Clowns abusing my S. gigantea?

D-Nak

Active member
A question for the gigantea owners out there.

My juvenile clowns (each approximately 1.5") are trying to bury themselves into my gigantea's mouth. This happens right after I feed it. Is this normal clown behavior? After the food is gone, they still try to burrow in. I'm worried that this behavior is stressing out the anemone.

I've had the anemone for 10 days now, and it exhibited the tell-tale signs of impending death -- inflating and deflating, mouth gaping, etc. My fingers are crossed that's it's on the road to recovery since it now inflates like clockwork during the day (but still deflates at night). I've been feeding it small quantities of mysis and krill, which it takes in. It's also very sticky for the most part. Today it ate a small piece of shrimp.

Should I try to remove the clowns to allow the anemone to acclimate? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
IMHO, it's never a bad idea to give an anemone time to acclimate without clowns harassing it. If that's not an option, you can try feeding your clowns more. Fat clowns are calmer clowns. They can eat a lot though. LOL
 
Agreed. I managed to pull away one of the clowns and have it in an isolation tank. I'll go back in for the other one soon. I was worried I was stressing out the nem since I was lifting the rock it was on to get the clowns, but it looks like it's doing better.

They were literally trying to torpedo their way into the nem's mouth.
 
Agreed. I managed to pull away one of the clowns and have it in an isolation tank. I'll go back in for the other one soon. I was worried I was stressing out the nem since I was lifting the rock it was on to get the clowns, but it looks like it's doing better.

They were literally trying to torpedo their way into the nem's mouth.

i saw the same when i introduced my tan gig into the tank

during first month, the bigger female tended to do so in particular the gig's mouth gaped out.

then the mouth just closed. i was worried at the beginning but then i thought it probably did good for the gig.

after a month, both the nemo and nem became much calmer.
 
i saw the same when i introduced my tan gig into the tank

during first month, the bigger female tended to do so in particular the gig's mouth gaped out.

then the mouth just closed. i was worried at the beginning but then i thought it probably did good for the gig.

after a month, both the nemo and nem became much calmer.

Thanks for the info. Makes me feel a lot better knowing that it happened to someone else and the results were good. I now have both the clowns in an isolation tank, and the nem seems a lot happier. If the mouth stops gaping for good (it's closed now), I'll think the clowns had more to do with it than the nem not being healthy.

The horror stories I've read about giganteas just melting away after the first few weeks has got me paranoid.
 
I'm resurrecting this post from the depths of the unknown - seems like my female clown has taken to the same behavior!! After a 2 week treatment/quarantine I introduced the gigantea into the display tank.

Female clown (I have a mated pair of wild percula clowns) discovered the anemone this morning and has been trying to lead the male into it all day. About 2 hours ago the female started to bury her head into the anemone's mouth (its mouth was closed nicely earlier - thumbs up on that!). Prior to that she was nibbling on the anemone's foot which got it to start moving off the upside-down plate I used in QT. While I'm happy the anemone has taken to finding a more permanent spot, I'm nervous about this behavior. D-Nak (and anyone else with this experience) did you ever introduce the clowns back into the tank with the anemone?
 
Wow, talk about an old thread! I've learned quite a bit since I posted way back 5+ years ago. The anemone I was describing ended up dying. IIRC, it was my first gigantea and was well before the proven antibiotic treatment.

I've treated over a dozen gigs, with mixed results. But what I can tell you is that every time a clown tried to "dive bomb" into the nem's mouth, the nem was sick. I've subsequently kept gigs in a separate QT tank without any fish for at least two weeks to make sure they were strong enough to go into the DT with clowns.

Fortunately, since I know the nem you're describing, I don't think the female clown is doing what I've seen happen to my gigs -- the clowns literally try to burrow their way into the nem. This NEVER happens with any of the gigs I have now.

As long as the gig's mouth is closed, or just slightly opens, and it appears that the nem has the ability to open and close its mouth on its own (versus looking loose and flacid, and not having the ability to tighten it) then I think your nem will be fine.

It's perfectly normal for the female clown to bite or suck on a gig's tentacle, or even roughly brush against it, causing the tentacles to deflate in one area. Nibbling is normal too, If you've had the pair for a while, the female may be becoming so comfortable with her new gig that she's trying to get the male to tend to a nest, which many times is under the gig's disk.
 
Just call me the Thread Necromancer. Thanks, D-Nak!

After seeing her sleeping in the gig last night like she was wrapped up in her favorite blanket and watching her tending the gig gently this morning, I feel infinitely better about the situation. The gig's mouth is puckered up like a rubber nipple right now. I'll try to grab some photos to illustrate.

Perhaps it's possible she was just trying to get the gig to move off the plate so the pair can use it as an egg site. We'll see. I guess we won't be getting our plate back any time soon - I hate to take it away from them.

Very much appreciate all the advice, D-Nak!!
 
OK, I think I may have been too "smart" for my own good. The position I'd cleared out for the gig had a crevice and the anemone has decided to bury itself deep inside. I'm guessing it's just been irritated too often by the clowns and wasn't happy with the foundation.

There's a way out the back but I'm not sure if I should just wait for it to track its way there or help things along. It'll take some major reconstruction work to do so and I'm about to head off on vaca with the fam. Has anyone else experienced a major move like this? Should I just let it do its thing?
 
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