Clown burrying head in carpet's mouth?

Kdocimo90

Superior Member
I just got a carpet anemone and it's been in the tank for a day... today i noticed one of my GSM clowns (The smaller one, which i think is the wild one) swimming in it.... But he also keeps slamming his head into the carpet's mouth... He also is nipping/sucking on the carpet's tentacles... what type of behavior is this? why is he doing this? is it normal?
 
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not sure why they do it, but if they start picking pieces off the mouth its not a good sign. Keep an eye on the nem, if its mouth gets big or stays open he's not too happy.
 
It is natural. I have had a couple clowns that would swim all the way into the mouth/stomach of the anemone with no ill effect on the clowns. Some anemones tolerate it OK, others do not. Keep an eye on your anemone to make sure the mouth is not being torn.

ps- I actually got an extra clarki clown while buying an anemone one time. When I put the anemone into the tank I felt something hard inside of it. Then the something moved! I massaged the anemone a little bit and out popped a clownfish. The LFS owner and I had a laugh when I brought the clown back.
 
I had a 5 inch saddle back do this to a 16 in haddoni. I started to worry about the anemone, so I separated them shortly after this behavior started. If the clown starts going all the wan inside the anemone or just getting to rough, you may need to separate them.
Here's mine inside the anemone.
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sn852518editedjo7.jpg
 
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