Clowns aren’t hanging around my nem

Allen glover

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Have a pair of small clowns and a lovely big bubble nem bu the clowns refuse to go near it or a candle sps I have they just happily loiter around the tank with all the other riffraff any ideas why not breeding maybe ?

76C73A18-50D9-414B-98C1-5E07F65AFAD1.jpeg 6CC063DB-82F3-4CDE-BCE3-061A027CD0E6.jpeg
 

DarkSky

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Most clowns bred in captivity are several generations removed from their ancestors of whom were hosted by anemones.

They might find it and figure it out one day, or they may never make that leap.

Some people have tried various methods to get them to do so with varying levels of success.
 

Peach02

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I've had mine almost a year and they still haven't hosted anything except a corner, unfortunately this is normal for many people. I think they may look for a host once they start being interested in breeding
 
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Allen glover

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Some clowns never host. How long have they been together?
2 months. Not sure what species of clown they are. if they are just some really small species or are immature but they are definitely about half “normal” clown size
 

Tom Casperson

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It may take a while. If they are immature, they might be same sex. One will have to change sex. You’ll see this by the one which will grow larger. That one will be the female Give it time
 

Cell

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It was a huge clear pipe, not sure where Marc sourced it, but it definitely worked for him.

You could try a a couple different things. The first thing, and least labor intensive, is when you feed the clowns, drop it near the nem.

A bit more disruptive, but you could also transfer the nem and clowns to a smaller tank, like a 10 gallon and see if they can find it easier, then move them back.

Otherwise, just patience and hope.
 

alton

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Go buy a medium to large frogspawn. Clownfish go to them like magnets. Plus you don’t have to worry about a nem walking around killing your coral. The only clown I found to go to bubbles was gold stripe maroon clowns
 

inletfish

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It was a huge clear pipe, not sure where Marc sourced it, but it definitely worked for him.

You could try a a couple different things. The first thing, and least labor intensive, is when you feed the clowns, drop it near the nem.

A bit more disruptive, but you could also transfer the nem and clowns to a smaller tank, like a 10 gallon and see if they can find it easier, then move them back.

Otherwise, just patience and hope.

im going to use tge tube from my syphon.

you could just use a 1.5" piece of pvc, hes use acrylic just for the video
 

D-Nak

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I'm going to try to clarify a few of these statements:
Most clowns bred in captivity are several generations removed from their ancestors of whom were hosted by anemones.
This makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. The analogy I like to use is cats and catnip. Domesticated cats still like catnip and this trait is innate. Same with clownfish. Give any captive-bred clownfish their natural host, and you'll typically see an instant bond.

2 months. Not sure what species of clown they are. if they are just some really small species or are immature but they are definitely about half “normal” clown size

They look like juvenile, captive-bred ocellaris.

It may take a while. If they are immature, they might be same sex. One will have to change sex. You’ll see this by the one which will grow larger. That one will be the female Give it time

Immature clowns are technically sexless. They are neither male nor female. When they reach maturity, one will become female, one male, and the rest remain sexless. If the female were to die or move on, the male typically takes her place, and one of the subordinate fish will become the male.

marc Levinson introduced his clowns to a nem via a pipe leading directly into the nem, and the clowns never left it.

I like a lot of things that Mark shares, but this one is really risky. While it may work, there's also a very high chance that the clownfish could be killed by the anemone.

Since the clownfish are ocellaris, and BTAs are not a natural host species, it's hit-or-miss when it comes to hosting. There really isn't much that you can do to get it to happen. Just needs time and patience. If you really want to see the clownfish and anemone symbiosis take place, get a natural host anemone for ocellaris -- H. magnifica (Ritteri), S. gigantea, or S. mertensii (Mertens).
 

inletfish

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I'm going to try to clarify a few of these statements:

This makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. The analogy I like to use is cats and catnip. Domesticated cats still like catnip and this trait is innate. Same with clownfish. Give any captive-bred clownfish their natural host, and you'll typically see an instant bond.



They look like juvenile, captive-bred ocellaris.



Immature clowns are technically sexless. They are neither male nor female. When they reach maturity, one will become female, one male, and the rest remain sexless. If the female were to die or move on, the male typically takes her place, and one of the subordinate fish will become the male.



I like a lot of things that Mark shares, but this one is really risky. While it may work, there's also a very high chance that the clownfish could be killed by the anemone.

Since the clownfish are ocellaris, and BTAs are not a natural host species, it's hit-or-miss when it comes to hosting. There really isn't much that you can do to get it to happen. Just needs time and patience. If you really want to see the clownfish and anemone symbiosis take place, get a natural host anemone for ocellaris -- H. magnifica (Ritteri), S. gigantea, or S. mertensii (Mertens).
interesting fact about bta not being natural host. a tid bit that i shamefully did not know
 

Homebrewer

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I'm going to try to clarify a few of these statements:

This makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. The analogy I like to use is cats and catnip. Domesticated cats still like catnip and this trait is innate. Same with clownfish. Give any captive-bred clownfish their natural host, and you'll typically see an instant bond.

@D-Nak

Regarding this comment, I don't mean the following to be argumentative. I respect your opinion and you very well may be right. A while ago I engaged in a similar discussion on this forum on this point and posted the following:

I agree with your points about correct matching and instinct, in my opinion, the idea behind captive bred fish losing some of their behavioral traits is not exactly misinformation. There is some research to this effect. A research paper published by the National Academy of Sciences says the following: "...the hatchery environment during early life stages induces significant physiological and behavioral changes that may ultimately reduce the fitness of hatchery-born fish." (https://www.pnas.org/content/114/49/12964). This quote also points to two other papers that discuss fitness changes in hatchery-born fish. Mind you, most of this research is done on salmon and not clowns and anemones, and it's endpoint is to measure fitness, not a symbiotic relationship; but the point is that there can be changes in captive-bred fish over generations.

I want you to know that I respect your opinion and again, I want you to know that I 100% agree that the right clown should be paired with the right nem for very obvious reasons. In many ways, we are trying to replicate nature, so why fight that?... right???

I aim only to make the point that there is peer-reviewed literature in nationally-published journals that do indicate there can be behavioral changes in captive bred fish, and so in my opinion, some of these changes could indeed occur in clownfish.
 

JayKim

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I bought a third clown that was hosting, put it in the same tank with the pair for 2 weeks. returned it back to LFS and my pair are now hosting and laying eggs.
 

inletfish

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@D-Nak

Regarding this comment, I don't mean the following to be argumentative. I respect your opinion and you very well may be right. A while ago I engaged in a similar discussion on this forum on this point and posted the following:

I agree with your points about correct matching and instinct, in my opinion, the idea behind captive bred fish losing some of their behavioral traits is not exactly misinformation. There is some research to this effect. A research paper published by the National Academy of Sciences says the following: "...the hatchery environment during early life stages induces significant physiological and behavioral changes that may ultimately reduce the fitness of hatchery-born fish." (https://www.pnas.org/content/114/49/12964). This quote also points to two other papers that discuss fitness changes in hatchery-born fish. Mind you, most of this research is done on salmon and not clowns and anemones, and it's endpoint is to measure fitness, not a symbiotic relationship; but the point is that there can be changes in captive-bred fish over generations.

I want you to know that I respect your opinion and again, I want you to know that I 100% agree that the right clown should be paired with the right nem for very obvious reasons. In many ways, we are trying to replicate nature, so why fight that?... right???

I aim only to make the point that there is peer-reviewed literature in nationally-published journals that do indicate there can be behavioral changes in captive bred fish, and so in my opinion, some of these changes could indeed occur in clownfish.


as dogs are captive bred they become more tame, same with snakes the further their generation is from the wild the less likely they are to be agressive and bite
 

Cell

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Part of the reason for the large clear tube is you don't want to stress or freak out the fish shoving them down a small dark tube. The large clear tube allowed the clowns to swim down to the nem calmly and naturally which I think probably aided the acclimation process.
 

sfin52

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Find a you tube video of your type of clowns hosting your type of anemone. Play it on a loop. It worked for me. Something to help
 

Gernader

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I got my ocellaris clowns being hosted by my RBTA by using the clear pipe method and pour tank water in the pipe to make them go down. They did not host it right away, but in a couple of days after doing the pipe method, they finally got in the nem!
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D31E926B-DB8D-418D-80E3-5E03F6253174.jpeg
 

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