Neither of my clownfish seem to want to host my anemone? Any tips?

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

I have a pair of clownfish, one is an orange Percula clown, and the other is a Gold Nugget Maroon Clownfish which is smaller. I have an anemone in the tank, and they can clearly see it. It’s not a very big anemone, so does it have to be so big for clowns to host it? Any tips on what I could do?

[Menidia]

What species of anemone/clowns? Not all anemones are hosts, for example common Atlantic species are not host anemones. 

 

Captive bred clowns may never use an anemone, and either remain host less or use some weird item in the tank. 

 

Time should tell, if the anemone is of an appropriate species. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

17 minutes ago, Menidia said:

What species of anemone/clowns? Not all anemones are hosts, for example common Atlantic species are not host anemones. 

 

Captive bred clowns may never use an anemone, and either remain host less or use some weird item in the tank. 

 

Time should tell, if the anemone is of an appropriate species. 

I have a BTA, and my gold nugget Maroon clown is from Ora, but my Percula is from my LFS.

I’ll post a pic of the nem. It may also just be too small.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

It’s maybe only 2 inches in width, and both of my clowns are about the same size

[WV Reefer]

3 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

It’s maybe only 2 inches in width, and both of my clowns are about the same size

It’s really hit or miss...... doesn’t really matter the size for the clowns, they’ll host a powerhead if they so choose.  Just be patient. 

[lhernandez86]

 

 

Agree with WV Reefer....it will happen just wait.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

46 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

It’s really hit or miss...... doesn’t really matter the size for the clowns, they’ll host a powerhead if they so choose.  Just be patient. 

Ok thank you, I’ll just wait, I tried to tape a picture of a clown hosting an anemone on the glass, but the only thing that it seemed to do was make my clowns angry, they kept trying to attack the glass where the picture was.

[WV Reefer]

1 minute ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

Ok thank you, I’ll just wait, I tried to tape a picture of a clown hosting an anemone on the glass, but the only thing that it seemed to do was make my clowns angry, they kept trying to attack the glass where the picture was.

One day out of the blue my clown hopped in my Goniopora........They’ll find something if they want something. 🙂

[lhernandez86]

 

Do you have anything else in the tank frogspawn? Hammer? It may take to those as well

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

16 minutes ago, Lhernandez8615 said:

 

Do you have anything else in the tank frogspawn? Hammer? It may take to those as well

The only other thing that I have is a pocillopora coral, I think that’s how you spell it. It’s not very big tho.

[lhernandez86]

Ok just curious... well keep us posted!

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

I was just about to buy a hammer coral, I like the lime colored ones. I was gonna order one from LiveAquaria, any tips on those? My water quality is really good almost near perfect.

36 minutes ago, Lhernandez8615 said:

Ok just curious... well keep us posted!

Thank you for all your help

[Mkus]

My clown is 11 YO and he lives in my rock with hairy mushrooms I have hammer frogspawn 3 rock flowers and two mini red carpets? go figure?

[lhernandez86]

One thing to poinmt out I've learned is if you REALLY want one that is already hosting you could go hand pick it from a LFS. Typically more expensive than online BUT you atleast get what your looking for. I went to a few last week and from some new shipment they have a hand full that immediately took to the anemones. Just a thought...

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

21 hours ago, lhernandez86 said:

One thing to poinmt out I've learned is if you REALLY want one that is already hosting you could go hand pick it from a LFS. Typically more expensive than online BUT you atleast get what your looking for. I went to a few last week and from some new shipment they have a hand full that immediately took to the anemones. Just a thought...

I already have 2 clowns in my 45 gallon, and I don’t really want to risk adding anymore. It’s been about 2 weeks and still no change, hopefully they will go to it in time. I’ve been watching my tank, and I’ve seen my small gold nugget Maroon clown go over to the nem and kind of rub against it, but it’s more like he is nipping at it. It’s like there’s food in the nem, and he’s trying it.

At least he knows it’s there.

[Tamberav]

On 1/15/2019 at 9:12 AM, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

I already have 2 clowns in my 45 gallon, and I don’t really want to risk adding anymore. It’s been about 2 weeks and still no change, hopefully they will go to it in time. I’ve been watching my tank, and I’ve seen my small gold nugget Maroon clown go over to the nem and kind of rub against it, but it’s more like he is nipping at it. It’s like there’s food in the nem, and he’s trying it.

At least he knows it’s there.

 All my clowns eventually moved into a nem or hammer coral but some took awhile....6 months one time for a pair to finally...just hop in.

 

Some clowns (especially maroons) can be rough on nems and kill small ones so the nem having some time to grow isn't a bad thing.

 

[richnyc]

All of mine have always hosted but I always put the anemone and the clownfish in a peacemaker until they hosted.  And once they hosted kept them there for a few days extra

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

2 hours ago, richnyc said:

All of mine have always hosted but I always put the anemone and the clownfish in a peacemaker until they hosted.  And once they hosted kept them there for a few days extra

I heard that really stresses them out tho

[Rob22]

I have a pair of black ice clowns in my 90 gallon that I got when they were juveniles, both tank bred. They showed no interest in hosting anything for over a year and the male one day decided to host on a new goniopora I had just bought. He loved it to death and then moved to a derassa clam. Over the next few months I added a green bubble tip, a red bubble tip and a rainbow bubble tip. The female took to the rainbow and the male finally started to leave the clam alone and went to the red. The male is odd in the fact he will only take to something in the direct center of the tank. When I moved the Goni to the side he never looked at it again but the damage was done. He does play in the rainbow with the female in the day time but she kicks him out at night and he retires to his red. Neither of them ever looked at the green bubble tip as a possible host. A bubble tip tip is not a natural host to a perc, but they are to a maroon.

 

        I think your biggest issue is going to be when they start to sexually mature. The maroon clowns are monsters and it will choose to be the dominant fish. Even though it’s smaller now, it will turn female and unfortunately likely beat the perc to death. Keep a close eye on them as I have never seen the two species pair up. There have been some hybrids of maroon clowns a few years back from ORA, but even they state that it was not from bonded pairs and was cross fertilization from two tanks on the same filtration system.  Occelaris and perculas can pair and there are different hybrids of them.  

 

          Maroons will attack a buzz saw. I have had two over the years. One got to 6” and was in a 65 with a Mombasa lion. They each kept to their own side of the tank. The other was about 4.5” and was in with two dwarf lions. When he went into the tank he chased the lions away from a cave he claimed. 

 

       Unfortunately for maroons, they can also be hard to pair when they get bigger. A lot of times an established female will kill any males you add. I talked a lot to my lfs who does maintenance on tanks and they see it all the time, especially with the lightning maroons. They have gotten in three sets of “bonded pairs” from their distributors and after arriving in the store the females kill the males. They stopped ordering them as pairs because of this. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

On 1/18/2019 at 10:09 AM, Rob22 said:

I have a pair of black ice clowns in my 90 gallon that I got when they were juveniles, both tank bred. They showed no interest in hosting anything for over a year and the male one day decided to host on a new goniopora I had just bought. He loved it to death and then moved to a derassa clam. Over the next few months I added a green bubble tip, a red bubble tip and a rainbow bubble tip. The female took to the rainbow and the male finally started to leave the clam alone and went to the red. The male is odd in the fact he will only take to something in the direct center of the tank. When I moved the Goni to the side he never looked at it again but the damage was done. He does play in the rainbow with the female in the day time but she kicks him out at night and he retires to his red. Neither of them ever looked at the green bubble tip as a possible host. A bubble tip tip is not a natural host to a perc, but they are to a maroon.

 

        I think your biggest issue is going to be when they start to sexually mature. The maroon clowns are monsters and it will choose to be the dominant fish. Even though it’s smaller now, it will turn female and unfortunately likely beat the perc to death. Keep a close eye on them as I have never seen the two species pair up. There have been some hybrids of maroon clowns a few years back from ORA, but even they state that it was not from bonded pairs and was cross fertilization from two tanks on the same filtration system.  Occelaris and perculas can pair and there are different hybrids of them.  

 

          Maroons will attack a buzz saw. I have had two over the years. One got to 6” and was in a 65 with a Mombasa lion. They each kept to their own side of the tank. The other was about 4.5” and was in with two dwarf lions. When he went into the tank he chased the lions away from a cave he claimed. 

 

       Unfortunately for maroons, they can also be hard to pair when they get bigger. A lot of times an established female will kill any males you add. I talked a lot to my lfs who does maintenance on tanks and they see it all the time, especially with the lightning maroons. They have gotten in three sets of “bonded pairs” from their distributors and after arriving in the store the females kill the males. They stopped ordering them as pairs because of this. 

Wow... thanks for the info, I’m kinda scared now, I’m gonna have to keep a good eye on them

[Tamberav]

On 1/18/2019 at 9:09 AM, Rob22 said:

I have a pair of black ice clowns in my 90 gallon that I got when they were juveniles, both tank bred. They showed no interest in hosting anything for over a year and the male one day decided to host on a new goniopora I had just bought. He loved it to death and then moved to a derassa clam. Over the next few months I added a green bubble tip, a red bubble tip and a rainbow bubble tip. The female took to the rainbow and the male finally started to leave the clam alone and went to the red. The male is odd in the fact he will only take to something in the direct center of the tank. When I moved the Goni to the side he never looked at it again but the damage was done. He does play in the rainbow with the female in the day time but she kicks him out at night and he retires to his red. Neither of them ever looked at the green bubble tip as a possible host. A bubble tip tip is not a natural host to a perc, but they are to a maroon.

 

        I think your biggest issue is going to be when they start to sexually mature. The maroon clowns are monsters and it will choose to be the dominant fish. Even though it’s smaller now, it will turn female and unfortunately likely beat the perc to death. Keep a close eye on them as I have never seen the two species pair up. There have been some hybrids of maroon clowns a few years back from ORA, but even they state that it was not from bonded pairs and was cross fertilization from two tanks on the same filtration system.  Occelaris and perculas can pair and there are different hybrids of them.  

 

          Maroons will attack a buzz saw. I have had two over the years. One got to 6” and was in a 65 with a Mombasa lion. They each kept to their own side of the tank. The other was about 4.5” and was in with two dwarf lions. When he went into the tank he chased the lions away from a cave he claimed. 

 

       Unfortunately for maroons, they can also be hard to pair when they get bigger. A lot of times an established female will kill any males you add. I talked a lot to my lfs who does maintenance on tanks and they see it all the time, especially with the lightning maroons. They have gotten in three sets of “bonded pairs” from their distributors and after arriving in the store the females kill the males. They stopped ordering them as pairs because of this. 

I am going off topic...but Mai tai clowns are a cross with a bonded pair and the female being a perc but that is the only personal pair I know of. There is an old thread on here somewhere with pics of them and their eggs and offspring. 

 

Obviously it is unusual and my guess is that female perc is large and mean to keep the maroon a male.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

On 1/20/2019 at 5:16 AM, Tamberav said:

I am going off topic...but Mai tai clowns are a cross with a bonded pair and the female being a perc but that is the only personal pair I know of. There is an old thread on here somewhere with pics of them and their eggs and offspring. 

 

Obviously it is unusual and my guess is that female perc is large and mean to keep the maroon a male.

I’m just gonna hope I get lucky😂

[mcarroll]

On 1/10/2019 at 10:41 AM, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

I have a pair of clownfish, one is an orange Percula clown, and the other is a Gold Nugget Maroon Clownfish which is smaller. I have an anemone in the tank, and they can clearly see it. It’s not a very big anemone, so does it have to be so big for clowns to host it? Any tips on what I could do?

Clowns will "host" on the side of a rock if you have patience and let them do what they want.....they have no standards.  :-)

 

I think it's technically the anemone or rock or whatever that's doing the hosting of the clowns though....clowns could host a parasite, but too small to host an anemone.  :-)  :-)

[pgrVII]

Also,you dont want them clowns in that anemone yet,itll get beat up on given their size. Feed that thing like 1x week.

[Friendly]

I'm at work...so didn't read all the posts, but I recall a couple years back someone posted how their fish weren't hosting, so put up a video of some clownfish hosting anemone on their table screen and left it to play beside their tank...and then their fish got a clue and started to host.  😄