How to get clowns to host anemone

[Tham121988]

My clowns never cared much for the anemones i put into the tank, until input in a carpet anemone.

As soon as it was in the tank it was like a light switch being thrown.

The biggest female is almost always in it. She sleeps in it like on a bed.

I was afraid the andmone wasn’t going to take that kind of abuse but it seems to like it.

I’ve never had luck previously, but never tried any methods to get them to host. We wanted a clown fish only tank with a large carpet anemone. We thought that would be a cool tank.

 

[Tham121988]

I had to chuckle about this one!! What I'm going to say is true but probably coincidence.
I bought a pair of bonded clowns and bought a large anemone (see photo) a week later. When I stuck the anemone in, I had Beethoven's 9th symphony (the scherzo that was used in that movie) playing at an insane volume. The clowns took to it immediately and after a couple of months started laying eggs (a hatch is due tomorrow night) behind the tentacles edge on a huge LR. You can see little silver eyes in the attached. Today is day 7. They always hatch on day 8. Next time I'm probably using a tile (or I'll fork out for a proper trap) and transferring to a breeding tank if I really feel like raising fry. I have enough work to do with this 1200 litre set up as it is and I ain't young anymore.
I find it interesting (and somewhat amusing under these circumstances) that I'm a musician/composer/pianist with something classical playing all the time when I'm not at the piano. I always wonder if the musical vibrations affect my fish. They are all so healthy and they get along beautifully - a bit unlike that poor man in clockwork orange stuck in a room with a 20 inch speaker under his floor!!

Wonderful picture! Also some interesting points possibly consider. Goodluck with the hatch. Do you have a thread to follow on it? Also pretty cool you play piano. One of my favorite instruments. Started playing at a very young age myself.

 

[Oldsalt]

I went to the breeding forums here about the clown eggs What I need to do is buy a trap (Vossen) and on hatch night, turn off the all flow after lights out. It comes with a LED light that has a suction cup to stick on the outer glass. The fry are attracted to the light. An air pump bubbles upward causing mild circular flow. There's a mesh part that keeps them in. Transfer them to the rearing tank and become a father all over again! Lots of work but I'm willing to try. I am going to try a tiny red light and plastic funnel with hose attached and suck them into a bucket but I'll probably lose a good percentage that way. I don't have time to order a Vossen because tomorrow night is hatch night. Next time they mate (pretty much right away) I'm putting a 4 x 4 inch tile right where they lay (always been the same spot in that photo). I'll move the tile into the breeding tank right away. I have rotifers going now plus phytoplankton for them and to tint the breeding tank water green. Knowing my luck, they'll lay eggs off that tile! Fingers crossed.
Nice to know there is another piano player here!!

 

[Sppf121]

So I have a nem who is very comfortable where he is and my clowns sleep in a very easy place to catch them each night. Like you I am really wanting them to host the Nem. I have bought some plexiglass. I am going to slowly build a box around the Nem. With several holes for flow. Then after I make sure it does not make the Nem want to move I will add the clown fish for a few days. I will make a video for the process Incase it works lol.

 

[autoxgt]

I have a pair of clowns that were bonded when I got them and are never more then 6" apart.
However, the female hosts one of my BTAs and the male wont.
He hangs out right near them but wont touch it.
When the nem split and one of them moved to another spot in the tank, she stayed with one and really hasn't visited the other nem at all.
The male clown tucks in next to the rock with the nem and female clown at night and the female sleeps in the nem.
My female has almost instantly hosted every nem I have added to the tank.
I have moved the nems to the 3 other tanks in my house and those crowns have not hosted any yet.

 

[navathehutt]

Just standard clownfish; but the nem is a bubble tip green with orange tips.

my tank raised ocellaris babies went to gigantea carpet anemone as soon as i put the anemone in the tank. Almost as much of detriment with 30 of the little buggers in them. As agression rose and they grew the female kicked most of them out and they spread around the tank to RBTA's and other areas trying to establish territory. While they would host an RBTA in a small bucket the open water sometimes they did not care for it. They do now so it takes time unless you find something that they naturally gravitate towards! Probably over time this will occur they will be like hey this is really cool place to chill !

 

[rkpetersen]

One way to get clowns to accept anemones that aren't their normal symbionts is to have multiple juvenile clowns and multiple anemones in the same tank. A group of clowns will naturally bicker with each other continuously and when one starts to get the upper hand, the natural reaction for the one that's losing is to run for the shelter of a nem. Also if one gets a large piece of food that it can't eat in one bite, it will also run to an anemone to keep other clowns from trying to take it away. Some of the clowns may have to be moved later as they group grows and conflict increases, but this approach does accelerate anemone adoption.

I've seen this and looks like a good way to introduce clowns to anemone

I think it's a distinctly bad idea to try and force clowns to accept anemones in this way or any similar way. Really bad. Embarrassed that ML actually promotes this in a video; I thought he was better than that.

 

[sfin52]

One way to get clowns to accept anemones that aren't their normal symbionts is to have multiple juvenile clowns and multiple anemones in the same tank. A group of clowns will naturally bicker with each other continuously and when one starts to get the upper hand, the natural reaction for the one that's losing is to run for the shelter of a nem. Also if one gets a large piece of food that it can't eat in one bite, it will also run to an anemone to keep other clowns from trying to take it away. Some of the clowns may have to be moved later as they group grows and conflict increases, but this approach does accelerate anemone adoption.




I think it's a distinctly bad idea to try and force clowns to accept anemones in this way or any similar way. Really bad. Embarrassed that ML actually promotes this in a video; I thought he was better than that.

Why is that?

 

[rkpetersen]

Why is that?

Overly aggressive and unnatural. Often clowns will need multiple small contacts with a nem to build up their mucus coat and become immune to the anemone's stings. Any kind of 'forced' contact might work or it might hurt your fish badly. ML may be able to do it successfully but not everyone will be so careful.

 

[sfin52]

I see what your saying. I didn't know that. Thank you .

 

[DeniseAndy]

I can tell you with my experiences:
My perculas never caught on to my btas. Never, still, never. They loved the overflow pipes.
I have had many "types" of ocellaris and all eventually found a bta they were happy to be hosted by. Some took a month or less, one took 7 months.
My blackfoots (maldives) loved their bta and took to it within a short time of introduction (month - in the 210g, took a while to explore and find it).
My clarkiis would go to any anemone they saw (bta, carpet, lta) within an hour.
My newest clowns (saddlebacks) immediately found my haddoni carpets and laid right into them. Crazy fast. They are natural symbiotic partners though.

Good luck. It should happen. Unless you have my percs that are just dumb. Beautiful, docile, dumb. Guess I need to try a more suitable anemone for them.

 

[ca1ore]

Correlation is not causation. Pictures, videos ... even tubes are just comical. If you provide a natural host anemone (anemone hosts clowns, not the other way around), the clowns will find it almost instantly; if you don’t then they may adopt a non-natural host or they may not. It may take days, weeks or months, and if you happened to have a picture taped to the tank when it happened .... well. Unfortunately the natural host anemones for the commonly kept clowns are among the trickiest of animals to keep.

 

[Oldsalt]

I think it's a distinctly bad idea to try and force clowns to accept anemones in this way or any similar way. Really bad. Embarrassed that ML actually promotes this in a video; I thought he was better than that.

Agreed. Melev ought to know better. He also ought to know how to pronounce anemone. He keeps saying AneNoMe. Bugs me no end.

 

[User1]

Correlation is not causation. Pictures, videos ... even tubes are just comical. If you provide a natural host anemone (anemone hosts clowns, not the other way around), the clowns will find it almost instantly; if you don’t then they may adopt a non-natural host or they may not. It may take days, weeks or months, and if you happened to have a picture taped to the tank when it happened .... well. Unfortunately the natural host anemones for the commonly kept clowns are among the trickiest of animals to keep.

I've also found this to be true. Gets back to basic reef keeping 101. Study what you want to keep both fish and coral and build the system around it. This isn't ala cart where you just get to pick and choose and hope everything places nice together and survives. 10 years or so ago my son put in a rose bubble tip and then later a pair of clowns. They didn't take for about a year give or take and during that time we would see one of the dart in real quick to the anemone and then back out quickly. Almost like it was trying to get used to it or something. Then one day we found them both in one of the anemones happy as can be. But it took a while. Nothing we could have done - they just had to do it on their own. This was a pair of captive raised true or false perculas for which I forget what they are. In any case they have been living in them every since. I even notice when one splits (we have 11 now) that it takes a bit of time form them to bounce into the others which I find interesting.

 

[Tham121988]

One way to get clowns to accept anemones that aren't their normal symbionts is to have multiple juvenile clowns and multiple anemones in the same tank. A group of clowns will naturally bicker with each other continuously and when one starts to get the upper hand, the natural reaction for the one that's losing is to run for the shelter of a nem. Also if one gets a large piece of food that it can't eat in one bite, it will also run to an anemone to keep other clowns from trying to take it away. Some of the clowns may have to be moved later as they group grows and conflict increases, but this approach does accelerate anemone adoption.




I think it's a distinctly bad idea to try and force clowns to accept anemones in this way or any similar way. Really bad. Embarrassed that ML actually promotes this in a video; I thought he was better than that.

Thanks for sharing. That is an interesting concept to consider in the future.

 

[Tham121988]

Good luck. It should happen. Unless you have my percs that are just dumb. Beautiful, docile, dumb. Guess I need to try a more suitable anemone for them.

Thanks for sharing your experience! My clown pair also hangs out right near the overflow. They never are more than a few inches from each other too

 

[davocean]

As others mentioned, key is a natural match for best results.

I also strongly suggest no forced close proximity, and while ML is a good guy and very knowledgeable, I hate that video he put out advising to do this.
Some people get lucky w/ that trick, some don't.

One trick that is safe and helps to get them to take notice of a non natural host is place a flashlight over the anemones area, and turn on as lights ramp down, making it the brightest object in tank, and this will often draw them to that area and give a soft intro that allows them to adapt to sting cells at their own natural pace.

 

[Ashley Kekua]

it natural just to happen by law. Don't fight nature!

 

[mikchabe]

I had a couple of percula clownfish take 6 months to "move in", a pair of skunk clowns take <1 day, and a pair of aquacultured ocellaris clowns take 3 days (all with bubbletips). They will set their own schedule. My feeling is don't unnecessarily stress the clownfish.

 

[Tham121988]

The bubble tipped anemone arrived on Tuesday. I will post updates if anything of interest comes up!