Clown hosts nothing

[beefus]

I purchased a single young false clown about 4 months ago, he appears very healthy, is eating often. The clown shares a 14g biocube with a YWG and pistol shrimp. The fish is rather boring and does not attempt to host anything, he pretty much swims in place most of the time however it is in the back of the tank.

 

I think I have enough things he could host if chose however it appears he is not interested in anything other than eating and treading water. I'm curious if I got him a partner if he would be more interesting and if he is too old to pair with another clown. He is ~2.5 long. Thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance,

B

[Lalani]

She would probably become more active with another occ. clown, but make sure to buy one that is smaller as this one has probably become a female by now.

[Coastie]

ya they are funny when there are two! I'd get a much smaller occ and pair em up.

[Gromit1710]

I had a true perc for 3 years in an 8 gal BC, it chose to host the hydror deflector.

 

Clowns are weird. It's their weirdness that makes them clowns. You can't predict or force them to host anything. If you want your clown to interact with something.. stick your hand in to clean the tank and play the " I'm gonna bite you " game with it!

[GROSSR]

I had clowns for 10 years. I was never able to get pairs to lay eggs. I had an carpet anemone and it hosted in the frogspawn. I got a bubble tip at one time and it never hosted in anything. Get Wilkersons book of Clownfish and read about how wonderful and unique this fish can be. Yes some come to glass and say Hey feed me, others hide. I don't know why some deviate from their "stereotype", they just do. I just saw a surge video and the clown would ride the surge wave, totally cool to watch. I had clowns that avoided the power heads because the flow was too much.

 

My though is don't worry about it. He is eating and is healthy, that is important. Read the book, understand the fish and don't be surprise if you get another clown.

[Euphyllia]

Say Ocellaris instead of false clown. It saves confusion.

 

You could try putting in a friend for him, but there's no guarentee it will work. After I got rid of my BTA, it took my spawning pair of Black Ocellaris like 6 months until they started to even go near the frogspawn, but it still doesn't fully host them. On the other hand, my pair of SA Fancy Ocellaris will take any coral you offer them as a host. The male took a 1" frag of candy cane coral and the female took a 5" giant unidentified mushroom. Anywho, our clown is most likely a female since it's been by itself for four months. You must follow these rules...

 

1. Pick the smallest clown from a large group of young clowns that are smaller than your current one. This will ensure they will pair, because you don't want two females or a giant male and your tiny female.

2. If you want them to be hosted, the clown you pick will need to be at least anemone trained, but it would be even better if it is coral trained.

 

Also, if you want another clown I would get rid of the of the YWG because there would be too many fish in the tank. If you don't want to do that, then get something like a Frogspawn and see if your clown will take that.

[beefus]

All good info, thank you. Anyone know if a frog spawn will do ok with the stock BC lighting?

[brandonenox]

All good info, thank you. Anyone know if a frog spawn will do ok with the stock BC lighting?

I have one under my biocube 14 it has the stock lighting near the top and it does great

[Euphyllia]

All good info, thank you. Anyone know if a frog spawn will do ok with the stock BC lighting?

 

I've kept a couple successfully in my BioCube 14 under the stock lighting. I place mine higher up, but I had one that was at the bottom of the tank and it retained its color. I've found that the higher you place them, the more colorful they are, the bigger they open, the more they grow, and the happier they are. I have a two-head-frag of Frogspawn in my RSM 130 about 8" from the light and it's grown about ten new tiny head over the past six months. That's the fastest growth I've ever seen on any of my Euphyllias.

[OClownsandNanos]

I've had my tank bred ocellaris clowns for about 11 months and they don't host much of anything either. They definitely move around the tank and settle in "favorite" spots every few weeks but the only coral I've ever seen them hang out by and rub against has been my aussie maze which is really strange as it's pretty flat, sitting directly on the sand bed. Only the male seemed to rub against it. It certainly does not look anemone-like. Only other thing I've seen that looks close to a host is my magfloat. The clowns are fun together though -- very friendly and not timid at all, especially at feeding time -- and I love to watch them wiggle at each other.

[nanoty]

I've had two clowns host in my tanks. The first one was my first SW tank which I got from my wife's aunt, 11g tank with a BTA and maroon clown lol. It hosted the crap out of the BTA and bit the shiznit out of me when my hand was in the tank.

 

The other was in my 90g. It had a condy anemone when the previous owner had it and a perc that never hosted either. Right after the move and setup it took right to the anemone, I assumed because it was nervous from the move and new scape. Other than those two "freaks" I haven't had any of the 6-8 clowns I've own host anything. There is plenty to host as well and I even have an anemone now that they never look at. Clownfish are just odd, that's all I can say.

 

ib4 "sweet story bro"

[eddiecorrea]

My clowns host my Feather Dusters. Not sure why but they WILL NOT host a anemone. And the feather dusters do not close at all when a clown is swimming face down into it hahaha.

[Euphyllia]

My clowns host my Feather Dusters. Not sure why but they WILL NOT host a anemone. And the feather dusters do not close at all when a clown is swimming face down into it hahaha.

 

Odd... my clowns ripped both of my feather dusters to shreds.

[eddiecorrea]

Odd... my clowns ripped both of my feather dusters to shreds.

 

haha. My clowns are "special". They like to host the feather dusters and "kiss" my Yellow Watchman Goby. haha. Or they ride the current of the MP10. Swimmmmmmm, floatttttt, swimmmmmmm, floattttt, repeat all day long. hahaha

[beefus]

Trying to find a good solution here since space is limited and I think it will be hard to remove the YWG and Tiger, I might try to re-home him and get something that will thrive in solitary and work on keeping my copedpop population under control. Can I have a SixLine wrasse or a green mandarin goby in place of the false perc?

 

Will it be difficult to find him a new home now that he is likely a she?

 

Thanks,

B

[matt frizz]

Good luck with the frogspawn if you go that way. I have a huge torch and my clowns won't touch it (they've been around the same one for almost 2 years now). I just bought a BTA and I can see some black burn spots on them after a week or so. So obviously when I'm not looking they are trying to host it.

 

They are ocellaris as well.

 

EDIT: good luck on trying to get out the YWG, I've been trying to snag mine for months now. Impossible task.

[Telekinesis]

I'm hoping my clown will host my new rose, but I'm not betting on it. Thinking about adding either another clown or a mated pair down the road to see if they'll host it.

[ColorMeBlue]

My brother's clown pair weren't all that warm to his bubble tip anemone and instead decided that the constantly growing mass of caulerpa that appeared in his tank is *the* thing to hang out in, go figure.

[GokesReef]

A guy who lives near me has a very large frogspawn colony that hosts a pair of clown.. just tossin that in

[faub63]

My Occ. clown has decided to forgo the frogspawn and instead opt for a mushroom. It rarely ventures off the shroom except during feeding time, and then it grabs the food and takes it back home. Not ideal (from a humans point of view) but is nontheless entertaining to watch.