Clown Fish And Hosting

[indir-emir]

Hi all,
Would just like to know how to be sure if a clown fish is attempting to be hosted by something or not?

My female clown appears to have taken a liking to my Goniopora. And the goni does seem to mind it, nor like it too much.

She is swmming through its tentacles which is causing it to retract, howevr it opens up again a few minutes after she gets out of that spot. This happens fairl often now. She also appears to rub her face on it or something? She is not biting it, nor harming it as far as i can tell. I dont mind her hosting as there is a few people that have had luck, but i will keep an eye on the goni and see if it keeps retracting.

The goni had actualy been retracted for 2 or 3 days without opening and i thought it may have been on the way out (I think my goni is a goniopora stokeski (spelling?)) and i was hoping to feed it some rotifiers (frozen) from the store but didnt get time to go buy it. So i left it till i did. However, since ive noticed the clown hosting (only today) it has opened up about 1/4 of the way it used too (untill she swims through it). Sometimes the goni doesnt close up when it rus through, but if she sits on the spot for a little while itll retract.

I however, need to pull the fish out for a treatment for white spot My qeustions are as follows:

1) How do i know for sure wether she is attempting to be hosted?
2) Will she continue to host it once she goes back into the tank after the 6 week treatment period?
3) Will it affect the clown fish once she is pulled out of the display tank for treatment without the Gonipora?

Thank you.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

It sounds like it is hosting it. The rubbing behaviour is common for hosting.

IME your Goni is on the way out (like most goni's end up) and the clown probably wont be helping matters.

It wont hurt the clown to move to a different tank. it will probably just pick something in there to host. If the goni is still in the tank when you move it back it will most likely host it again.

I will warn you though that in my experience clown fish are probably the most unsuitable fish for a reef display you can get. My common clowns completely destroyed a load of my corals (couple of hammer corals, bubble coral, loads of mushrooms and a few others as well). They are now in their own fish only tank because they have easterly destroyed over £300 worth of coral (and killed two midis blennies).

 

[indir-emir]

Well the Goni has been doing fantastic, andi will do my best to keep it going as long as i can. There is a few success stories on the internet, even ones regarding gonis and clownfish. Im going to feed it rotifiers from now on, and the clown will be away from it for atlast 5-6 weeks and ill see how it goes then.

Ill remove the clowns if they do damage, there is alot of people who keep them in a reef tank without problems. Thank you for your input though

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Well the Goni has been doing fantastic, andi will do my best to keep it going as long as i can. There is a few success stories on the internet, even ones regarding gonis and clownfish. Im going to feed it rotifiers from now on, and the clown will be away from it for atlast 5-6 weeks and ill see how it goes then.

Ill remove the clowns if they do damage, there is alot of people who keep them in a reef tank without problems. Thank you for your input though

Rotifiers seem to be the best way to go with goni's, especially if you can set them up to be fed via a dosing pump or similar so they can be continuously fed. Are you culturing your own (it is fairly easy)?

Sorry if I sounded like I was saying all clowns are coral killing machines You are completely correct that LOADS of people keep them in reef tanks with no issues. Its just that not many people know that there can be issues and after the experiences I have had I like to let people know about the potential issues so they don't have to go through the same thing

 

[indir-emir]

Yeah so it seems. Unfortunately am not culturing my own as of yet, going to try with frozen food. Have not even had a look at culturing them myself, will have to tomorrow as im quite tired at the moment.

Just gave the tank a huge make over (rescaped) thanks to having to move all the fish to the qt tank... Which ment i had to mremove all the rock and almost lost it, im so sore right now! So maybe the clowns wont see the goni (its in the same spot though, but diffrent landscape) and leave it alone when they are back in the display.

And no thats fine, i understood what you ment Thank you.