Brownbearhair Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 So I'm still really New to salt water.I have a 29biocube that has been running for about two or three months now maybe even longer, it is stocked with some coral a few fish and a rose bubble anemone. I also have a beautiful little snowflake clown that the anemone was ment for. Problem is that the clown only chills in the front corner all day and won't even go check the nem out. Is there a truck to getting them to host or is it just a wait and see thing. Any advice is helpful because I'm really New to saltwater/reef tanks and it is a whole new world to me Link to comment
vegasgundog Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Ya, my clowns go every where but my rose buble tip. Supposedly you can tape a picture of clowns in an anemone to your tank so they can see it and it will teach them to host an anemone. Don't know of anyone who tried it. Link to comment
cruiZe Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Same. My clowns are un cooperative regarding the RBTA Link to comment
jimmyree Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 So I'm still really New to salt water.I have a 29biocube that has been running for about two or three months now maybe even longer, it is stocked with some coral a few fish and a rose bubble anemone. I also have a beautiful little snowflake clown that the anemone was ment for. Problem is that the clown only chills in the front corner all day and won't even go check the nem out. Is there a truck to getting them to host or is it just a wait and see thing. Any advice is helpful because I'm really New to saltwater/reef tanks and it is a whole new world to me It happens, clowns are weird, maybe someday maybe never. My clown hosts a powerhead. Link to comment
vegasgundog Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 It happens, clowns are weird, maybe someday maybe never. My clown hosts a powerhead. In the bc my clowns hosted the korali 425 in the corner. Now in the rsm, they spend most of the time UNDER the Hollywood stunner chalice or somewhere behind the lr. They come out more now to let me know they are hungy.... and go back. Link to comment
seabass Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 You might try feeding near the anemone. Also, you might try using a net to gently steer them to it. Ocellaris clownfish don't always take immediately to a host anemone. But when they do, they seem to be instantly addicted (preferring to be in or near it all of the time). I had a pair of occellaris clowns in a 40 gallon with 3 BTAs. It might have been close to a year, but then all of the sudden, the male discovered one of the anemones. Later that day the female joined in. They rarely shared the same anemone, but either hung out by one of the anemones or with each other. Then I moved the clownfish to a 100 gallon tank without any host anemones. After a couple of months I bought a new BTA for them (thinking they would take to it immediately). However, after another month, they are still largely ignoring it (just occasionally looking at it, like seeing an old classmate that you haven't seen in awhile and aren't sure if it's them or not). Link to comment
smeagol108 Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Best method I know is turn off all flow and feed right by ur anemone so the clown has to touch it to grab food. Link to comment
seabass Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Best method I know is turn off all flow and feed right by ur anemone so the clown has to touch it to grab food. Maybe even using a pipette to release the food just above the anemone. Clownfish can't resist food; but if they don't get everything, at least the anemone will enjoy the meal. Link to comment
Clown79 Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Clowns are funny that way. My old clowns hosted my powerhead by day and at night would host my finger leather. My clown now, she hosted nothing for the longest time. I got a boyfriend for her who immediately went to my frogspawn to host it- she followed the little guy in there....like Seabass said- they are addicts. They rarely leave the frogspawn now. Some don't ever host. Link to comment
Brownbearhair Posted July 23, 2016 Author Share Posted July 23, 2016 Well it's nice to know I'm not the only one with this problem hahahah. Thanks for the ideas I think I'll try just feeding by the nem for a while and see in that helps any. I've also noticed that my blue for sleeper is super aggressive to my clown do you guys think that might have something to do with it. It gotten to where my clown will play dead when he comes near him. I would honestly take him out but he is my wife's favorite fish and he does a great job at keeping my substrate clean. Link to comment
Clown79 Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 You're not alone. I had a blenny that was aggressive with my clown. Clowns can hold their own and seem to become more aggressive when paired or hosting. Link to comment
reeferfoxx Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 First off, clowns aren't that fast, mentally. I don't have any anemones but it took my clowns about 5 months before it decided to try and host something other than a wave pump. The next thing they tried to host was a Pagoda coral. Best thing to do it wait. Although a picture of the bubble tip was never provided, it could be too small. For what it is worth, I saw a video on youtube where someone was adding some 15 skunk clowns to an anemone. They used a long wide acrylic pipe. Maybe 5-8 inches wide? They slowly added skunk clowns down through the pipe so they would immediately find the nem. They chose this method because the tank was like 300+ gallons filled with some bigger predator fish that would have mistaken them for food. I don't recommend adding stress to the fish, but if the nem looks big enough and you have some common sense, you could try that method. Not guaranteed to work. Link to comment
metrokat Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 My clowns play musical corals between the Duncans and the Goniopora. Link to comment
Hammerstone Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 Mine are hosted by a bubble curtain and also sleep in it. I think it feels good. They were also REALLY interested in my RFAs which they should stay away from. They would swim around one and look inside. They didn't touch it though. Link to comment
Brownbearhair Posted July 24, 2016 Author Share Posted July 24, 2016 First off, clowns aren't that fast, mentally. I don't have any anemones but it took my clowns about 5 months before it decided to try and host something other than a wave pump. The next thing they tried to host was a Pagoda coral. Best thing to do it wait. Although a picture of the bubble tip was never provided, it could be too small. For what it is worth, I saw a video on youtube where someone was adding some 15 skunk clowns to an anemone. They used a long wide acrylic pipe. Maybe 5-8 inches wide? They slowly added skunk clowns down through the pipe so they would immediately find the nem. They chose this method because the tank was like 300+ gallons filled with some bigger predator fish that would have mistaken them for food. I don't recommend adding stress to the fish, but if the nem looks big enough and you have some common sense, you could try that method. Not guaranteed to work. It being to small could be a factor. Although when I got it at m lfs it had a damsel that was bigger than my clown hosting is.On of my friends told me of a method a lot like that where you put them nem in a two liter with the bottom cut out and the clown as well so it has no choice but to find the nem. I thought about trying it but like you said I don't wanna stress the little guy to much. Also I would add a few pics but I'm not sure how to do that on here yet hahaha to much of a newb Link to comment
seabass Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 Another trick I read about was to put one of those clownfish algae clips next to the anemone (to get the real clownfish interested in it). I never tried it, but I suppose it may have some merit. Also, besides taping a picture of a clownfish in a host anemone, I've heard the playing a video of it can sometimes work. Link to comment
Brownbearhair Posted July 25, 2016 Author Share Posted July 25, 2016 Another trick I read about was to put one of those clownfish algae clips next to the anemone (to get the real clownfish interested in it). I never tried it, but I suppose it may have some merit. Also, besides taping a picture of a clownfish in a host anemone, I've heard the playing a video of it can sometimes work.No way that is crazy, I don't have a clown clip but I mean I can give the video a shot hahah Link to comment
Csalt Posted July 25, 2016 Share Posted July 25, 2016 My clown paces the glass eating pods Link to comment
G-villeDel Posted July 25, 2016 Share Posted July 25, 2016 If you could grab the anemone and gently rub the clowns with it, they'll get used to it. Link to comment
Clown79 Posted July 25, 2016 Share Posted July 25, 2016 Try feeding it near the anemone. Get some frozen mysis, feed through a pipette near the hosting site. That might get them interested Link to comment
reeferfoxx Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 This is an old post! Sorry... I ran across the video I was talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7pGnlGdP-E Link to comment
Reef Queso Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 I held my phone up to the tank with this video after a week of my clown swimming in the corner and 20 seconds later he found the bubble tip anemone. Would like to hear your results. Link to comment
Fiver Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 You can encourage clowns to partner with a BTA by keeping them all in a colander secured in the tank for several days. Once they get together for a few days, you can then place the BTA in the tank and release the fish. Worked for my pair, which had been ignoring the BTA for weeks. It's best/easier to do this when you get your BTA instead of placing it in the tank and seeing how that goes first. It is a pain/irritating to the BTA to have to peel it off later for the colander trick. I was lucky in that mine moved onto a small rock and I was able to just pluck out the entire rock. Catch your fish in the evening/night when they're sleeping. Good luck. Link to comment
Brownbearhair Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 Now have two clowns tired the video and picture and chasing them to the bta. So far no luck, the bta has also made its home where the clowns have no no interest in being. Although yesterday I removed a govt that was raising havoc and now they roam the whole tank happily and playfully Link to comment
Ibuyen Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 my clowns live in a barnacle... Link to comment
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