Anemone Hosting Question

[Jay]

When a clown fish chooses an anemone to host in is it paired with that anemone for life or can it pack up and move into a more desirable anemone that is in the tank? My Onyx clowns have chosen the wrong anemone to host in, or at least one of them is hosting in the anemone and the other is still not hosted yet. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[pookstreet]

As far as personal experience goes, clowns will change hosts. However, anemones are not Perc's natural hosts so that may explain why one of them isn't hosting in the same anemone.

 

[Bebo77]

why do you say he has chosen the wrong one?

 

[nahtanoj]

i have 9 anems, each of my clowns has its favorite, but they bounce all around, and i saw them in the frogspawn today.

 

[Jay]

its not the one that i want him to be in. I have a badass rose anemone that could host 10 percs and then i have a bubble tip that can barely host one perc and this is the one that he has chosen. why would you choose to live in a tiny little studio in compton when you could live in an 8 bedroom super crib in malibu. maybe i have some ghetto *** onyx clowns. Does anyone know how to teach a fish some class?
What is a percs natural host if its not an anemone?

 

[Saltyesq]

Perc's naturally host some sort of anemone! I remember reading that in the wild clownfish that don't have an anemone are lunch.

 

[E.J. Coral]

In nature, percs definetly host S. gigantea and H. magnifica. I have had percs host an LTA and BTA......

In aquariums, clownfish are anemone whores

 

[pookstreet]

My bad, I meant to say RBTAs are not the usual hosts for percs, although anything can happen in a tank.

 

[RTG]

My Percs wouldn't go near the BTA only the LTA. Haven't had other nems in 15 years.

SteveU

 

[Bruce]

My Clarks have been hosting in my green BTA for about 7 years now. When it splits they'll move to whichever one they like best. I have another anemone in there, as well, but nobody seems to like that one (I also have a pair of ocellaris in there).

I'm actually looking for another anemone for the left side of the tank, as I want my ocellaris to pair with an anemone... I could take one of the greens and move it, but I'm looking for different color. Just mentioning it in case someone feels like tossing an anemone my way...

 

[Jay]

how do you propose to keep an anemone on one side of the tank? It is my experience that an anemone goes where it wants. They don't listen well, i tried...

 

[nahtanoj]

depends on the type of anemone. a Bubble Tip Anemone doesn't like crossing sand, so if you get him stuck to a rock, separate it from other rocks so it's a little island, and it'll stay there unless it is REALLY unhappy. thats how my tank is set up, left side is a mound just for anems.