Clownfish + Goniopora...?

[Magellan]

I have a fairly young tank with about a dozen corals and a few fish and inverts. Up until recently, everyone got along great (2 clowns, a damsel, 6 line wrasse and a blenny). My prize coral is a large green Goniopora with the long polyps, waves around in the front and has been doing great for a couple months now. Unfortunately, I recently messed up doing a water change after getting back from vacation (forgot to turn off the ATO) and subsequently had a drop in salinity and alk that I have slowly been bringing back up. My Goni proved to be the most sensitive of any of my corals, and closed up for a few days. For some reason, my clowns (perhaps sensing weakness??) have decided to start messing with it. Up until now they have never so much as brushed against a coral, but now will periodically throughout the day go up to the Goni and headbutt it. Understandably, it is less than thrilled about the current situation and is unable to extend more than an inch or two before they will stress it out again. It seems that other people have successfully had clowns host in Goni’s with no issues, but is that just them being lucky or is that a result that just takes time? (i.e. will my Goni get used to them or will I have to choose between my favorite fish and my favorite coral)

There isn’t really anything else for them to host, I have 2 hammers, a mushroom, a Kenya leather, palys, zoas, acan and a couple SPS. Should I try to add something else to the tank to give them a potential home besides the most sensitive/hardest to keep coral in the tank?

The picture is before my vacation, water change and clownfish vandalism.

 

[ndrwater]

Clowns will host in just about anything. I have one that loves his Monti cap.

 

[OnyxPerc]

Are the clowns trying to make the goni their home, or are they just headbutting it occasionally?

If the coral is being bothered a lot, you can consider isolating the clowns temporarily until it recovers. I have a home-made egg crate basket (zip tied together) that I just clamp to the side of the tank when I need to isolate fish.

 

[Magellan]

Are the clowns trying to make the goni their home, or are they just headbutting it occasionally?

If the coral is being bothered a lot, you can consider isolating the clowns temporarily until it recovers. I have a home-made egg crate basket (zip tied together) that I just clamp to the side of the tank when I need to isolate fish.

I’m not sure. I’ve seen posts where people described similar behavior in clowns that were preparing to host something, but they also do that to the base of my rock structure (which had previously been the only thing they mouthed at, I assumed they were preparing a place to lay eggs). I love your idea of a fish timeout spot !

The rest of my tank is happy, so are the fish.

 

[Magellan]

Update: Goni has improved today, I added a BTA for the clowns, which they have 1000% ignored but also decided to leave the Goni alone.

 

[Snowcassoking]

My y clowns love gonis

 

[OnyxPerc]

Update: Goni has improved today, I added a BTA for the clowns, which they have 1000% ignored but also decided to leave the Goni alone.

When I got my RBTA, I put it in a basket with the clowns and they took to it within an hour. Another very successful method I've seen is using a clear tube to release and direct the clowns directly into the anemone. MelevsReef has a video on YouTube showing how.

At least they are leaving the goni alone for now.

Either way, good luck and keep us updated!

 

[Magellan]

Very low tech method: I was able to catch the clowns in the act of bumping it, and since it’s so close to the front of the tank I just went “boo!” and scared them, took a second time scaring them off but now I have seen them think about it and swim away on multiple occasions.

Currently, the Goni has been improving slightly day after day and is only dealing with the cleaner shrimp walking across it occasionally (the shrimp has terrible eyesight and fearless, trying to scare him does not work....even killed a larger fire shrimp...if I had a sump he would already have been banished). I’ve been broadcasting tiny amounts of reef roids to make sure he has food when he wants it, seems to be working.

My BTA has been hiding out of the light since I put him in the tank, but my water quality is really good, (alk is about 8.3, ph slightly over 8, no detectable nitrates or phosphates) he isn’t acting stressed, and my tank has lots of room for him to move around so I figure he will just come out when he is ready. I saw Melevs video too, I love that guy! Assuming my BTA eventually moves somewhere accessible for the clowns, I’m going to try the “picture of clownfish in anemone” trick because if for some reason or coincidence that works then I will have a really great story to tell every time someone looks at my tank