Clown Refuses Anemone

[tdileo]

My clown is really showing me how much they don’t want to touch my BTA lol. Moved the pair into a breeder box along with my BTA and I don’t think it could try much harder to avoid it. It’s been days. Just go in it already [emoji24]

 

[Crabs McJones]

My clown is really showing me how much they don’t want to touch my BTA lol. Moved the pair into a breeder box along with my BTA and I don’t think it could try much harder to avoid it. It’s been days. Just go in it already [emoji24]

I've heard of other users taking a picture of clowns in an anemone and tapeing it to the side of the tank to see if the clowns will mimic it.

 

[tdileo]

I've heard of other users taking a picture of clowns in an anemone and tapeing it to the side of the tank to see if the clowns will mimic it.

I think at this point I could pick the clown up and put it inside the nem and it wouldn’t take to it LOL. I plan to get a long tentacle or mag when I get my new tank established so maybe then they will want it.

 

[Mark Waltermire]

I'd like to start this off by saying I have 5 clownfish. 2 are black and whites, while the rest are a gold stripe maroon, platinum, and a snowflake. The maroon was just introduced to an anemone this past week and went right to it, and I've had him for about 5 years so he was used to seeing them, but I believe he was a wild caught fish. The platinum and snowflake are in a tank with a rose bubble tip anemone and they both hang out in it sometimes, but not always. The black and whites don't have an anemone and I don't think I will give them one with the following info.

I've had some debate with people at my local fish stores that have been in the hobby for many years about this particular subject.
- 1 of them says that he puts clownfish with the anemone in a small bowl at the top of the tank floating and it will force the clownfish to go into it, and they will eventually like it.
- Another one says that it's a natural instinct in them and that they will go to it over time.
- The last person, and whom I agree with the most is that hosting an anemone is a natural instinct. The way that clownfish have been breed in captivity has resulting in breeding that trait out of them as they are bred for color and not for that trait so with having these fish that are 100's of lines of lineage away from the ocean has resulted in that trait leaving them because they and all of their "relatives" have never even seen an anemone. This is why if you have a wild caught anemone it is instinctual that they will go into an anemone and they all seem to, including my maroon that never saw an anemone for 5 years. She was also justifying this thought process by saying that all of the new "designer" clowns that she has seen seem to go right to anemones because they are more closely related to the ocean, with less breeding having gone on with them so far.

Again these are all just opinions, but I feel that the last one makes the most sense.

 

[B22]

I will say I do not fully agree with the last one because I have had a few tank bred and raised clown that have never seen a nem go and find one quickly. Some of the clowns were only a couple months old and about 3/4 inch.

Another member here had a interesting opinion. He believes if the parents had a nem when they laid eggs. The babies in the eggs might recognize the smell of a nem and that’s how the know how to find one naturally.

 

[Mark Waltermire]

I will say I do not fully agree with the last one because I have had a few tank bread and raised clown that have never seen a nem go and find one quickly. Some of the clowns were only a couple months old and about 3/4 inch.

Another member here had a interesting opinion. He believes if the parents had a nem when they laid eggs. The babies in the eggs might recognize the smell of a nem and that’s how the know how to find one naturally.

That is definitely a good thought about the smell of the anemone. In the 3rd point we were referencing to the way some of the clownfish are bred where it just happens that they and their parents for many generations haven't seen any anemones. I do think that some of the clownfish would figure it out, but possibly not all. Again this is all theory though so who knows.

 

[B22]

Yes I can see that happening also.

 

[Daniel Waters]

My clown is really showing me how much they don’t want to touch my BTA lol. Moved the pair into a breeder box along with my BTA and I don’t think it could try much harder to avoid it. It’s been days. Just go in it already [emoji24]

I had to basically force my clown into the anemone. I tried putting them in a small space like you are trying but that didn't work. I then started adding some old bio balls into the area to force the clown closer to the anemone. I woke up to the clown being hosted by the anemone. I left it in there for 2 or 3 more days and introduced back into the main tank....only to have my clown not go near the anemone! After two or three days, though, the clown went back to the anemone and never hardly leaves it now.

 

[tdileo]

I'd like to start this off by saying I have 5 clownfish. 2 are black and whites, while the rest are a gold stripe maroon, platinum, and a snowflake. The maroon was just introduced to an anemone this past week and went right to it, and I've had him for about 5 years so he was used to seeing them, but I believe he was a wild caught fish. The platinum and snowflake are in a tank with a rose bubble tip anemone and they both hang out in it sometimes, but not always. The black and whites don't have an anemone and I don't think I will give them one with the following info.

I've had some debate with people at my local fish stores that have been in the hobby for many years about this particular subject.
- 1 of them says that he puts clownfish with the anemone in a small bowl at the top of the tank floating and it will force the clownfish to go into it, and they will eventually like it.
- Another one says that it's a natural instinct in them and that they will go to it over time.
- The last person, and whom I agree with the most is that hosting an anemone is a natural instinct. The way that clownfish have been breed in captivity has resulting in breeding that trait out of them as they are bred for color and not for that trait so with having these fish that are 100's of lines of lineage away from the ocean has resulted in that trait leaving them because they and all of their "relatives" have never even seen an anemone. This is why if you have a wild caught anemone it is instinctual that they will go into an anemone and they all seem to, including my maroon that never saw an anemone for 5 years. She was also justifying this thought process by saying that all of the new "designer" clowns that she has seen seem to go right to anemones because they are more closely related to the ocean, with less breeding having gone on with them so far.

Again these are all just opinions, but I feel that the last one makes the most sense.

I agree with you on the last one. Maybe not for clowns only 2 or 3 generations in but a rarer morph that obviously has a captive bred line dating back 10+ years the instinct likely won’t be very strong

 

[mfinn]

I've heard of other users taking a picture of clowns in an anemone and tapeing it to the side of the tank to see if the clowns will mimic it.

heard this works pretty well.