Zoas hosting occelaris

[ACBlinky]

Well, after a LONG time my lone occelaris has found herself a host. There are many corals -- GSP, yellow polyps, leathers -- in the tank I thought she might take to, but she's chosen a patch of zoanthids. The corals seem fine; they don't close up at all, or otherwise object, and she spends most of her time lying on them. She sleeps wedged between two rocks, surrounded by zoas, it's actually incredibly cute

I'm just worried about the fish. Every day she has more black spots on her body. At first it was just a few, but now the bottom half of her body is positively covered. Will she get used to the stings, or will the corals become accustomed to her presence and stop stinging her? I'm concerned because AFAIK clowns don't live with zoas this way in the wild, and maybe their systems aren't equipped to handle day after day of being stung by a whole colony.

 

[swsmr]

Clowns usually develop black spots when they have been hosting in a coral such as xenia, GSP, zoos, etc.This is usually harmless and will actually go away if they stop hosting in the suspect coral

 

[ACBlinky]

Thanks for the reply
She shows absolutely NO sign of giving up her new host, in fact she's growing more and more protective of her patch of zoas by the day. She's plastered with spots, but as long as it shouldn't hurt her I guess I won't worry about it!