Am I wrong to want my clown to host?

[vresor]

I have 72 watts of PC lighting over my 14 gallon tank, so instead of a bubble tip anemone, I have a torch "for" my Ocellarus clown. I realize it's not a native host, but I was optimistic. Is it wrong of me to try exchanging the Ocellarus for a Percula or any other clown in hopes of getting one that will host in the torch?

 

[noboddi]

A friend of mine had a BTA in her tank and put in some clowns to host in it. After a while she gave up that they ever would. 5 or 6 months later the clowns started to host. Clowns have their own agenda.

And some never host.

 

[vresor]

Mine will occasionally run for the torch's tentacles if startled, but never "hosts" in it like clowns seem to do naturally.

 

[tufacody]

As long as your clowns are healthy, I see no reason why you can't exchange them in hopes of finding some that will host in something other than an anemone. Your problems aren't ethical, its simply whether the LFS will allow it and whether you will ever find them. With that said, I personally feel strong ownership obligations towards any animal I put in my tank, and I tend to improve the tank to their liking rather than the animals to my liking - but that's just me.

 

[dsoz]

I had my false percs for almost two years before the figured out to host my frogspawn. I tried all the suggestions. Feeding into the tentacles, pics of clowns near the FS, etc. Nothing.

Then one day I noticed that the smaller one always slept in the same lower corner of the tank. One day I put a single head of FS in that corner, and within two weeks the smaller clown was hosting that color of FS in my tank. After a nother couple of weeks, the other one joined it. After another couple of weeks, they were hosting almost any color of FS that is in there (I have probably 8 or 9 different color variations of FS and hammer, with a total of over 50 heads).

Don't give up on them. They just may take a little while.

dsoz