Clown+Anem

Hey everyone - just figured I would vent my cool story...

So I have had these two mated clowns for about 2 years now and they have taken to hosting a rock... A friggen rock, defend it to the death "were not sure why we love it" - a rock lol.. A few weeks ago my wife and I picked up a rose tip anem for real cheap (huge) and we were somewhat doubtfull the clowns would give up there lovely rock for it. The other day my juvi regal blue tang started to pick on the male clown for some reason and the anem was adjusting its position and thus was closer than normal to the clown and I think to avoid the tang it got very close to the anem.

After its initial close call with the anem the clown was interested in the anem. You could see it was figuring something out.. It was paying very close attention and VERRRRY gently touching the anem.. Not that normal "washing" or scrubbing that you sometimes see them doing - but just softly touching it.. Over the next few days the clown kind of just hung out around the base of the anem, but yesterday I came home and the clown was doing the clown dance ontop of the anem lol.. Was TOTALLY happy! The male clown would even clean up around the anem, taking bits of substrate off of it... And ontop of that, the anem looked bigger and more exposed. The female is a few days behind the male, she is getting use to it as well - brushing by it, hanging out near the base..

Cant wait to see both of them in it!


Just my little experience, was lucky to be able to see the clown "figure it out" not just come home to it..

</Rant>

 

You will see that happen when the clowns get used to their host. No one knows exactly why the clown does not get stung....some believe it is a build up of mucus that protects the clown from the stinging tenticles. No one knows, but that is completely normal....the clown sees the host, the clown gravitates, brushes up for a few days, then when deemed safe.....dives in. Really cool. Glad your clown found it's home!!!!

 

I believe that is the general consensus - they develop a "coating" that allows them to become resistant to the hosts sting. Way cool.. What odd is - my 6 line sometimes likes to swim through the anem as well... The anem dosnt even pay it any attention - as if it were resistant as well.

I think that once the clown has developed its coating the anem dosnt even know its there - almost like it things it is touching itself when it touches the anem. Nature rocks..

 

Clowns to develop a tolerance to the stings from anemones. Whether it is a mucus lining, or just toxin tolerance, they gradually get used to it. As the clown gets acclimated to the stings, you will see the clown take bites on the tentacles and eat some of it. Doing so helps the clown develop the antibodies (or whatever the fish equivalent would be) for the stings. My maroon acclimated herself within a few minutes of adding the anemone, she dove right in and ate about 5 tentacles and moved right in.

 

There are two known methods that clowns are 'invisible' to anemones. The first is that they have a mucus coating, which mimics the anemone mucus. The second is that they coat themselves in the mucus of the anemone through a process called acclimation. There may be more methods not described.

Anemones are pretty dumb (they lack a central nervous system). When they detect a protein substance, they "taste" it and see if they are part of the anemone, or something edible. Clowns mimic the "taste" of the anemone, so they anemone leaves them alone and does not fire its spirocysts (to grab prey) or nematocysts (to sting it).

There are 10 species of host anemones, and up to 29 clown species - the exact number is being debated. A clown species can use its own mucus against one species, and acclimation with a different species. They do know how clowns protect themselves, they just don't understand all the possible interactions between clown and host species. Its not that mysterious, but it is very cool