My clown has FINALLY hosted my BTA! Video + Questions

[dutchswan]

My clown did not seem to want to hose my BTA. So, I bought another Ocellaris to pair up with my original one. They got along from the word go. But neither had any desire to host my BTA. Suddenly, today my original clown is just going nuts over it. He is like a kid on Christmas morning wondering what he was doing with his life all this time (See my 60 second video below). After watching the video, I have a couple of questions.
(1) I know in the wild, anemones provide protection to clowns. Is there any mutual benefit in captivity?
(2) My "bubble" tip anemone has not had "bubbles" since the 3rd day I added him to the tank. He seemed to find the perch he likes after day two. There is just this perfect spot for him to cram itself between two rocks on the top level. It seems happy and doesn't seem to mind my clown's aggressive hosting, but is it normal for them to never actually "bubble up"?
(3) Will both clowns host the same anemone, or is two a crowd?
(4) How large will my BTA get? Right now it has a diameter of about 3.5 inches.
(5) There does not seem to be a dominant clown. They seem to take turns following each other. Is this just the way it is until nature decides to turn one of them into the opposite sex?
(6) How do two clowns mate? Does it just happen unexpectedly, or do you have to set certain conditions just right for them to copulate?

 

[btldreef]

Quote:
Originally Posted by dutchswan http:///forum/thread/383786/my-clown-has-finally-hosted-my-bta-video-questions#post_3359133
My clown did not seem to want to hose my BTA. So, I bought another Ocellaris to pair up with my original one. They got along from the word go. But neither had any desire to host my BTA. Suddenly, today my original clown is just going nuts over it. He is like a kid on Christmas morning wondering what he was doing with his life all this time (See my 60 second video below). After watching the video, I have a couple of questions. Congrats to you!
(1) I know in the wild, anemones provide protection to clowns. Is there any mutual benefit in captivity? Not much, but I will say from personal experience, my clowns that have a host anemone have never gotten ich, even when the tank was infested with it. I don't know if that was just pure luck on my behalf, or if there is some sort of correlation.
(2) My "bubble" tip anemone has not had "bubbles" since the 3rd day I added him to the tank. He seemed to find the perch he likes after day two. There is just this perfect spot for him to cram itself between two rocks on the top level. It seems happy and doesn't seem to mind my clown's aggressive hosting, but is it normal for them to never actually "bubble up"? For some reason many people's do this. All three of my current BTA's do this. Some claim it's where they are collected from/water flow/lighting. My BTA's are all healthy and grow like crazy, but still don't bubble anymore, seems to just be what they do. I equate it to Killer whales that have their fin fall over, it's not terribly bad for them, but SOMETHING causes it....
(3) Will both clowns host the same anemone, or is two a crowd? Yes, but until they establish dominance, you may only see one in and the other not sharing. It also depends on the size of the anemone. When mine were small like yours, I only ever saw one clown, now they both share together.
(4) How large will my BTA get? Right now it has a diameter of about 3.5 inches. I've seen them as large as 2ft in diameter. Most will split before they ever come close to reaching that size. All of mine are about 8-9" in diameter. They started out about your size and are two years old in my tank. I also feed mine every other day.
(5) There does not seem to be a dominant clown. They seem to take turns following each other. Is this just the way it is until nature decides to turn one of them into the opposite sex? Whichever was in the tank first is probably the dominant clown, but isn't sexual mature yet, so not really showing her dominance.
(6) How do two clowns mate? Does it just happen unexpectedly, or do you have to set certain conditions just right for them to copulate? They need the right conditions, but that doesn't take much with clowns. If they feel safe in their environment and have a very regular routine, they'll spawn and unless this routine is disturbed, they'll usually continue to spawn. it took my clowns 2 years together, 1 year in the same tank undisturbed before they spawned and now they don't stop.