Clown Questions

[sparkienyc]

Hi...
I have a beautiful pair of Oceallis clowns that do everything together , including sleep in a little cave ( meant for one ) each night when the lights dim. They were purchased as a pair.
I also have 2 smaller Oceallis clowns about half the size of the big pair.
All 4 were tank raised and here are my questions.
1. Is is true that tank raised clowns will not host an anemone because they were not ever taught to do so?
2. If I were to add a non-tank raised Oceallis ( or a non tank raised pair) to the setup, with an anemone, which is the best anemone of choice?
3. Will the tank raised learn from the wild clowns to host the anemone?
4. Will I require more than one anemone to get this process going or will the wild pair of clowns share their anemone with their fellow clown tankmates?
Thanks for your suggestions and help

 

[bang guy]

1. No, that's not true.
2. I would opt for an artificial anemone or a hearty coral. If you feel that you must have an Anemone then a propogated Rose Bubbletip seems to be the most likely to survive in a captive environment. Just let them live in the cave, they'll be just as happy there.
3. You have a mated pair. This pair will probably kill all of the other Clownfish in your tank unless you have a very large tank. They won't learn anything from them.
4. See answer to #3.

 

[lexluethar]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
1. No, that's not true.
2. I would opt for an artificial anemone or a hearty coral. If you feel that you must have an Anemone then a propogated Rose Bubbletip seems to be the most likely to survive in a captive environment. Just let them live in the cave, they'll be just as happy there.
3. You have a mated pair. This pair will probably kill all of the other Clownfish in your tank unless you have a very large tank. They won't learn anything from them.
4. See answer to #3.
Agreed with everything bang said, just to add a few things:
1. Tank raised will host anemones, i have two clowns that are hosting at this very moment. I believe the best hypothesis for this (from perfectdark) is that as generations and generations of clowns are tank raised, they are less and less likely to host, esp if they are in an environment that does not have an anemone to host. This is just a theory, but i think a good one.
2. If you NEED an anemone, BTA are the way to go, clowns will host them, and they have the highest percentage of survival in the home aquarium.
3. Agreed - the larger/older pair will more than likely kill off the other two. Clowns are VERY territorial and unless you have a tank of 75+ gallons they will probably fight.
4. By no means will a mated pair of clowns share an anemone. My two clowns will beat the tar out of ANYTHING that gets hear their anemone. Fish, inverts, anything. An half the time the female (larger) in the group will beat up on the male in the mated pair.

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by LexLuethar
4. By no means will a mated pair of clowns share an anemone. My two clowns will beat the tar out of ANYTHING that gets hear their anemone. Fish, inverts, anything. An half the time the female (larger) in the group will beat up on the male in the mated pair.
I just wanted to add to this. It is common for a group Clownfish Fry to live in peace with a bonded pair. They do not represent a threat to the pair so they often just ignore them. The problem is that these juveniles will begin to mature and the male will begin to fight them. He'll pick them off one by one until there's just the pair left. For this to work out you need a large tank so that the juveniles can just leave once they are targeted by the male.
This is why you see people with several Clownfish seemingly getting along. This is almost always a temporary situation. There are not unbreakable rules since all fish behave differently but the vast majority of tanks with many Clownfish end up with just 2 after only a couple of years.

 

[sea keeper]

Dont give up on your clowns.. It took 2 years for mine to finally host. They each host different corals now. It was fun to watch them host. It took months for them to finally take that final step. They were very leary at first but very curious as well.