but if he smacks his head into a polyp the one polyp will retract a bit. currently the hammer is happy and open.

has anyone actually had a hammer accept a clown? my biggest fear is the clown stressing this gorgeous colony out and in that case the clown would be rehomed.

just curious on experiences, warning signs from the coral etc…

No worries, I've had a similar orange hammer hosting 2 clowns for a couple of years. The hammer gets used to the jostling clowns.

frankny · Mar 28, 2022

it happen to me before, end up gave the clown away, mine was much bigger than yours which it damage more when she hosted the branching hammer coral colony. yours is still small, your wall hammer may end up used to it and accepted it but watch it, remove it if it really made visible damages on the coral.

lucyretz · Mar 28, 2022

frankny said:
it happen to me before, end up gave the clown away, mine was much bigger than yours which it damage more when she hosted the branching hammer coral colony. yours is still small, your wall hammer may end up used to it and accepted it but watch it, remove it if it really made visible damages on the coral.

Thankfully it’s a very large colony vs the clown! i do hope it accepts it! thanks for your response

lucyretz · Mar 28, 2022

Pistondog said:
No worries, I've had a similar orange hammer hosting 2 clowns for a couple of years. The hammer gets used to the jostling clowns.

this is what i want to hear!!! thanks!!!

vetteguy53081 · Mar 28, 2022

They do this. Theyre not the smartest and will try to dive into GSP-torch-duncans, and more. Give them a stick of dynamite and theyll go for that too !!

Timfish · Mar 28, 2022

Should be fine. Clowns gradually rub against whatever they're trying to host to transfer the chemical cues used by animals with nematocysts to prevent stinging themselves.

blksubykid · Mar 28, 2022

My clowns have tried hosting Duncan’s, hammers, elegance, trachy, gonis, and my flipper glass cleaner. None of them seem to mind

frankny · Mar 28, 2022

lucyretz said:
Thankfully it’s a very large colony vs the clown! i do hope it accepts it! thanks for your response

i guess that they would eventually end up accepted each others. wall hammer are much more sensitive than branching hammers, so u still need to watching it, rovoved it once it biting the bubbles of hammer.

Waynerock · Mar 28, 2022

Well this is what they do to Goni’s

dvgyfresh · Mar 28, 2022

I would be careful , clowns can be aggressive when trying to host , I had some that wanted my torch to host them, torch always gave them sting marks lol luckily they usually spent time in the nems

lucyretz · Mar 28, 2022

Little update. most of the time when he’s gently gliding through it doesn’t even seem to notice at all, but if he dives in or is “rough” it’ll tense up and then immediately open back up fully like nothing happened. i’m a nervous wreck and i hope they’ll be okay i lost my previous orange hammer in 2017 to brown jelly and i don’t want that heartbreak again

lucyretz · Mar 29, 2022

update from today. seems to be ok. still nervous

Sharkbait19 · Mar 29, 2022

Hammers and frogs tend to do fine with hosts. Solo seems to be less rough on it than a pair.
Torches generally fare worse but it still can work. I’ve had a pair hosted by a torch (which died), and after killing her mate my female took up residence in another torch which did fine with it.

Klyle · Mar 29, 2022

Both my clowns have their own branching hammer colony they are constantly swimming in. They tend to stay on the underside of the corals. The corals don't seem to be bothered by it

homer1475 · Mar 29, 2022

My large lone female(male jumped many years ago, and never replaced him) took to my wall hammer, both have been fine for many years. She sometimes gets to rough, but the hammer deals with it just fine.