Anyone else frustrated with their clowns?

[Joeb1983]

Picture this:

Beautiful flowing torches, plump hammers, vivacious frogspawns, abundant duncans, giant hairy shrooms and rose bubble-tips, etc... swaying back and forth with the current as to gesture a friendly invitation saying come on in... :thumbsup:

That vibrant orange of your clownfish popping off in contrast to that that neon green torch, deep purple shroom or metallic green/red nem centered in the middle of your own little slice of the ocean right in your home.

Absolutely perfect for your colorful standard and unique patterned designer clowns to call home. Right?.. :dance:



Now snap back to reality and know that all of your clowns (5 pairs/5 tanks) ignore every single thing about what was just mentioned above... :sad2:



Instead the decide to host ugly, stationary pieces of black plastic... Return, overflow box, heater, temp probe, etc... in the far upper back corners of your tanks. Blows my mind.

Now, I understand its up to them and with the majority of them being tank bred and raised may not "know" what the "right" thing to host actually is, but dang! :facepalm:

Don't get me wrong; I love each and every one of them, but I don't even want to think about how much time and money have been invested over the years, but it be nice if they would even host something alive for a change.

Years ago I had a single clown out of a pair host a flower pot. She as they say "loved" it so much she killed it... She hasn't hosted anything else besides the overflow box since...

I've tried giving it time, pictures and iPad videos of hosting clowns on the glass and "forced" hosting. (breeder box w/nem & clowns) and enticing them with a thick juicy chunk of food when feeding the nems... No dice!

Anyone else in the same boat and as frustrated as me?

 

[ThRoewer]

My only frustration so far is that they don't eat enough and not lay eggs yet. Otherwise the do exactly what I expect from them: play around in their anemones

They are called Anemonefish for a reason! (btw: Clownfish = A. percula)
Give them the right anemone and they will behave like they should.

 

[Joeb1983]

I've tried a Ritteri nem as well with no hosting luck. I ended up trading it for a skimmer as it was getting pretty large.

I have never tried a carpet as I heard they are pretty aggressive and get rather large.

I know bubble tips are categorized as potential host nem and many have success...

My friends clowns host bubble tips and if not a nem they host LPS's...

So far I have 2 bonded pairs that mate and lay eggs every few weeks. The other 3 are "paired" but are still too young I believe to lay.

Extreme Davincis
Phantoms (mating)
Wide bar mocha gladiators
Platinums
Percs (mating)

It took me 2 years for my first pair to mate. They are very territorial!

I recently picked up a juvenile maroon for my office tank. He has a bubble tip as well... we will see...

 

[Coelli]

On the topic of the "forced" bonding - I have a pair of tank-raised "designer" ocellaris. On the advice of their breeder I put them in an acclimation box with a BTA. They ignored it for days and even seemed afraid of it. Eventually, just like I tossed my kid into the deep end at age 5*, I decided tough love was in order and put my hand in the box and scared them into the BTA. The little fishy light bulb went off and they've been paired with it since that day, moving right to it when I moved the nem out of the box and then released them near it a couple of weeks later. So maybe that's a thought. It was like they didn't realize what it was until they were in it. The initial discovery was pretty adorable though.


*I promise, there was someone there to catch him, he swam like a fish from that day forward, and 22 years later he still doesn't hold it against me!

 

[ThRoewer]

I would always argue against forced bonding of wild clowns with unnatural hosts.
Though captive bred clowns may sometimes need a little force for their own good. But also in this case it should be a natural host.

 

[Joeb1983]

I hear ya. Each tank has its own 1/4" round acrylic rod (cut to depth) I use to break up fights, flip snails and frags back over, level sand, pretty much everything I can do without getting the the grabber as I try to keeps my hands/arms out as much as possible.

Anyways, with one pair I tried using that to coax them into/towards a BTA. Sometimes they swim up to it and brush against it, but that's about it and right back to the power head.

I know they are just fish, but they all have different personalities.

One pair (true percs) only leaves the side of the overflow box during feeding or to clean an area close by to lay eggs. They are by far the most aggressive and territorial.

Another (wide bars) hides behind a huge center column of live rock all day and comes out when I tap on the stand. (feeding time ritual I do for some reason, but all fish come running like its a dinner bell) They are two peas in a pod and are inseparable.

My extremes (my personal favorite) venture the tank for short periods, but always return to the MP10's wet side...

My platinum's hang out all day by the left side return. Most boring out of the bunch if you ask me... They look cool though! Haha!

And last are my phantoms. The female is the largest clown I have @ ~4". That pair open water swims all day long, back and forth, up and down (45 gallon standard) and sleeps in the back left corner behind a rock. They have a nice pocket dug out and is where they lay eggs as well.

I'm on a rock flower nem kick right now, (the color variations are incredible and they pretty much stay put) they pay them no mind either (i didn't expect them to)

 

[BoDiddley]

mine sit in the corner of the tank digging a hole in the sand...drives me insane

 

[Fishmas]

My lfs has large tank full of anemones and youg clowns. They all pair up and pick a home. They sell them as a three piece set. Thats where i will buy

Great idea if you run lfs. You can charge premium for a clownfish "kit"

 

[thelawnwrangler]

My lfs has large tank full of anemones and youg clowns. They all pair up and pick a home. They sell them as a three piece set. Thats where i will buy

Great idea if you run lfs. You can charge premium for a clownfish "kit"

Clifton, NJ?

Bc mine does it too, and it looks awesome

 

[Reef Ruler]

mine sit in the corner of the tank digging a hole in the sand...drives me insane

My female Perc does the same thing. The male hangs out a few inches above her most of the time. But she is always trying to dig to the bottom of my sand. Gets to be quite annoying.

 

[Joeb1983]

Yeah my phantoms have a nice sized hole dug in the back left corner of the tank behind the live-rock. Its where they sleep and lay eggs.

They maintain it on the regular and throw sand everywhere...

Other than that the openly swim all over the tank and pay no mind to anything else.

 

[Zane24]

My clowns took 6 months with no interest then it was like a light bulb went off. Now they test out any new coral additions. They both love the RBTA, now split into 2. The male sleeps in my branching torch, but also plays in another torch, my hammer, and both RBTAs.

 

[Zane24]

Here's the male

 

[manilaboy1vic]

my two clowns prefer my open brain and now hitting up the scoly near the open brain.. perfectly good healthy bta for the taking.. was thinking of trapping them and getting a yellow striped maroon.

 

[Waters40]

My pair completely ignore my BTA along with all of my LPS. I gave up hope lol.

 

[Joeb1983]

On the topic of being frustrated on my own thread...

This morning I get into my office and noticed someone missing...

My $100 extreme Davinci male.

Found him on the floor dried up like beef jerky.