View Single Post
Unread 07/09/2012, 07:53 PM   #232
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
 
maxxII's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: St Louis Mo
Posts: 4,442
Quote:
Originally Posted by Finsky View Post
ThatFishPlace out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania has a Web site which has a page describing what species of clownfish host in what species of anemone in the ocean.

I think this is a good place to start finding an appropriate host for you anemone.

My Tomato clowns totally ignore my True Carpet anemone.

I fortunately have a six year old pair of Tomato clowns who have always taken care of their bubble tip anemones. They will even take floating food and put it into their anemones. The female is so protective of the five bubble tips she will bite through two sugical gloves and draw blood.

I suppose if you have an anemone which is very, very small AND sick and it is kept it with a larger clownfish, you might have a circumstance like you state. Then the answer might be would the anemone have died anyway without the clownfish trying to host?

It is obvious that nothing is 100% although in my experience I have always had my Tomato clownfish take care of a green bubble tip I move from the right side to the left because it 1) was not doing well on the right side and 2) I wanted to put a True Carpet anemone on the right side by itself. This anemone was gently carressed by the Tomato clowns and it is now doing spendidly!

So do not get in the mind set that a weakened anemone will not get help from a caring and protective clownfish.

I wondering whether the clownfish stealing from the anemones were tank raised?

I think my pair might have been from the ocean although I do not know as I got them from a lfs 20 miles north six years ago.

I cannot stress how caring they are with their anemones to help them acclimate and grow.

I would always try to get an anemone a good host if at all possible since that is what they do in the ocean, the real world!
Finsky,

I dont mean to be rude, but there is some misinformation in your post:

Anemone's are the host organism. Clownfish are symbionts being hosted by the anemone.

Clowns bring food to the anemone because its a safe place to bring food, and they dont have to fight other fish for it. They are not feeding the anemone. The anemone has feeding response to the food touching its chemical receptors. But the clowns are not deliberately feeding the anemone.

My Picasso Percula clowns almost killed my purple based H.magnifica anemone.

Heteractis Magnifica - Tell me some success stories 1st page, post 15 is where I start detailing the process I used to bring the anemone back to full health. These same clowns killed a larger and healthier H.magnifica I bought locally less than 6 months prior to this, by stealing food from its mouth. I had no idea clowns could do this so I didnt pay too close attention and by the time I figured it out, it was too late and the anemone was not able to survive. These clowns were about a year and half old at that point and were not at breeding age. They are now.

The part where you state a weakened anemone would die on its own without a host, (symbiont) is entirely correct. If its so weak that it wont survive on its own, adding clowns to it is the worst thing you could do it. Get the anemone healthy first, then add clowns. If the clowns are too rough, then remove them and wait until the anemone is in better shape.

As far as clowns being tank raised causing them to steal from the host anemone. I have two pairs of breeding Percula's, both were captive bred and steal from their host. I have had other wild caught clowns that did the same thing.

The vast majority of commonly available clownfish in the hobby are actually tank bred and raised these days. The exotic breeds are generally the ones that are wild caught. Chrystopterus clowns, (Blue Stripe) clowns are a good example of this.

I'm not advocating keeping anemones without clowns. I'm advocating acclimating anemones without clowns until they are healthy enough to handle it. There is a difference.

Nick


__________________
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail...but, a true friend
will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn, that was fun!"
maxxII is offline   Reply With Quote