Normal clownfish hosting behavior??

[Sharkbait19]

Hi,
Today I noticed Nemo acting weird. He swims into my torch coral and then immediately flashes/itches against the wall a couple of times. Is this what getting used to the coral looks like?

 

[KrisReef]

Yes. Sometimes the host will die from all the love the clownfish gives it.

 

[UkiahTheTurtle]

I wish my clowns would host you are lucky

 

[Sharkbait19]

Lol I don’t know if it’s luck...the torch has been closed ever since this began

 

[GeoSquid]

My clowns have killed two Long tentacle nems by being too rough. I finally got a bubble tip to live through it. They can retract into the rocks. Now I have 3 bubble tips.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Nemo keeps itching against the rocks, and he has some marks on him. He must've gotten stung pretty bad, because he now avoids the torch coral.

 

[GeoSquid]

Sorry, missed your first question. yes, the clownfish is acting quite strange and I don't think it's normal behavior. Mine host my nems but don't act that way. It might be getting stung from the coral - I don't have any experience with this so not sure. The flashing usually happens if they have something like Ick.

Any white spots on the fish?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Sorry, missed your first question. yes, the clownfish is acting quite strange and I don't think it's normal behavior. Mine host my nems but don't act that way. It might be getting stung from the coral - I don't have any experience with this so not sure. The flashing usually happens if they have something like Ick.

Any white spots on the fish?

Nope, no spots at all. Plus, they just went through a copper treatment after the tank went fallow, so there is so small a chance of ich remaining. But it's possible. Could it be him getting used to the coral?

 

[dedragon]

it could be it scratching because it is irritated from the coral, but that sort of scratching on rocks and wall more likely means there is some sort of parasite be it flukes ich etc

 

[Sharkbait19]

I'll keep a close eye on it. I thankfully still have my QT tank up and running. I really hope it's not any parasites though......

 

[chizerbunoi]

The torch is stinging your clownfish. Keep an eye on this. If your torch doesn’t reopen it could die over time. I would separate them if the torch doesn’t open by end of the week.

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

I agree with the torch defending itself. As too normal behavior, there is no normal behavior with clowns in my book. I have one that is hosting a reefwave25 in a tank with three healthy anemones and another that lives in a polyp colony.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Twitching and itching have stopped, and the clowns seem to be happily hanging out by the torch. The torch coral doesn’t seem to mind the clowns that much either.

 

[Sharkbait19]

They’re abusing the poor thing! Tomorrow at the lfs I’m going to look for a better coral, maybe large leather coral or something.

 

[Sharkbait19]

 

[Sharkbait19]

I’d normally be proud that my clowns are hosting something but this is my prized coral here!!

 

[chizerbunoi]

Don’t give up hope. The torch might accept the clown and then you have a great match.

 

[ctnguye3]

Maybe you can add BTA to see if it'll host that instead of the torch? But be warn, it didn't work out for me. I purchased one for my clown fish and it never even acknowledge it, instead it ended up hosting my flipper mag cleaner I would be concern with the torch, you may have to split the two if the clown is keeping it from opening up.

 

[Sharkbait19]

They’re somewhat ignoring the torch today and it’s fully open. If they keep destroying it then I’ll do what I can to make hosting inconvenient for them. Maybe I’ll bring back the pvc pipe from their QT tank, but they seem to like the sting of the torch a lot.