Is this strange clown behavior

Ive had this mated tank raised pair of O clowns for 5 + yrs and they have had their share of marital problems at times lol, but over the last 3-4 months the female has started to host my Elegance coral.. I thought tank raised clowns would never host anything ?. what your thoughts on this ? should I worry or be ok with this behavior ? .I think she looks pretty happy with her head popping put of the Elegance lol..

 

My tank raised clown took to my green bubble tip anemone the second I put it in! This seems pretty normal.

 

It is not that they never will, just the likely hood of them doing so is less.

You maybe actually wish she chsoe to not host your elegance. Often times the clowns can play a little too rough and cause damage to the coral by forcing the soft tissues into the sharp skeletons. Watch your corals closely and make sure t hey stay fully expanded and healthy, if you see a decline in there health you may want to try moving them around the tank as some people report moving the coral caused enough confusion to the clown to make them stop hosting it. Other people however report that the clown will follow the coral all over the place and sometimes even jump from one coral to another kind of hosting all of them in the reef lol

Good luck!

 

Thousands of years of evolution is not erased by less than a couple decades of captive breeding.

We do not always provide our clowns with the proper anemone type to the proper clown type.

As with most humans and animals we learn through imitation. Sometimes all that is needed is little demonstration.

If tank breed clowns display a decreased tendency to reside in a host than they would not take up with heaters, overflows, algae, mag floats, euphyllias.

Elegance have very sensitive tissue, while some hobbyist report never having an issue with an Elegance coral hosting a clown, in the long run I would be concerned.

 

Thanks for the info guys, Yeah thats what I was worried about with the elegance. Thats why I went with tank raised but I guess I never thought that it was still in them to do so. lol. I guess im going to try and move things around a bit and see if that helps.. funny thing is this morning I noticed my male clown sleeping in one of my open brain corals lol..I guess they are bored with there current set up..maybe they are hinting they need a bigger tank..lol.

 

My clowns do the same. It took almost a year before my clowns would touch any coral. The elegance is their home. They love it and surprisingly the elegance doesn't mind them at all. They've now been hosted by the elegance for close to a year. They also go and are hosted by my Duncan's as well when they choose to be. This elegance has played host to a set of platinum perculas and now a pair of occy's. Both were tank raised.

 

Very cool information and pictures. I love elegance. Does the op have an anemone? Just curious....if they had an anemone, maybe they would choose that over the elegance.

 

i have a good size bta which the clowns have touched but yet they still prefer the elegance.

 

thats good news that its been that long and the elegance is still doing well maybe I will leave things be and see what happens I just dont know yet...great pic btw..

 

Nah I had a nem a long time ago before I had the clowns,until it went on for a stroll into a power head . it made such a mess of my tank I swore them off. thats why I like the elegance you get the nem look but with out the nem problems..