Clowns stay away from Anenome???

[whitedove359]

Why won’t my clown fish go to the anemone? What kind of anemone Do I Have? The guy at the LFS said it was a Host Anemone for the clown fish I have…What kind of Anemone Do I have? What are the names of my Clown Fish? This is going to be my first Reef tank. I used the PVC pipe to help stabilize the live rock (ill cover it up later). I tested my water, and everything is perfect (tanks been set up for weeks with the refugium) (I have plenty experience with Freshwater, Live planted tanks, including Discus, so I know my stuff). The anemone has only been in the tank for 4 hours, so maybe I am just being impatient and they will go to it over time??? But the fish seem afraid of it. The moment I put it in, they stay away from it.

Help?

[whitedove359]

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[whitedove359]

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[Hindered]

The clownfish look like an Ocellaris, and a Sebae clown. The anemone also looks like a Sebae anemone. [Heteractis Crispa]

[Hindered]

Give them some time, and they should host to it. The anemone isn't settled yet either, it may be a few days, maybe a week until it finds a spot it wants to stay in.

[adalius]

Ok, lets start at the beginning. Please excuse the fatherly tone for a minute, but... you shouldn't put anything in to your tank that you haven't put some thought into ahead of time, that includes knowing the species of what you're buying as well as its needs and how it'll interact with everything else you have in your tank. Buying off impulse, which it appears you did since you don't know the species of either, is not only bad for your wallet but bad for the livestock.

Ok, end fatherly tone.

That said, it looks like you have an ocellaris clownfish or a percula. Without being able to see the dorsal spines clear enough to count them, I'm not sure.

Now to switch back to Debby Downer mode.
The anemone... well, don't worry about what kind it is because, to be blunt, you need to take it back to the LFS. I've had quite a few anemones, and as you will find the general consensus, they do not fair well in new tanks, there's exceptions to the rule as always, but it's really not likely. After a year or two of maturing, your odds of survival sky rocket, before then, they're likely going to die and pollute your tank. Now understand that I have a bubbletip in my 3 month old Biocube, but I've also had somewhere between 7-10 of them in the last 5 years, all of which lived to 2 or more years before being sold, and I've only had one die on me. I knew the risks and decided I wanted to challenge myself and the very notion I'm telling you right now, but the bottom line is, it's probably going to die, you should take it back and try to recoup some of your cost.

That said, you don't need an anemone for your clownfish. Is watching them be hosted by one cool? Oh **** yes. But the even cooler part is that they can be hosted by just about anything. Bubble coral, hammer coral, button polyps, heck people have had them 'hosted' by their powerhead before. Given the age of your tank, a coral would be much more suitable as it's odds of survival, if you research the species before hand and make sure it's something you can care for in a new tank, are much higher.

If down the road you get an anemone when your tank is better suited for one, you will also find that the clownfish may decide to go sit in it the very day you put it in, or it may take a week, or a month, or a year, or it may never happen. Even if you match the favorite anemone to that species clownfish, there's no guarantee that it'll be hosted. By providing multiple coral choices though you increase your odds it'll be hosted by *something*.

Sorry :( Just telling you the honest truth about the situation.

[rmalone]

Those are percula clowns. I cant say on the nem, probably sebae. There are scores of people who have waited months for clown to host a nem. Normally percs are eager to host so just give it time. Keep in mind that nem is going to move wherever it wants to if you have coral get them out of it's way, when it does.

I agree that you should never buy anything without a plan and knowledge of what it is, most LFS are great but their info isn't the "be all end all". I'm not saying you were mislead but you need to research for yourself what your getting and what it requires to live.

One other note it looks like that pvc was placed on top of the sand, if so, that is not good, if not I haven't seen anyone use pvc couplers like that but I guess it would work. Personally I just put the largest rocks right on the glass put the substrate around the rocks. No offense intended but that does not LOOK stable, perhaps it is and if so, I apologize.

Overall I love how you left one end of the tank open.

[Hindered]

I'm almost positive those two clowns are of a different genus. It looks like a clarkii, but longer and with three stripes, I simply forgot what it was called.

[adalius]

I didn't even see the second clown. Hard to tell from the angle but it almost looks like a black & white occy. Right number of bars for one.

I still stand behind my statement about this being too new of a tank to have much chance of the anemone surviving though.

[fishtal]

The one fish looks like a Mauritian Clown, A. chrysogaster. See here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/clownfis.htm

The other is most likely A. ocellaris, 99% sure. A. percula take much longer to develop their stripes than A. ocellaris and that appears to be a fairly small fish.

[handlevandal]

It took over a year for my daughter's perc to host an RBTA, and then it just sort of 'moved in'. I had given up on it ever hosting anything since the nem had been ignored for so long and then came home from work one day and the fish was hosting and wiggling and sliding around in the anemone. The RBTA went crazy and started splitting all over the place, eating up the whole 75G tank with little splits looking for spots and I eventually got rid of all of them. The clownfish was not happy so I picked up a small GBTA at Preuss and it stayed in one place and the big clown moved back into it in a New York minute. I guess once they've gotten that 'hosting' buzz they just can't help themselves.

The GBTA split (just once) and I moved them both into a 29G nano with a smaller clown in it along with my daughters much larger and older clown and they both moved into the bigger nem for a few days then the smaller fish moved into the smaller one. Pretty cool, but like I said it took over a year for the big one to even notice the bright orange nem. I'm hoping to add another RBTA to the mix for a little more color, but that depends on how the tank appears to be handling these guys for a few more months. I'm looking forward to see what will happen when there's a third one in there and wondering if they'll share the extra living space.

[cg5071]

yeah, it took 4 months for mine to move in. Nice rockwork, I like it alot.