A new anemone host clown method?

[Brejams76]

First time poster, long time reader. Tank is 15gal Flex, 10 months old. A few lps  and softies, as well as a gbta. I have an established pair of frostbite clowns that are almost that old- been in my tank about 8 months. Getting full sized. Anyway I had a more juvenile (and smaller) in a breeding box in the top of this aquarium while I was doing a deep clean of the little guy’s rear filtration sump in his own tank, when he got out of the breeding box and swam (1st) towards my pair of clowns, consequently not welcomed, then directly to the gbta I’d added a month or so ago that my own pair mostly ignore. The little guy quickly made his way into the hosting bta and has remained there the last 4 hours. This is where it gets weird. Every time big mama from the clown pair gets near the anemone- the juvenile comes from the tentacles and  attacks, and the huge female submits, over and over with the twitchy dance. She never does this, or very seldom, with her own mate. Wth is going on here? I don’t really want to mess with tank dynamics, but this is blowing my mind. I’d love to keep the 3 of them together, but I know that isn’t ideal nor typical at all for this size tank. I was just so intrigued that I had to ask. Anyone else seen this before?

[mcarroll]

On 3/9/2023 at 6:55 PM, Brejams76 said:

when he got out of the breeding box and swam (1st) towards my pair of clowns, consequently not welcomed, then directly to the gbta I’d added a month or so ago that my own pair mostly ignore. The little guy quickly made his way into the hosting bta and has remained there the last 4 hours. This is where it gets weird. Every time big mama from the clown pair gets near the anemone- the juvenile comes from the tentacles and  attacks

Small tank; big clownfish population.  

 

🤺

 

I take it he's gonna get moved back to his own tank sooner than later?

 

 

[Brejams76]

Thanks for the reply. I wanted to update you. After about 4 days the dominant pair of frostbite clowns began ignoring his protection of the anemone. What was so interesting is that they wouldn’t dare go near it for those first few days. I guess they got stung enough… anyway long short I put the little guy back in his own tank. Right next to theirs. They stayed at the glass all day staring at each other- non aggressive- so about 5 days ago I put little Nemo back in with the big boys, and as reef god my witness, they all 3 took turns rolling in the anemone, checking each other out, but with no hyper aggressive “fast head twitch” as opposed to some normal whole body twitching. And they are all 3 now peas in a pod. Strange. 
 

So to answer your question, yes, they are all in the 15 gal, for the time being. They are all huddled around their host anemone, never venturing too far, as they would in the wild. I’m sure I’ll move the little guy out soon enough, but this seems natural enough at the moment.