Clowns Eating Tentacles Theory

[Reefvette]

After the loss of my Akinydos male i let the tank settle for a little bit then put in a gigantea.

My female took to it immediately. The other day i recieved a GORGEOUS honey brown akinydos from Blue zoo. As soon as i put him in the female approached and the clown shook and got into submissive postures. Hopefully well have some breeding behavior soon. Hes one sexy fish.

I noticed the male would stay on the outer area of the gignatea just brushing up against it. Then like a crazed beast he dove in and mad off with a tentacle. Spit it out once and swallowed.

This is the second time i have noticed this from wild caught fish. Anyone else notice this?

1st time was with the previous male when i introduced a new RBTA. When the female finally let him in he nipped a tentacle and ate it.

2nd time was with this male and him being introduced to a gigantea.

My theory - I am starting to beleive that the ingestion of the tentacles and nemocysts triggers the clowns body to produce a slime coat strong enough to be able to keep the anemone from stinging.

Anyone wanna prove me wrong or add to this

 

[Wolverine]

Re: Clowns Eating Tentacles Theory

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12623918#post12623918 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefvette
This is the second time i have noticed this from wild caught fish. Anyone else notice this?

My theory - I am starting to beleive that the ingestion of the tentacles and nemocysts triggers the clowns body to produce a slime coat strong enough to be able to keep the anemone from stinging.

It's a very common behavior in clowns; they'll also do it with LPS corals that they start swimming in. Some do believe that it is a part of their developing an immunity to the anemone stings, but it really hasn't been proven. It's really only one of many hypotheses, but it suffers from the fact that some clownfish can dive in without problems even before having tasted any tentacles.

 

[sk8rreefgeek]

My GSM bit off a tentacle from the rose a few weeks ago. I was thinking maybe the nem was closed up and small (the GSM will push into it anyway) and maybe its the clown's way of telling the nem to open back up.

When my B&W first hosted, she sucked on tentacles that first day, but I haven't seen it since. Maybe she was sucking in the anemone goodness to build up the immunity?

 

[Reefvette]

Alot of Clowns

Alot of Clowns

begin to show darker spots when they host something with a powerful sting.


What about melanistic marks on clowns that host. They are pretty much being burned by the anemone and their skin is reacting.

Does that mean they can ingest or rub against a host to let its body adjust to the slime coat.