Female Ocellaris Picking on my new BTA

[Rechelle Fleck]

I put a BTA in the tank a few days ago and it found a nice little crevice in my live rock and began to relax and establish itself. My 2 ocellaris pretty much ignored the BTA and it was starting to settle in and extend its tentacles. However, when I came home from running errands today, my female clown was picking at its tentacles and even seemed to be pulling some of the tips off. It's now completely closed and she won't leave it alone. It was absolutely fine this morning. Is this normal behavior and is she going to hurt Manny (my nems name - yes, I have kids)?

 

[DeniseAndy]

If the clowns are too big for the anemone, she could damage it and kill it. You may have to separate them until the anemone grows large enough to handle the clowns. Usually the nem needs to be 2x the size of the clown at minimum.

Of course, you could have a crazy sadistic clown on your hands. They can be that way inclined.

 

[Rechelle Fleck]

The nem is at lease 4" when fully expanded so he is twice her size. I hope Bubbles isn't a sadistic clown :mad:. I only have 1 tank so now way to separate at the moment.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Glad to hear the nem is larger. Keep close eye. Maybe trap her in a acclimation box or an area of the tank to allow bta to settle a bit more. I must admit, in all my btas and clowns I have not had one kill from nipping. From being a bit too aggressive when nem too small, yes. I have heard of others though with nipping issues.

 

[NanoCrazed]

so that's actually normal behavior. You'll see clowns sucking on tentacles from time to time... the thinking is that the clown is acclimating itself to the anemone's sting... Sometimes. clowns will pick on nems to "clean" them as well

 

[Rechelle Fleck]

Well just when I started to worry that my ocellaris was hurting my BTA, Manny the nem changed positions and then the female started loving the crap out of him and Manny is loving it too. She is rubbing the nem and grooming the tentacles.

Bubbles (the female clown) almost has convinced the male Bob to do the BTA wiggle with her.

Ah symbiosis

 

[davocean]

Typically they will suck on and even bite tentacles, some think this is to help absorb sting cells to better adapt to the nem.

As long as nem is 3-4x the size of clowns should be fine, looks fine in pic