help with sebae and tomatoe clown

[kware]

My Tomatoe clown keeps digging and moving the crushed coral out from around my sebae anemone. After a few days, either the clown flips the anemone over or the anemone flips itself over I've never seen it happen. I aventually flip the anemone over myself and everything is good for a while then it happens again. Both the anemone and the clown look nice and healthy. Should I just leave everything alone? What should I do?
thanks!

 

[garygb]

I would separate the two. How large is the anemone and how long is the clown?

 

[kware]

the anemone is abouth 4 and a half inches wide and the clown is about 2 and a half inches.

 

[garygb]

Not a great ratio, anemone should be at least 3 times (in the case of H. crispa) the length of the clown. Plus tomato clowns aren't the gentlest of the clown species. A percula would be not only a natural symbiont, but also a more gentle one.

 

[kware]

I have a percula and he doesn't go near it. He wasn't even interested before the tomatoe discovered it. Now the tomatoe guards it. Thanks garygb got anymore ideas?

 

[garygb]

You definitely will want to separate the two. Some people put a "cage" around the anemone, like a little plastic crate that strawberries come in. It would have to be separated until the anemone is several inches larger, so that isn't likely a great solution. I would probably remove the frenatus myself. If the anemone is being displaced from its location on a regular basis (you said every few days), it will most likely succomb at some point--pretty stressful being flipped over by the clown and then having to re-attach.

 

[kware]

crap! I was afraid you'd say that? I don't have alot of light and I thought the clown was helpful to the anemone.

 

[garygb]

lol. Sorry, I know you don't want to separate, but it really might be the best thing in this case. Not sure how a clown and low light figure together, what are your thoughts on that? What kind of lighting do you have? How far is the anemone from the lights approximately?

 

[kware]

I only have about 3 watts per gallon. (3.33) I have a standard 90 gallon tank, with a coralife 260 watt pc. 2 65 watt actinic and 2 65 watt 10k. And a standard T12 40 watt 20K flourescent. The anemone is on the bottom in the shade of liverock (believe it or not it looks healthy I don't know why) When I bought it I thought it was a bubble tip. Now the anemone is completely flipped over, should I flip it back?

 

[garygb]

I've heard of anemones doing well in lighting that we normally would consider too low, so whatever works. The flipping over on a regular basis isn't normal. If the clown is doing that, then it needs to be separated from the anemone. I would also wonder if the anemone is completely healthy, pics?

 

[kware]

I'll try with the pics I haven't figured it out yet, it alwayse tells me the file size is too big?