Question about Corals and Clowns.

[Tasher80]

I want to get a soft coral and two clowns. I just picked up my quarentine tank today and the filter. I have a heater already. I want a coral that kinda looks like an anenome so they host on it really well. Any ideas which corals would be best and what are the best clowns to get. I see false percula, percuala, all kinds. What are the differences? Thanks.

[KissAMoray27]

Frogspawn as well as some other leathers sort of looks like an anenome andwell, its a soft coral. What other fish do you have in your tank? Porbably the best clown (in my opinion) are definately the false percula clows.

[hitillidie]

Their is false percs and true percs. I believe the differents is false percs has the destinguishable black outline. False percs has it but not as pronounced. My percs go into my hammer but it took about a month or two. They also love my torch, but that doen't happen with all percs and hammers. Why don't you get an bubble tip. Wild percs will go in those for sure.

[KissAMoray27]

Very good point about the perculas but, if you’re really worried about it, you usually can't tell the difference between two. They look so similar unless your a trained professional or very observant.

[hitillidie]

Their is a differents in price!

[Tasher80]

I don't have any fish or corals in the tank yet. I do plan on have one yellow and one blue tang in the future.

[hitillidie]

those are good choices, I've had a blue tang for 5 yrs. he was the size of a quarter when I got him.

[Tasher80]

I was planning on getting the corals and the two clowns on the same day. I figured the clowns would go into the quarentine for a few weeks and the coral can settle into the main tank pretty good.

[OodleyBoodely]

Tasher, Don't be surprized if your new clowns refuse to host in the coral you want them to. They can be very contrary. Also, you will likely be getting babies who may or may not host in anything until they mature more. A. oscellaris (false percs) and A. perculas are very similar but you can tell them apart once you've studied them a bit. The oscies tend to have very fine even black lines while the percs tend to have much thicker/fuzzier black lines that can sometimes even blot out most of the orange on their sides. You can also tell by thier dorsal fin shape and height, but this is more difficult and less accurate. Either species is a great clownfish and will host in a variety of corals or whatever turns them on. They have been know to host in everything including powerheads and plastic Kooshballs.

A good place to start for a hosting coral would be a branchy type soft coral. Colt or finger leathers are readily accepted and can handle the clowns rolling around in thier branches. Clowns like to bury themselves in the branches to sleep at night and in the day will push the coral around to open it up. I don't recommend the lps corals like frogspawn because the clowns can get quite rough with their hosts and can actually damage these delicate corals.

[KissAMoray27]

I didn't know that

[OodleyBoodely]

Yeah, my pair of oscies hosted in a big colt coral for over 2 1/2 yrs, but, then the coral suddenly died. They started hanging out in the frogspawn. I had to move the 'spawn to the far side of the tank until the oscies found a new home. When I moved the 'spawns the coral did show some recession on most of the polyps even after only a couple weeks. They did fully recover, once those fat fish stopped rolling on them! I've heard similar reports from other reefers, though it isn't always the case. Sometimes the lps do just fine hosting clowns. I guess some clowns are just a lot rougher than others.

[PJ]

Tasher,

For what it's worth, we have a pair of false perculas, Amphiprion ocellaris. They are tank raised. I love their coloring, and they are a kick to watch.

I don't have any corals yet, but they don't seem bothered about that. Although I did notice that one was looking at the top of a MaxiJet 1200 with a certain "look" in his/her eye.

Good Luck



PJ

[tims]

I have one tank raised true perc. that totaly loves my flower pot coral. the flower opens fully for it . it took maybe 7 months before he hosted with any one, he choose the flower pot of two diff. anemomes..., he says away from the frogspawn and hammer so far.. he is a bit rough with the Flower pot..

good luck, percs are a fickle bunch i think..

[Jeremy1973]

Well, I just posted this pic the other day for Phishnoob, but that thread is already several pages down. My percs host primarily in the toadstool coral, but the male would occasionally play in the frogspawn and BTA that are close by. In this shot, my perc, clown goby and tang are all playing in the toadstool. They are so adorable when I catch them all sleeping together in there. The other place that the tang and clown goby like to hang out is in the leather coral. I will post a pic of that later on tonight when I get home.

[Phantom Phish]

Like Oodley Boodley said, don't be surprised if the clowns don't host where you want them to, or even at all. They can be hit or miss that way. I have a male-female pair, that I've had for about 6 months, and they don't host in anything. I have a large Sarcophyton, an even larger colt, good sized hammer and frogspawn, and a nice patch of Ricordia and good sized mushrooms (all of which Joyce Wilkersons book lists as good substitute hosts), and they ignore them all. I like the clowns any way (A. ocellaris). Maybe someday I'll break down and get them a BTA, just so they can ignore that too .