Anemone stung clownfish?

blkhawk10 · Dec 22, 2014

My black ice clown has been breathing heavily for the past couple days and laying on the sand bed...I looked up all the diseases associated with clownfish and it doesn't seem to be one, this isn't the first time it has happened either...I have another clown I just bought two weeks ago hosting the anemone that I have and I was thinking that maybe this one got stung somehow trying to host?

ohio reefer · Dec 22, 2014

What type of anemone?

blkhawk10 · Dec 22, 2014

Bubble tip

KorD · Dec 22, 2014

BTA will not hurt the clown... look for a parasite or anything else with the clown.

BTA will sting, but they are VERY weak

could you post a few pictures

SantaMonicaHelp · Dec 23, 2014

Maybe some pictures of your clown will help?

Sully · Dec 23, 2014

Are you sure the new clown didn't beat up the old clown?

blkhawk10 · Dec 23, 2014

I'm sure the new one didn't beat the old one up its is like two times smaller and they seem fine together...weird thing is I did a water change and the clown is acting normal again which is weird, because I feel if anything was wrong with the water everything would've been feeling it...I can see her trying to host the anemone now but won't actually touch it yet, so maybe it did get stung so it's taking its time now.

Mldukes · Dec 31, 2014

Initially clowns are stung by anemones. It is an aquired immunity. After continued exposure antigens are built up within the clowns slime coat that protect them from the anemones sting

OrionN · Dec 31, 2014

Mldukes said:
Initially clowns are stung by anemones. It is an aquired immunity. After continued exposure antigens are built up within the clowns slime coat that protect them from the anemones sting

I do not think that this is true. Clowns that live in the anemone do not get sting by the host anemone at all. Somehow, we don't know how, but the clowns able to get the anemone to feel them as "not a food item" and not sting them. There is a very important distinction between what I wrote and what Mldukes wrote.
Sometime clowns can just drove right in the anemone and have no problem. However, there are incident of clowns drove into the anemone, got stung and eaten by the anemone. I have seen first hand, at a LFS, wild caught Clarkii drove right into a S. haddoni, which is one of it natural host, got stung and eaten by the H. haddoni.

eatbreakfast · Dec 31, 2014

OrionN said:
I do not think that this is true. Clowns that live in the anemone do not get sting by the host anemone at all. Somehow, we don't know how, but the clowns able to get the anemone to feel them as "not a food item" and not sting them. There is a very important distinction between what I wrote and what Mldukes wrote.
Sometime clowns can just drove right in the anemone and have no problem. However, there are incident of clowns drove into the anemone, got stung and eaten by the anemone. I have seen first hand, at a LFS, wild caught Clarkii drove right into a S. haddoni, which is one of it natural host, got stung and eaten by the H. haddoni.

Not being stung, and being recognized by the anemone as "not a food item" is because of their slime coat. The slime coat can be damaged through various factors such as aggression, illness, physical damage, and handling by aquarist/other. If the slime coat does become damaged the anemone can identify the hosting clownfish "as a food item" and sting, injure, or even kill and consume the clown. This is likely the cause of the incident with the clarkii being eaten by the haddoni, the slime coat likely being damaged by the net.

OrionN · Dec 31, 2014

I don't think anybody really looking into/work out exactly why host anemones does not sting their symbiotic clown fish. There are a variety of hypothesis as to why this is true but nothing proven. Conjecture and hypothesis is all.

eatbreakfast · Jan 1, 2015

OrionN said:
I don't think anybody really looking into/work out exactly why host anemones does not sting their symbiotic clown fish. There are a variety of hypothesis as to why this is true but nothing proven. Conjecture and hypothesis is all.

Actually it is a subject that has been studied fairly well. A google.scholar search will readily give a number of peer reviewed literature that delves into the specifics of the fish mucus and particular proteins that provide the immunity to clownfish from the anemone sting.

Anemonedude · Aug 4, 2022

KorD said:
BTA will not hurt the clown... look for a parasite or anything else with the clown.

BTA will sting, but they are VERY weak

could you post a few pictures

I swear the same thing happened to me. New anemone, clown fish touched it and went into convulsions. Seems to be unharmed however.