Clownfish/Anenome Question

When i went over to Josh’s house we were talking about how its hard to sometimes get clowns to host the anenome…
anyway, i was telling him about a thread i was reading on 3reef.com where people took pictures of clown fish actually hosting anenomes…and taped this onto the tank near the anenome…where the clownfish could see it…

i kind of understand why it would work, but it does seem fishy…

a lot of people have said this method works, and i was half tempted not even to mention it to josh because it just sounds rediculous…i told him if i got up the guts, i would post the question to see if anyone else heard or had any experience with this…

I havent tried it, but I may actually be willing to give it a try. I have never really had a problem getting clowns to host though, so IDK.

Definatley not a stupid question, I also have heard of it done. No expierence doing it, but worth a try if your clown doesnt want to host. Have they been in the tank long and not hosting? Ours found our anemones after about 1 month or so.

i actually have 4 clowns…and only my largest one will host in the anenome…is this uncommon that the largest one is the only one that will host?

or does it also have to do with the size?

Are they all in the same tank? Is there more than 1 anemone? If they are all in the same tank, then it is not uncommon that only the largest hosts… any time the smaller ones may think about it she probably chases them away. It doesnt really have to do with size so much as the personality of the fish I think. We had a clown for 2 months that never even thought of hosting anything, and then one day we came in and looked at the tank and he was rolling in an anemone happy as a pig in ****. I think he finally just decided he wanted to…

Generally I think it has to do with the clown wanting to host in the anemone. With 4 clowns, 1 of which is larger then the rest it’s probably a territorial thing,

I have heard, but do not necessarily believe, that aqua cultured clowns have more difficulty hosting because they don’t know they’re supposed to.

I think a clown/anemone discussion can be as bad as a QT discussion >LOL<

I have heard, but do not necessarily believe, that aqua cultured clowns have more difficulty hosting because they don't know they're supposed to.
Ive heard the same thing. I dont think it has much merit though, my female maroon is TB and was hosting before my GBTA hit the rock the first time i put it in the tank.

I think its generally a good idea to pair clowns with anemones that they are known to host in nature. It doesnt mean that a clown wont host a anemone it doesnt host naturally, i just think it might make it easier. That was the only reason i bought a maroon instead of an perc or osc.

With that said, im going to be putting a pair of percs in my solana and hope they host with my RBTA.

From my (limited) research a BTA is your best bet for getting the clown to host with it. If I remember correctly (in the wild) a BTA is the only anenome that a tomato will host with.

A. akindynos
These clowns are found to host naturally with a BTA.

A. allardi
A. bicinctus
A. chrysopterus
A. clarkii
A. ephippium
A. frenatus(Tomatoe)
A. latezonatus
A. mccullochi
A. melanopus
A. omanensis
A. rubrocinctus
A. tricinctus
P. biaculeatus

It doesnt mean another clown wont host a BTA, it just means it might be easier to get one of the above clowns to host a BTA.

I have an tank raised oscellaris and a BTA that I got from Icy about 7 months ago. The clown doesn’t even acknowledge it’s presence. So…I’m in the process of printing out pics of clowns hosting anemones and we’ll see if it works…

i have a sebae and the female tomato owns it. I’d really like to get a RBTA once i get another tank so i can get some fish out of the 55.