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Clownfish question

DangerDave

NJRC Member
This is my first time having clownfish. I never went with the harem tank, used the room for another frag tank. Do hosted btas ever eat the clowns that host in them?

I had two ocellaris in my little nem tank. They are small, about an inch. One started hosting in a small rainbow bta. The other in a bigger green and red bta. It had been hosting the big one for about a week. The one hosting the little nem is fine. The other is missing for going on three days now. It’s a 18x18x8 tank, it’s hard to get lost for long in there (it’s plumbed to the main system). The last I saw of him was during a feeding. Both the clownfish and the nem got some mysis. Haven’t seen it since. I haven’t found it outside the tank, or the overflow.

He coulda just died and been eaten by the cuc. I’ll never know, just curious if this is common.
 
BTA won't eat healthy clowns. But if the clown died inside of it, it's totally possible for the nem to have taken it. You would be able to see an outline of the fish around the "stalk" or foot of the nem
 

amado

Dal
Staff member
Board of Directors
NJRC Member
What happens with clowns usually is aggression. If you have multiple clowns they will fight until some one dies.
Sometimes the stress make the clown jump out the tank.

Clowns are a$$holes
 

Mark_C

Staff member
Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
Moderator
I adjust my clown population constantly due to aggression and behavior issues.
Two have been returned for credit and one is in Madreefer's tank.
Swearing not to buy any more, I saw two phenomenal black storms, and they're in my tank.
One is off to another club member shortly.

Clowns are cool and fun to watch until they start to mate.
The pair will start attacking any other clowns at that point, and can do them in within a couple of hours.
It's also the point that the female will start going after your hand in the tank, usually harmless when small, but the pull back reaction that splashes water all over the place will piss you off.
I'm guessing harems are less aggressive due to large numbers.

Outside of a harem, individually, and added later in the tank, I think they're fantastic, personable, and are a good rep of what folks think of when they think saltwater fish.
Two or more, and I agree with amado.

Back to the Q. Never lost a clown to a nem and I've had tiny ones diving deep into, err, putting their face right to the mouth of, ah, um, er, rubbing way into the tentacl...
Err, yeah, never lost one to a nem.
 

DangerDave

NJRC Member
Thanks for the responses peeps, I had heard similar complaints about them in general. I tried to see it’s outline but could not see anything. It’s a fairly thick stem though and the fish was like an inch long. Who knows maybe I’ll find it one day behind something.
 

DangerDave

NJRC Member
[
I think flower nems are more likely to do it than BTA.

Interesting. I’ve seen the below flower eat a dead 2” chromis in my DT, but that’s it (that I’ve seen anyway). They swam near the flowers, but I never noticed them getting close to them. But that was only when I was looking lol.

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