clownfish keeps getting stung by my mag?

[level65druid]

Im in week 3 now and i am loosing hope. I have a pair of black full bar saddleback clowns and a H mag. The larger female 4" is wild cought and the smaller male 1.5" is tank bred. The male haven't even looked towards the nem and the female looks like she is getting stung by the nem. She would stare at it all day and once in a while she would touch a tentacle then qucikly run to the other side of the tank and act like she got stung. I thought clownfish doesn't get stung by nems? And for a wild cought clownfish she sure is scared! Why does my clownfish keep getting stung by the nem? is there any hope? should i have gotten a percula? i really like the black saddlebacks any ideas?

 

[katarina]

Keeping in mind that I am new to this as well.... I read somewhere that they do get stung by the Nem. They get stung until they build up a mucous coating and if they are away from the anemone for an extended period of time the mucous coating has to build back up again.

 

[katarina]

Also, my clownfish won't even look at my LTA, instead they are hosted by a chunk of live rock.

 

[level65druid]

do you know which anemone hosts the black saddleback clowns in the wild? maybe that has something to do with it?

 

[Toddrtrex]

A. polymnus are naturally hosted by S. Haddoni and H. Crispa

Here is mine in my S. Haddoni.

 

[level65druid]

I am super jealous. That is a nice looking nem and the clown looks just like mine. Was yours a wild cought? how long did it take yours to go in the nem? so is my combo of clown and nem hopeless?

 

[Toddrtrex]

Thanks.

No, the clown was tank breed. It took about 5 minutes for the clown to be hosted by the S. Haddoni.

I have never kept Mags, let alone your combo, but I wouldn't say it is hopeless.

 

[greech]

No expert either but many clowns are hosted by nems that are not their natural hosts. It may be that your saddles require a little longer to acclimate to the mag. At least your female is showing interest. You may start to see the female sucking on or biting off tentacles of the nem to further acclimate herself.

 

[garygb]

Interesting that the saddleback is stung. On a few occasions I've observed ocellaris and perculas (captive bred) go immediately to H. mags and not appear to be phased. In fact I just observed this yesterday. I added a true perc to my tank with mags in it and immediately, less than one minute, the perc went into one of the mags. This mag stings me mercilessly if I happen to touch it with the back of my hand or the inside of my forearm, i.e., thin skin. All of them are very sticky. Years ago this same behavior occurred when I introduced an ocellaris to the same mags. Since saddlebacks aren't natural symbionts with mags, perhaps explains the behavior you're seeing.