Video: Documenting the bonding of a Clownfish and Anemone from the beginning

gizmoody

New member
How does bonding happen between a Clownfish and Anemone? I have read about it but never seen it from the time of introduction of the two species. Since no video exists that I could find, I wanted to document by video when I introduced an Anemone to my tank that already had a Clownfish and other fish. Of course some bonding happened only with the Clownfish. I bought this Clownfish when it was very young (it had been tank bred). It was definitely exciting for me to watch and wanted to share with you. Let me know what you think.

http://youtu.be/m4Y4WoR6tLk?hd=1
 
I love the video!!! It is really cool. The BTA did look a little small for the clown initially, but it looks like everything has worked out so far! I think your kole tang was jealous of the clown and BTA while they were being filmed... lol
 
Wow, this video is not only well produced but very informational. Is it typical for the maroon clowns to start hosting that fast?
 
Great video...I really enjoyed watching that. It makes me wish my clowns had an anemone, but that won't happen for a while. Thanks for posting!
 
Great video! It's always nice to see a clownfish bonding with it's natural host anemone. It always happens so fast and so deliberately. If you haven't posted this in the Anemone/Clownfish forum I would highly recommend it.
 
Keep a very close eye on that anemone -- would prefer it to be bigger. Maroons can/will "love" an anemone to death.

The clown isn't actually feeding it, it is taking food back to a safe spot. Just so happens that the anemone eats it.

To an above question, E. quadricolor is a natural host for a maroon clown, so they do tend to be hosted fairly quickly.
 
Keep a very close eye on that anemone -- would prefer it to be bigger. Maroons can/will "love" an anemone to death.

The clown isn't actually feeding it, it is taking food back to a safe spot. Just so happens that the anemone eats it.

To an above question, E. quadricolor is a natural host for a maroon clown, so they do tend to be hosted fairly quickly.

Did you watch all the way to the end? The anemone grew significantly over 5 months. It is easily 2x+ the size of the fish.
 
Did you watch all the way to the end? The anemone grew significantly over 5 months. It is easily 2x+ the size of the fish.

Yes I did -- I don't make comments without watching the whole thing.

2 times bigger then a maroon clown isn't all that big. Have you ever kept an maroon with an E. quadricolor?
 
Keep a very close eye on that anemone -- would prefer it to be bigger. Maroons can/will "love" an anemone to death.

The clown isn't actually feeding it, it is taking food back to a safe spot. Just so happens that the anemone eats it.

To an above question, E. quadricolor is a natural host for a maroon clown, so they do tend to be hosted fairly quickly.


As for the size of the Anemone, the Clownfish isn't very aggressive with it as it was initially and while I was keeping an eye on it for the first month, I am convinced the are doing well together. The Anemone is healthy and I can't see any visible physical harm. Initially, a few tentacles seemed shriveled from too much lovin but that only happened for the first few days. This Maroon Clown is gentle with his Anemone but not so much with my hand in the tank!

As for the food, you may be right but. However, based on my observations, I am not so convinced that it is storing food. I read a scientific paper that discussed that the fish might be storing food, but didn't show any experimental evidence of this. Is there any research out there with data for this? I have never seen the fish try to take the food away form the anemone, but it has chased away shrimp that have tried to take the food form the anemone. It would guard the anemone until it had closed up slightly to eat the food. Regardless, if there in any more info on this (actual data) I would really like to see it. If there isn't maybe I can come up with a scientific experiment, test it and then more people can try it and then pool the data.
 
Yes I did -- I don't make comments without watching the whole thing.

2 times bigger then a maroon clown isn't all that big. Have you ever kept an maroon with an E. quadricolor?

Yes, as a matter of fact I have. I first kept a single GSM with an anemone that was 2x its size and never saw any issues (until my brother unplugged the cord for my poweheads to plug in his laptop and it died). I then kept a spawning pair with a 12+" RBTA. I got rid of all 3 because the Female wouldn't stop digging and covering up everything on the sanded.

The single:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z1Ti6AfXr8

The Pair:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDkkx0701WY
 
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I have read about it but never seen it from the time of introduction of the two species. Since no video exists that I could find

yeah, they had something similar on TV long ago (the jest of it was solving the "mystery" of a clownfishes "immunity" to anemone stings)...

regardless this post was a refreshing and timley rewind
 
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