I got em Hosting Last Night!!! Here's how...

[bur01014]

So I have had two tank raised ocellairs clowns (one black) with an RBTA for several months now.....showing no interest at all in one another.....I just accepted the fact that there relationship just wasn't met to be, until...........................I upgraded to a larger tank.

Yesterday I broke down the old tank and setup the new tank. I had fish, corals, LR, etc.....in totes with powerheads, heaters, etc. scattered throughout the house while prepping for the bigger tank. I thought to myself...how about in one of my smaller buckets, I will put just the RBTA and the Clowns all by themselves together in it, with a airstone and heater.........since the bucket was much smaller there wasn't a whole lot of space for the clowns to go, so I thought they would be bound to touch the anemone....within the first hour I came back the one clown was biting at the anemone....an hour later, enjoying a bubble tip bath :celeb2:........I was pretty excited....however, I was worried it would be short lived once putting them back into my new tank.....got everyone in their new home, but was too cloudy to observe from the new sand (yes i rinsed it forever too)....woke up the next morning, to a clear tank and clowns in the anemone...want to get your clowns and anemone teamed up? Upgrade to a bigger tank....:spin3:

 

[rkelman]

Cool Good idea.

 

[Toddrtrex]

IMO, that isn't the best idea. Putting clowns in a confined space with an anemone (( when they aren't being hosted )) could very well end up with an eaten clown. Would imagine that if you had tried this with an S. Haddoni you would be missing two clowns right now.

 

[bur01014]

Although the space was small...it wasn't so small that they were forced to touch the anemone....plenty of hiding still....didn't matter anyways, once they touched it, it was all over....

 

[rcoughtrey]

happy you got them together. I was lucky, my clowns paired and took to the anemone over night

 

[davocean]

I also would not advise this to others.
Clowns usually adapt to stinging cells, forcing them together could have really become "one touch and it was all over".
Good for you this happened to work out, but I wouldn't advocate doing this.

 

[Dwyer]

Mine were all paired up and hosting in the same anemone till I moved my tank. Now I have one that loves my hammer coral and the other bounces between my hammer and my anemone. Sucks, I might try something like this.

 

[Ben_Im]

I also would not advise this to others.
Clowns usually adapt to stinging cells, forcing them together could have really become "one touch and it was all over".
Good for you this happened to work out, but I wouldn't advocate doing this.

Interesting. When I got a fresh batch of juveniles (10 months old) they immediately jumped into my RBTAs within seconds, after 10 months of being in a barebottom tank, with no anemones, live rock, or coral.

Maybe the RBTAs don't have a very potent sting?

 

[Toddrtrex]

But they "jumped in" on their own accord, and weren't force in (( or placed in confined quarters with an anemone )). That is the issue, forcing a clown to be hosted, not if they choose to be hosted quickly or not.

 

[Newreeflady]

It sounds like it was in a bucket (presumably 5g), and I might assume a 5" nem (?), so if they had touched it and it was not pleasant I'd think they could have gotten away unless he had them in 4" of water, no?

Congrats!

-A

 

[DxSOR25]

this method can either be a great success or a terrible failure like others are saying.. unless changing to the bigger tank like he did.. this would be just too much work lol..

congrats on the success tho!:bounce3:

 

[Dwyer]

I think the fish just get too many choices and kind of settle for something else. I feel if my fish were kind of guided to the anemone they would enjoy it enough to stay. As I move away from my lps into sps they will have no hammers and frogspawn to play in so they will probably go back to the anemone. Who knows....

 

[bur01014]

this was far from forced....so those of you who keep saying i "forced" the clowns in the anemone can re-read my posts....if they didn't want to touch the anemone, they didn't have to in the bucket....plenty of room....however, it did put them in an area where they were MORE LIKELY to touch the anemone...before in my tank they never even went near it.....netting the fish and holding it on the anemone would be forcing it....putting them in a bucket together while moving tanks is far from forcing the fish to do anything....