It sounds stupid, but it worked.

[BigJay]

Weeks of no hosting by perc/ocellaris clown pair led me to believe that they probably never would. I accepted that it wasn't a natural anenome for them and just enjoyed my new invert pets for what they are.

Many people suggested posting big pictures on the tank or a running a laptop video of clowns hosting in a bubble tip to fix the problem.

My wife laughed, asking what I would do to next to get them to spawn. She made fun of me for the rest of the night. Yeah real funny. No dear, I'm not going to run stag films of clownfish spawning to get them in the mood. har har har I married a real comedian.

To my surprise it worked. The clowns are now hosting in the larger RBTA. They spent a day acclimating themselves to the sting before sleeping there. No issues so far, they even hang around in the small green BTA come feeding time.

My question: How can an idea as absurd as this actually work? :rollface: Would it have happened otherwise, and the pics are a placebo?

Strangely enough the captive bred ORA ocellaris clown "discovered" the nem first and started wagging a bit in the tentacles. The true perc followed in later.

 

[BigJay]

Here's the picture that did the trick, posted by Heller792 in the Reef Discussion forum. Full credit goes to the well-deserving reefer that took the time to put this up.

I'll work on getting a pic of my own doing the same thing.

 

[salll]

Woo!! Congrats!! Now if only there was a way to get them to spawn...

 

[Arati]

You should hang a picture on the bedroom door, then just smile at the wife and wiat

 

[kobesan]

cool, how long did it take for them to start hosting in the nem?

 

[Gig 'em]

that's awesome!!! Congratulations on your success.

 

[BigJay]

I'd also like to add:

Think hard before you decide to "induce" your fish to host. On one hand, watching them host is really neat. They continually clean the nem and and lay inside of it. One of them even spit some mysis into it's mouth disc. They lay inside at night instead of the old synchronized swimming routine in the corner.

On the other hand, the clowns rarely leave the nem except to eat. They used to race eachother across the tank. It was really neat to watch them waggle a whole six feet across, jump into the vortech current to play, and swim back.

It's fascinating to watch, but now that the clowns are "homeowners" they rarely leave except to eat.

 

[magellan007]

I might give that a try.. I have two RBTAs now that it split again and the buyer of the split backed out... So you just printed out a big picture of it and taped it by the anemone side of the glass??

 

[Kdocimo90]

if my carpet doesnt work out for my clowns im gonna try!! wow... thats pretty dang cool

 

[BigJay]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13364250#post13364250 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by magellan007
I might give that a try.. I have two RBTAs now that it split again and the buyer of the split backed out... So you just printed out a big picture of it and taped it by the anemone side of the glass??

Two pics, right in the corner where they used to sleep at night.

 

[magellan007]

mine sleep at the opposite end of where the anemones are.. should I post one pic where they sleep and one near the 'nems?

 

[BigJay]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13364334#post13364334 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by magellan007
mine sleep at the opposite end of where the anemones are.. should I post one pic where they sleep and one near the 'nems?

I'd try that first and see what happens.

 

[nutmegsoccerusa]

I have a pair of Black Ocellaris. They have not shown any interest in hosting my RBTA. I am going to give the picture thing a shot. Do you think I need a photo of a Black Ocellaris hosting instead? If so, anyone have one?

 

[danielc316]

wow. wow. congrats.

 

[Kdocimo90]

if this works for anyone else post here lol

 

[ioreefer45]

excellent. thanks for the tip and great PIC. I will have to try it out for myself. I bought a RBTA and recently a pair of clowns that haven't paid attention to it.

I will post my results as well.

 

[magellan007]

I put the pics up last night... let's see if it works!

 

[robojet]

I added a haddoni about 2 months ago... no interest from my b&w clowns. So about 2 weeks ago, I taped a photo over my the anemone... clearly visible from there normal hangout. They haven't hosted, but last week they moved near it and seemed to be inspecting it. We'll see...

I might print the picture used by BigJay and give that one a try.

 

[reefkrazy]

holy cow it works. I read this yesterday and I thought it was a funny idea. I have a brand new fiji barberi clown and a blue\green carpit. I had nothing to lose so I printed off a picture of a clown on a blue carpit. About 2 hrs later that fish is sitting on the carpit. My wife was amazed! It really does work!

 

[rkelman]

"Strangely enough the captive bred ORA ocellaris clown "discovered" the nem first and started wagging a bit in the tentacles. "

There is nothing strange about the captive bred clown going in first. Its genetics not a "learned from your mom" kinda thing. Captive bred clowns have the same opportunity to be hosted as WC ones. Some feel WC are more likely to host but that's just because they were likely yanked out of a nem.

Congrats on your success guys. Robojet here's a few pics for you of my breeding pair in their Blue Haddoni.