A guy at Petco said???

[GLino]

So i was at petco with my little brother getting some crickets for his gecko and decided i needed a laugh so i went down their saltwater section, i was looking at a pair of cleaner shrimp when i hear the manager telling a customer that clowns in the wild are not always associated with anemones and may sometimes host LPS colonies instead. Alot of what i have read and seen tells me diffrent but is there any truth to this?????

 

[ocellaris123]

There is no truth to this statement at all.

 

[ReefRescue]

This is PETCO, its free stand up comedy if you hang out in most of their locations. ask them how to mix salt and might geta better laugh.

 

[Lmecher]

After wild clownfish go through metamorphosis, they must find a host anemone with vacancy or be eaten. Clownfishs are classified as obligate symbionts, they cannot survive without this symbiosis. The advice given by employees at these pet warehouses isn't always so off the mark but from my experience this is typical.

 

[Obi-dad]

Maybe not in the wild, but my hammer coral (LPS) hosts my pair of ocellaris. They spawn underneath it every few weeks.

They definitely are not obligate symbionts in reef tanks.

 

[GLino]

yes thank u very much as i thought they must find a host anemone, that statement just bugged me is all.

 

[zooty]

I've heard of them trying to host in torches and some other similar corals in tanks but not with success (usually killed the coral).

Our's on the other hand have adopted the tank magnet since we have no anemone.

 

[RicksReefs]

I have a pair of wild percs being hosted by green star polyps and a pair of ORA naked occellaris being hosted by a colony of large Rhodactis mushrooms.

wilds may indeed try to be hosted by other types of corals, but without the anemones sting, they're munched and the anemone host trait is strengthened.