SeahawkMom
Community Member
BACKSTORY: I have a captive bread snowflake occelaris clowns that is about 11 years old, when it was a baby I was able to train it to happily host in BTA. A few years ago I lost my lighting, and couldn't afford to retrofit nice lighting in my tank, and my corals/anemones withered away, and it became a fish only tank, neglected and eventually only my clownfish were left. I finally got new LED lighting retrofit for Christmas, got my tank parameters healthy again, and then got an new anemone, LPS, new fish have started to reestablish my reef tank. I also got my old female clown and new smaller snowflake buddy (also tank raised), who is totally clueless about anemones. (I have a RedSea Max 130 AIO from way back when they first were made, when I downsized from a 120 gal)
So to get to the point. . . my old clownfish seems to have forgotten how to host in an anemone. I got a new RBTA in January and the clowns could care less. I figured I'd be patient and someday maybe my old clown would remember and start hosting again. Well, finally today, it started showing interest in the anemone. WAHOOOOO! I was super excited to see it rubbing under the edge of the anemone a little, then swimming way, then coming back, etc. Huge change from the total lack of interest previously. However, then the clown started doing something I had never seen before. It started to "suckle" the anemone tips. At first I thought "no way, it's eating my anemone?!?!" Then I realized, no it's suckling on the tip, mouthing it, then letting it back out, then it moves onto another tip. The anemone tip isn't damaged, just shrunk down from being touched. I thought maybe it's eating left over food from the tips, but I had fed my fish over an hour earlier, so there's no food in the tank at this point.
What the heck is my old clownfish doing? Has it gone senile? Should I be concerned? Anyone else's clowns ever do this? What a goofy fish! Love my clowns, almost as much as my baby mandarin. I'm hoping once the big female really starts hosting in the RBTA, the clueless new tank raised clown will follow and host with her. They are definitely bonded. Excited to see what happens!
So to get to the point. . . my old clownfish seems to have forgotten how to host in an anemone. I got a new RBTA in January and the clowns could care less. I figured I'd be patient and someday maybe my old clown would remember and start hosting again. Well, finally today, it started showing interest in the anemone. WAHOOOOO! I was super excited to see it rubbing under the edge of the anemone a little, then swimming way, then coming back, etc. Huge change from the total lack of interest previously. However, then the clown started doing something I had never seen before. It started to "suckle" the anemone tips. At first I thought "no way, it's eating my anemone?!?!" Then I realized, no it's suckling on the tip, mouthing it, then letting it back out, then it moves onto another tip. The anemone tip isn't damaged, just shrunk down from being touched. I thought maybe it's eating left over food from the tips, but I had fed my fish over an hour earlier, so there's no food in the tank at this point.
What the heck is my old clownfish doing? Has it gone senile? Should I be concerned? Anyone else's clowns ever do this? What a goofy fish! Love my clowns, almost as much as my baby mandarin. I'm hoping once the big female really starts hosting in the RBTA, the clueless new tank raised clown will follow and host with her. They are definitely bonded. Excited to see what happens!
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