Why are my Ocellaris clowns going missing?

As per the pictures, I have a rather large blue carpet anemone in my 29 gal nano. In the last 4 months, I have lost (completely missing) 4 captive bread Ocellaris clowns, 2 in the last 3 days. All parameters are fine, have been keeping salt water for over 20 years. First time for this mystery. None of the clowns ever hosted to the anemone which makes me wonder if they were EATEN by the anemone as they swam by or got too close. I know that when a clown starts to host its anemone it does so by slowly incorporating some of the venom to its outer coating thus eventually making it somewhat immune. When I feed the anemone big chunks of shrimp it amazes me how quickly it takes it to its mouth. Now it is an open top tank so I'm wondering if they jumped and the cat got them. Never a body found inside or out. It's been very upsetting to lose the fish but it's also getting frustrating. I do have one peppermint shrimp as well but nothing has ever happened to it. In fact it likes to hang out under the anemone. One last thing, I did have a bi-clour blenny who DID jump out as I found its body under the stand recently.

 

If they were not acclimated to the Anemone that would be my first guess. I have lost clowns to carpets they were not acclimated to.

I used to keep a big green carpet in a nano, much like your set up.

Beautiful Anemone, you need to get some clowns that will reside in it.

 

+1 a gold band maroon would look amazing with that carpet.

 

I have to suspect that your fish are being eaten by the anemone.

 

Totally agree to both.

IMOPE, captive-bred clowns are not naturally immune. I had one that got stung by a small RBTA. While she did survive, she never went near another nem.

 

That Anenome IS your 29g! Looks nice though- kinda LARGE

 

Yes I agree a gold band Maroon would look great with my anemone BUT what gaurantees do I have that it will host unless it is wild caught? Or are Maroon clowns more likely to host to a carpet?

 

I thought anemones chose to host clowns and didn't sting or eat them on purpose. In other words, it's not the clowns not being immune but rather a picky anemone, or a grumpy one that wants to be left alone.

 

All clown fish whether wild or captive breed have the ability to reside in anemones.

The clown must first acclimate to a specific anemone. The clown develops a mucous layer on the surface of it's skin. This layer disguise the clown fish from the anemone. The anemone either does not recognize the clown as a food a protein or the anemone does not thinks what it feels is a fish but rather anemone, there is debate as what the anemone perceives.

A clown will more readily reside in an anemone type that it is the clown natural host in the wild. Some clowns will never reside in anemones. This is probably more common with captive breed clowns, but....Being captive breed does not erase hundreds if not thousand of years of evolution. Most likely a clown not residing in an anemone is not paired with the clowns natural host.

 

There quite a few Clown fish and Anemone compatibility charts, here is one.

Time to Quit Clownin' Around: The Subfamily Amphiprioninae by Henry C. Schultz III - Reefkeeping.com