How to get my clowns to host.

[kegogut]

I have two snowflake clowns that Ive had for about a month or so.

I also have a few nems like a rbta,a haddons I think( I need to get a pick on here to get a sure ID.) and a couple other things they could host if they wanted. (Torch,hammer,frogspawns,etc)

What can I do to get them to start hosting or do I just have to wait until they do it on their own?

Thanks for info!

 

[rssjsb]

There are a variety of tricks people use to speed the process up. They range from really, really bad (trapping the clowns in a confined space with the anemone) to goofy (taping a picture of an anemone with clowns in it to the side of the tank). The first is dangerous, the last is harmless, but any observed effect is likely a coincidence (I have no idea if fish eyes/brains can even perceive two-dimensional images that way).

The best approach is simply to wait. Neither BTA nor Haddoni is a natural host for your clowns. They may associate with the anemone eventually, but it can take quite a while. My occellaris took a year before they figured it out and associated with their BTA, but I think that's longer than usual.

I eventually just stopped thinking about it and one morning they were in there. Nice surprise!

 

[kegogut]

Thanks for the info.

Yea Im not to worried about them hosting I was just curious as to wether or not the designer clowns like snowflakes,picassos etc would host at all.
I glanced at a post a while back that said something to the effect of tank bred clowns not hosting.

Also,what type of nems are natural hosts for my clowns?

 

[rssjsb]

I'm highly skeptical about the claim that tank bred clowns are less likely to associate with anemones. I think it's a brain chemistry thing.

What you're seeing is more likely a result of the fact that those nems aren't natural hosts.

There's a FAQ at the top of this board that shows which clowns are associated with what anemone. You should check it out.

Most of the natural hosts for percs are hard to get or very difficult to keep, like giganteas and magnificas.

 

[TL1000RSquid]

I think it just varies by fish, I have 2 pairs of tank bred clowns, one pair took the RBTA after a few weeks, the other pair the female was in the nem shortly after placing it in the tank the nem was still looking for a spot when she started loving it, the male took a few days before he went in.

 

[Ambition]

With clownfish, it can take a very short time or an extremely long time before they will associate with an anemone. The latter being the case most often with anemones that are not natural hosts. Usually with a natural host anemone, they will dive in quite quickly. The problem is that the natural hosts for ocellaris or percula clowns are the most difficult to keep, being magnifica (ritteri) or gigantea.

On a side note, clowns don't host. The anemone hosts the clowns. Think of it as the anemone "inviting" the clowns to live with it, thus hosting it.

 

[garygb]

+1 to what rssjsb and Ambition said. The only for sure way to have clowns associate with an anemone is by providing the clown with an anemone it would naturally associate with in the wild. In aquariums, it happens all the time where percs or ocellaris associate with BTAs, and occasionally other species such as LTAs or H. crispa or malu. Though in nature those pairings wouldn't be found, in tanks even leather corals and mushrooms are sometimes used as a host. Also, I can speak from experience multiple times with different species, tank-bred makes no difference.

 

[Lostinthedark]

As far as tank bred clowns not being attracted to anemones, I just added a Sebae Anemone to my tank and my tb Maroon clowns went to it immediately. Its all a matter of luck.