Quote:
Originally Posted by D-Nak
This thread has steered waaay off course, but let's clarify a few things...
+1. There are many accounts of clowns being very "rough" on anemones. I've experienced it as well. When I first added my purple gigantea, my onyx clowns tried to torpedo their way into the anemone's mouth. The gig died three weeks later -- I don't think it was exclusively a result of the clowns beating up the anemone, but the clowns definitely didn't "help" the anemone.
Rather than reading blogs from a pet store, I suggest picking up a copy of "Anemone Fishes and Their Host Sea Anemones" by Fautin and Allen. Fautin is recognized as the clownfish and host anemone expert.
Here's what the book says about clowns feeding anemones:
"Recall that clownfishes are never found in nature without an anemone; this is an obligate association for them, although in captivity they are capable of living by themselves. It seems obvious that they are protected by the anemone with which they live -- when threatened, they dive among its tentacles, from which most other fishes remain distant. We have taken clownfish far from their anemones, and have removed anemones from beneath their fish. Poor swimmers, they sooner (in the former instance) or later (in the latter) became prey of larger fish. The presence of an anemone is also essential to reproduction of the fishes: their eggs are laid beneath the oral disc overhang of the anemone, where they are tended by the male (see chapter 4).
In an aquarium, without an actinian, captive fish will bathe among air bubbles or frondose vegetation, so we infer that they obtain tactile stimulation from anemone tentacles. And the claim of some aquarists that the fish are livelier and healthier when kept with anemones suggests other benefits as well.
Indeed, aquarists have added much to knowledge of this symbiosis. Many have seen fish bring food to their anemones. This behaviour seems confined to aquaria. The normal diet of clownfishes is small plants and animals that live in the water above the anemone, or algae that grow around it (chapter 4). In nature, they do not encounter large particles of food, so they eat their food where it is found. Feeding large morsels to a fish in an aquarium produces an artifact: the fish, unable to devour the piece immediately, takes it home to work on it in the relative security of its own territory, as is typical of predators that obtain food in large amounts. But the territory in this case consumes the food!"
Finally, I think you meant Julian Sprung, unless he's got a brother named Julius.  |
Yes of course you are correct.
I am sorry you are having sick anemones as I have experienced this myself.
Now I have three year old bubble tips and a six month old True Carpet anemone doing well.
They have a very gentle pair of Tomato clowns who do not burrow into them like a ramrod. They have always been gentle. Maybe I was just fotunate to find a breeding pair who continue to breed and are very gentle with their anemones.
I attribute most if not all anmone sicknesses due to the capture and acclimation process up to the time it is taken home from the lfs although it can continue a downward trend if the correct aquarium environment is not given.
I have found anemones ordered through Dr. Fosters and Smith Live Aquaria online to be healthy and stay that way.
Again, all joking aside, I think it is imperative to acquire healthy anemones AND to provide them with a healthy environment which takes alot of work and knowledge gained by experience and readling. I own and have read Julian Sprung's three volumes.