Rich, I didn't mean to imply that just because a clown is tank raised that he necessarily is without proper instinct, just that perhaps that may be the case with mine.
FWIW, my BTA is about 6 in across and while the clowns do hang out in it a lot they also swim all over the tank for different activities (like interacting with the glass reflection clowns, joining feeding frenzies, & explaining to the little perc clown that he will not be joining them on the anemone)
I don't know how oscellaris behave in the wild, but I would think they'd get eaten if they acted this way - maybe if these were placed in the ocean they'd have a whole new set of behaviors?
When I had maroons, treating the anemones, regardless of size, as a refuge was very serious business-- you could see them "look both ways" before leaving it (or them). If they left the anemone for some short dash & return, there'd be plenty of anemone wiggling once back on it - like "Oh I'm so glad to be back, my beloved anemone!" LOL
Once during a tank upgrade I couldn't shew (sp?) the female maroon off it so I decided to move the anemone rock first instead -- she came out of the tank on the anemone! She just laid on it on her side out of the water while I moved it to the bucket & then to the new tank.
I just don't see anything even close to this with the oscellaris. Maybe they'd treat a natural host differently? Yours looks more like a natural host, BTW - nice photo!
Anyway, Rich are you saying that your oscellaris act like my maroons did? Or that your anemone is big enough that it contains the natural range of the your clowns?
Confooseld -
That's not how instincts work
From your post it's hard to be sure exactly what you're referring to.... What I was saying is that there is nothing in tank breeding of oscellaris to naturally select for survival of only fish who cling to anemones. Obviously I have not done any genetic research on clowns to determine if some are born with or without such a gene.
