clowns/anemone question

ok, soooo.....I've had my anemone about a month give or take. My clowns do go down into its vicinity and kind of swim near it, is this a good sign?

 

Can't be a bad thing, spot feed your nem might get them to swim in there. I put clowns in and they were in the anemone the same day. Just luck of the draw sometimes I think

 

Do they usually take time to acclimate?

 

What type of clowns are they OFK?

@Reef Builder, clowns develop a mucous coating that makes them basically invisible to the anemone. The anemone will not fire nematocyst when a clown has this coating. The clown will exhibit limited physical contact with the anemone until the clown develops the coating.

 

I just put two nem's in 3 days ago for 5 clowns (different breeds). The cinnamon clown took to the LTA that night after the lights went out.

None of the other clowns have come anywhere near either nem.

I have to agree - it's just luck of the draw.

 

My black and white ocellaris pair took over 6 months to be hosted by my RBTA but now they won't leave it alone, Day or night and both now sleep in the same one... The male was the first to go in and followed by the female within a couple of weeks.

 

+1

Many clowns already have that coating, but if not, it can take weeks or months to develop, depending on how much time the clown spends near the nem. With the absence of the threat of predation, sometimes they won't even bother; in most of those cases however, the clown usually won't go near it.

On rare occasion, you'll hear of a clown being eaten by a nem; I had one that got stung, but she was able to break loose, and survived the incident. She never went near another one, though.

 

they are black and white occy clowns. I went with a RBTA because it seemed people were having more luck with these clowns being hosted by the RB rather than the GB. I'll just live under the possible fact or delusion that they are building up the coating so they won't get stung

 

Unfortunately my B/W never accepted an anemone and they had two type to choose from. I have seen many B/W residing in anemones though, so you have hope.
I would not read too much into the casual swim by though, my clowns used to do the same thing.
You might want to try the old trick of taping a large image of an anemone hosting a clown to the tank. Yes it sounds bizarre, but some report success with this method. Tank raised clowns may have no idea.
I used to believe evolution etched the behavior in so strongly that a clown being tank raised would not make any difference, this seems to be an error on my part. Some tank raised clowns just never reside in anemones.

 

it doesn't sound bizarre at all - I've read about that method