CLowns in anemone's mouth?

[latinbeachboy10]

I just bought a blue carpet from a fellow reefer (been captive for over 2 yrs) and I paired him up with my pair of balck saddleback clowns.

Well this morning when I woke up, I prepared him a siverside. I went to the tank to feed him and out came a clown from his mouth!! Then out came the other!!! Is this normal?!?! Do some clowns sleep inside their host?

I have several different species of clowns with differnt hosts and I havent seen this before.

 

[GSMguy]

what its mouth was so wide open a saddleback or two were in its mouth that is not good i would like to see a picture maybee it was just folded up on them ive never seen clowns in a mouth but my clowns get as close as they can to the center of the nem

 

[latinbeachboy10]

The wierd thing is that the mouth is not gaping at all. I have been watching them and I saw one go in agian. The mouth is closed, but the clown wiggles inside.

I'm wondering if I should take the clowns out?

 

[GSMguy]

dude this is way beyond my abilitys that is crazy especially since carpets are notorious for eating your fish i wish a nem expert would get in on this discusion

 

[latinbeachboy10]

Yeah, I have had nems for a long time and haven't seen it before. I hope someone with more experience than us will chime in

 

[phender]

It is not unusual at all for clowns(especially saddleback and clarkis) to hide inside the anemone's mouth. I had a true sebae clown that used to do it to its haddoni carpet host. It did it a lot when they were first put together, but the behavior stopped in a couple of weeks. They lived together for over 7 years after that.
It is probably not great for the carpet, but hopefully it won't go on much longer.

On a humorous note: I bought a sebae anemone (H. crispa) one time. When I got it home I felt a solid mass in its body when taking it out of the bag. Once I got it in the water, a little clarki clown swam out. Unfortunately, I didn't have any use for the little clown so I took it back to the LFS. They were a little surprized.

 

[GSMguy]

thats too cool

 

[Doni]

I would remove the clowns. Personal experience has proven that polymnus clowns are very, very rough on their host anemones.

I had a blue carpet anemone for over 1.5 yrs that was thriving and had grown very large. I added a pair of black polymnus clowns that would hide inside the anemone's mouth. The mouth was tight with no gapping at all.... they would squeeze in..sometimes both would go in and totally disappear! After a few weeks, the anemone began shrinking and stopped eating; a few weeks later I removed the clowns but the anemone never recovered I think they did some type of internal damage?

 

[Phoric]

LOL I've never heard of this before, thats really strange. I can't imagine that being very healthy for the anemone.

 

[latinbeachboy10]

I will leave the clowns in for a week and see if it stops. If not, I will take them out because I don't want to loose a 12" blue haddoni.
thanks for the replies guys!

 

[GSMguy]

if i know clowns i would bet that they wont stop that keep us updated