Maroon morons?

[fishoutawater]

I have a small pair of wsm clowns. They are just starting to dig in the sand, do their little spastic dance, and are starting to defend a territory. All good. The problem is that they cannot decide to host in the plate coral, the bubble coral, or the toadstool. I really wouldn't care which they chose if there wasn't a nice gbta right in the middle of all of them. Is this typical? I'm new to nem's and clown behavior. This has been going on for over a week. I tried a little redecorating but they still ignore the gbta.

 

[t4zalews]

marroon clowns are very aggressive with their hosts (whichever they choose) and can kill the bubble coral. I have a GSM hosting in a RBTA and I can't wait to get it out of my tank. these fish are bulldozers with fins. It knocks over all my corals and attacks fish that come in the area and kicks sand around. Be warned that your maroons will do this when they grow up. these clowns might not take to the anemoen right away. my current GSM dove right into the RBTA, then I've had perculas that took over a month to take to a GBTA. My only warning is that when these fish get bigger they will get mean...I knew this buying them but didn't think it would get this bad. take my advice with an open mind

 

[scubabum1983]

mine used to do the same thing and would bite me and draw blood when i cleaned around the rbta. and the clowns dig like a bulldozer. Their names were B@t#h and D!@k for their behavior. but they were sumatran blood tail gold bars and they were awesome to look at

 

[dalston]

You shouldn't have a problem, E. quadricolor (BTA) is the natural host to maroon clowns. You have done your part in providing them their anemone of choice, not really much you can do from here except wait it out, but you definatly have the odds on your side. As soon as they find it they will be all over it like butter on bread

 

[fishoutawater]

I have even started to squirt food in to feed them right over the anemone. They mouth the tip of the turkey baster and then swim away, less than an inch from the nem. Iv'e had to move my plate coral to another tank as well as the small bubble. I moved a large bubble coral in there and they were under it as soon as my hand moved away. This one is big enough to sting them so all they do is rub the side of it. I thought I learned what patience was after I started having kids,... then I started a reef tank.

 

[fishoutawater]

Here are the "victims of my clownfishes love"

Baby bubble coral

Toadstool

Plate

Mushrooms, also the large bubble coral that I have since had to remove from the tank. In fact, I have removed the plate, and both bubbles.

Here is the lonely bta, its usually expanded a bit more than in that pic.

 

[ximmortaldeathx]

i dont have any problems with my maroon pair, sure they "peel out" on the sand but its fun to watch, also they mainly host my hammer coral since i dont have an anemone.

 

[Toddrtrex]

Seeing the size of the BTA, you should be glad that they aren't being hosted by it. For a pair of maroons, I would like to see that BTA be at least 3 times bigger.

 

[Gig 'em]

some times it takes clown a while to host in an anemone. Have you tried putting a picture of maroons hosting in a BTA on the tank for them to see? I've heard this has worked for other clowns before. It's worth a try.

 

[fishoutawater]

Like I said, it's usually a bit bigger, although not 3x. Waiting will be much easier if/when they stop hammering everything else in the tank. This is my first time with a pair of clowns. I had read on here that they were rough, but I never a couple of fish barely 2" could be so "loving". Thanks for all the advice. Haven't tried the picture yet. As I type, one of the clowns is laying on the mushroom rock. Ironic, the one piece I'm really not concerned with, they are the most gently on.

 

[romsoccer12]

some things that may help:

Put some pictures of clowns with anemones on your tank wall. Ive heard of people who had some luck with this

Right when you turn the lights off, shine a flashlight at the bta for a couple minutes so its the only thing they see.

 

[dsoz]

Put in a domino damsel. It will host the bta, then the maroons will get mad and chase it out. To keep it out, they will need to start hosting the bta.

Then you are stuck with a stupid damsel in your tank that will be next to impossible to remove without taking out every single piece of rock AND draining all but 1 inch of water out of the tank...

LOL. This post was not inteded to be a serious suggestion. Domino damsels WILL host an anemone, and the maroons would probably kick it out of the anemone. The domino would then be a huge pain to deal with in your tank.

dsoz

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Re: Maroon morons?

maybe not.

I swear these fish are smarter than many people!

 

[fishoutawater]

She finally found it! Wow, I have never had a clownfish/nem combo before. She looks like she's orgasmically happy. Nem seems happy, don't know when she did it. I came home from work and there she was. Is it normal for the male not to try and join her? I haven't seen him even come close to it yet. They get along very well and are usually together.

 

[fishoutawater]

Happy fish, happy fish nerd

 

[dalston]

CONGRATS!!! its always just a matter of time until a clown finds it's NATURAL hosting anemone.

Nice sparkly BTA BTW