how to get maroons to notice anemone?

[bms]

i recently added two small maroon clowns and a long tentacle anemone to my 60 gallon. there is more rock on one side of the tank than the other an my maroons spend most of their time hiding and swimming around the rocks on the right side of the tank. the anemone decided to mount himself on the left side of the tank where there is only one rock and a little swimming space between the piles. i cant seem to get my maroons to even go near that side of the tank. i dont even think they have ventured to the otherside of the tank in the 6-7 days ive had them. im not even sure if they know the anemone is over there! is there anyway to get trick them to noticing the anemone or even swimming over there to that side of the tank? maybe i should ad more rock and make a continuous formation?

 

[rlablan]

Getting clowns to host is tough. I would say if you want them to notice the anemone, then turn your flow off completely and feed on that side. Maybe if they know the food will always be over on that side, they will start to hang out there and then they will gradually get to hosting? That is my only thought. I am going through this with a green bubble and my maroon. He was hosting when I bought him, now he can't be bothered... ho hum
Good luck!

 

[bryce.martin23]

Originally Posted by bms
http:///forum/post/3110057
i recently added two small maroon clowns and a long tentacle anemone to my 60 gallon. there is more rock on one side of the tank than the other an my maroons spend most of their time hiding and swimming around the rocks on the right side of the tank. the anemone decided to mount himself on the left side of the tank where there is only one rock and a little swimming space between the piles. i cant seem to get my maroons to even go near that side of the tank. i dont even think they have ventured to the otherside of the tank in the 6-7 days ive had them. im not even sure if they know the anemone is over there! is there anyway to get trick them to noticing the anemone or even swimming over there to that side of the tank? maybe i should ad more rock and make a continuous formation?
some clowns wont host with certain anemones, and from what im hearing its a toss up wether or not the fish will ever host in it, some fish are just very picky, you may want to get a diffent species of anemone and see if they will host in that.

 

[bms]

well today i decided to move a little rock around to make it a continuous formation of rock hoping that the clownfish would use this as "cover" and venture to the other side. well it worked! they have been swimming all across the tank on the front side and the back side. when i turned the lights on i was watching for about 15 minutes and one of the clowns decided to test the anemone out. he swam across and was intensely staring at the anemone for a couple minutes. then he swam back to the other side only to return again. he then swam up to the anemone and let one of the tentacles touch him then swam away and came back to rub it again. since then i haven't seen him touch it again although he is always hanging around the anemone and swims within inches and just stares at it. hopefully within in the next couple days/weeks he will decide to host it. he was so close! well wish me luck. any other advice is greatly appreciated. thanks for the help, brian.

 

[tang master]

i think they will do whats natural all by them selves. it takes a few days for the clowns to lighten up. the anemone might be a little to strong of a sting for some clowns.

 

[cocoacf]

If you want to force them to notice it, take a long bag, and cut small holes (pea size) in the bottom. Take the anemone (and rock if it's attached) and put it in the bag with the clownfish. Slowly raise the bag out of the water until there's just enough water to make the fish be in the anemone. Then just hold the bag there for a bit and see what they do.
Supposed method of force hosting. Not sure if it works, but it might be worth a try.
My clowns went right to my anemone so idk. %%

 

[bms]

hmm interesting method. never heard of that. i will give them another 2 weeks or so and if they dont do anything more after that maybe i will try this technique. thanks for the info.

 

[cocoacf]

Yup yup, no problem. I would definitely wait it out first to make sure, because it could interfere with them naturally wanting to go to it.