[killl_em_allll]

I have a 2 year old clown fish that just will not nest in any type of anemone. Ive gone through several different type of anemone and the lil fella just wont nest. He appears helthy, nothing wrong with him, but he just swims around all the time, even at night when the lights are out. Is this normal, and if not, suggestions as to what i could do would be very welcome.

 

[Prismaco]

Not all clowns have to have an anenome for a home. If I am not wrong, some clowns will only host with certian anenomes...


-Paul

 

[Mrs Smith]

... and some clowns don't feel like they need a host, so they won't take one. It's fine, and it's normal behavior.

If it feels like it needs something, it'll pick something. That something may or may not be an anemone, even if they are an option.

Danielle

 

[Reefer Addict]

If it's a tank-raised clown they tend to be more host-resistant than wild captures. I guess that it's part instinct, and part learned behaviour that determines a clown's hosting ability. Tank-raised clowns don't have exposure to anemones usually until they're put into a multi-species tank.
My tank-raised ocellaris clowns are currently hosting in my pink tree coral... though I hope they eventually take to the BTA I added a few days ago.
They started out hosting with my MagFloat scraper until it moved around on them too much.
I guess they're just a little confused...

 

[killl_em_allll]

now that you mention it, my clown DOES tend to hang around the magfloats alot. I guess my only concern with the fish is that im concerned he gets too much activity. Meaning that since he NEVER rests, or nests, you choose, he will die of overactivity. Call me paranoid, but Ive spent thousands on this tank, and I dont want ANYTHING to be at risk.

 

[ReefDave]

kill em all..
Hey fellow MIssouri reefer, welcome to TRT.

I understand you not wanting anything to be at risk, thats the best way to approach this hobby. As for the clown is it tank raised? If a clown has never known a predator, it only stands to reason that some of the "instinct" you see in wild caught species won't be present.

I don't want to get into an evolution/creation topic here but look at it from this stand point.

In the wild only a few Clowns make if out of every 100,000 eggs laid (not sure about actual numbers here but its not a good ratio of you are a clown egg). Now, most of those few that live, live because they are doing something to avoid predatation. One of those things might be hosting in an anemone. However, in tank raised species, 1,000 of clowns that would have been eaten LONG before they ever reached 1 month of age, live for years...this is because even the specimens that don't actively protect themselves manage to live......

So would your particular clown have made it in the wild? Probably not heck the odds are against even the strongest of fish, but since it didn't get "weeded out" during its early days, it has managed to live a healthy life oblivious to the fact that it probably would have been fish food had it hatched in the wild.

When you look at it this way it kinda puts the "peta" people in thier place. "its cruel to keep any fish in a 4' box, when its "natural home" is the ocean. Well, most of these fishies natural home would have been the stomach of another fishy...so I guess we are doing some of them a favor.

Dave

 

[MontanaRocknReefer]

"its cruel to keep any fish in a 4' box, when its "natural home" is the ocean.

And it's surprising how small an area alot of fish occupy even when the ocean is their play ground!!

There are no quarantees that a clown will host an anenome and certain clowns only host with certain type anenomes which would make sense that wild caught clowns would be more apt to go to certain anenomes as they are programmed to do so in the wild!

Alot of clowns in our system will host other corals like carpet anenomes, star polyps, leather corals, etc and this includes wild caught ones as well! So what I am trying to say is "it's the clowns choice not ours as what they will host" HTH