hosting?

[solitude127]

Is there a way to ensure that my clown fish will host my anemone? I have a pair of naked clown fish for about 2 months and this past week, I purchased a BTA. I was wondering if there was anything I can do to ensure that the clownfish will host the anemone. Thanks

 

[clowns101]

there is no way to ensure that the clowns are going to host anything. not all clowns will host but most will. the clowns will have to become immune to the sting of the anemone. they have to create a love with the anemone before any thing will happen like hosting. but with naked clowns who are tank rasied and are not born with anemone by their side will take longer to host such as mine. my clowns are tank rasied and took them a little longer to host 2 weeks to be exact. some will take longer to host. like i said they are not born with anemone by their side unlike wild caught clowns who are born with one by their side.

 

[aaronpentz]

My clowns took almost 9 months to host in my RBTA. they also took almost 6 months to host the 20 inch carpet I had before i downsized. There is really no way to force it or to guess how long. I was so frustrated that I had actually lined up the sale of my RBTA to try a different type of anemone then when I got home there they were swimming in it like they have been there since day one.

 

[garygb]

Clownfish hatch at night in the ocean. After they hatch they float in the plankton for a week or more, then they settle into an anemone after a "metamorphosis" occurs. The instinct to go to an anemone is innate and present in the fish whether the clown was wild-caught or tank-bred. Wild caught anemones were collected from an anemone, so have already become accustomed to anemones, and so it might take a little longer for tank-bred fish to go to an anemone, but not necessarily.

 

[solitude127]

Thanks all for the info. I'll just have to be patient.

 

[phender]

It is not a function of being wild-caught or tank raised. Ocellaris clowns (naked clowns are ocellaris) just don't alway recognize BTAs as a host anemone. Nearly all the "My clownfish won't go in the anemone" threads on this list involve WC/TR ocellaris clowns and BTAs. If you are patient they usually figure it out eventually.

I had a wild-caught pair of ocellaris that lived with a large BTA in a small tank for over a year before they accepted it as their host.