hosting question

[ktaylor660]

I have been in the hobby for over 7 years now and have had many a clownfish/anemone pair. I lost the ones I had due to a power outage and now have another pair. We currently have a pair of black/white percula clowns and they refuse to host anything. I have tried Bubble Tips, Long tentacles, and even a Sebae. They don't even look at my hairy shrooms, Xenia, Toadstool, or Frogspawn. Is it normal for tank bred/raised clowns to have this behaivior?

 

[chiblackhawks4]

As a past clown/nem owner this was the most frustrating thing. you almost want to push them in there just so they see what theyre missing. I had some of the same difficulties I think all you can really do is wait it out and see what happens.

 

[garygb]

The reason you're having difficulty is that perculas aren't naturally hosted by the species you are providing. Natural hosts for peculas are giganteas and magnificas. Providing a natural host makes a huge difference in whether a clownfish will choose to be hosted. Some resources show crispas to be natural hosts for perculas, but I've never seen a picture of a crispa in the wild hosting a percula--it wouldn't be the first erroneous thing ever written in a book on the topic of anemones. In my experience, both ocellaris and perculas go to magnificas immediately.

As far as tank-bred vs. wild-caught, it makes no difference. The attraction to natural host species is instinctive.

 

[papania]

It took mine 3 years and my nems don't host them, my leather toadstool does.

 

[Tmoriarty]

After talking to Garygb on this topic involving my clowns I came to the same conclusion that nothing beats a natural host. I had always planned on adding magnificas to my tank and when I did make that step my clownfish were associating within 30 minutes. They were wild caught but as stated above it should make no difference, it is instinctual.

BTA's are the most common non-natural hosting anemone that people pair up there false/true percs with but the pairing is never a guarantee as you have found out already.

 

[andip3]

it can take a long time for your clowns to find your nem I have tons of nems for my clowns to choose from and they still picked a torch coral lol so just be patient eventually they will find it

 

[garygb]

I just checked in Fautin and Allen, of the skunk complex, two of three are associated with crispa, A. akallopisos is only found in magnifica and mertensii in nature. So pinks and oranges are safe bets, akallopisos may not be a sure bet.

 

[TSJSREEF]

My clowns are hosting a feather duster even with all the above offered to them in my tank.

 

[BigCountry74]

My clowns are hosting a feather duster even with all the above offered to them in my tank.

lol

yeah I have a pair hosting a bicolored condy atm....they dont call them clowns for nothing lol

/facepalm
:headwally:

 

[no694terry]

I got lazy and let some GHA grow on side glass and soon found my clown sleeping in it. Then he started hosting it and breaking peices off so my green birdsnest looks like a tacky christmas tree covered in green tinsel.

 

[ktaylor660]

That's funny no694terry...I just watched the male clown host a tuft of Hair Algae on my overflow last night that my tang hasn't ate yet.

 

[nogascans]

Same here, two hosting anemones (crispa and LTA), pair of ocellaris won't go near either, and i just recently noticed pair of orange skunks are hosting to a colt coral!
I thought about ordering or picking up a Mag, but in reading here it seems that they are a mixed bag since poor shippers and none of local Lfs carry them.

Sincerely,

David

 

[ktaylor660]

Thanks for the tips on what anemones are natural hosts. Every store around me only sells BTAs, RBTAs, and LTAs. I'll look into finding one close to me that I can pickup, versus having one shipped to me to reduce some stress on the anemone.

 

[seamonkey84]

Mine have always chose my Xenia colony, but when I introduced a rbta they took to it right away. It's all up to the clown.