How to stop a clown from hosting a hammer coral?

[solidsnakejv]

Do anyone have any idea how i can stop my false percula clown from trying to host my Hammer coral? It started to damaged it after i put in on the same about a week ago, so i moved it back to midlevel, and now it's trying to host it there as well, and it really starting to cause some damage.

 

[Bige]

I dont think you can without removing one or the other. Unless you introduce something it likes more. Clowns are crazy. They will host sand. Mine host gsp.

 

[thincat]

It's hard, more so when the coral is small. It's not uncommon for a clown to kill a coral it has decided to host. I got my clown to host a silicone anemone. It really liked it too. Way to funny...

 

[Mitchell0605]

Nice TC.
And Bige, that's cause the can't find anything else. lol

 

[thincat]

Here's the same fish with my featherduster...The duster was not to happy. lol

 

[melosu58]

Mine loves my hammer. I just let it stay there. No harm no foul. As far as yours I dont know if you`ll be able to keep it out.

 

[Bige]

Dang Mel!! What a hammer! I think I could host that one.

 

[Mitchell0605]

+1.

 

[thincat]

I tell you, Mike must be from Texas everything in his tank is "Large". lol

 

[InfernoST]

+1 TC. LOL. He really doesn't seem to have anything small.

 

[solidsnakejv]

I went out and got a fake yellow bubble tip anemone to see if he'll get attached to that, but the fish is actually afraid of it since it won't come near it. Instead, i put it next to the hammer to see if it will scare off the clown and it worked for a few hours and then he went back to trying to host it. i don't mine it, but one part of the hammer looks like is getting damaged since it came off the rock already.
The LFS suggest a real bubble tip anemone. They said they are not hard to keep, but i don't know if they actually are.

 

[thincat]

I don't know. I have never had one and there is a chance that the clown won't host it.

 

[melosu58]

Thanks everyone. Solidsnakejv when you say he is damaging the hammer what is it exactly doing? How is he damaging it?

 

[Mitchell0605]

BTA's aren't hard to keep if you have the right lights and a big enough tank, but as TC says, there's no guarantee it will host it. It's more than likely to not since it's already hosting the Hammer, but even with no Hammer it might not. Mine doesn't host anything including the BTA.

 

[solidsnakejv]

the one part of the coral that it really rushes against is detaching from the rock. the polyps are not filling up like the rest, they are very tiny and they look like they have been popped.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Thats what mine looked like when it died from hot water temps.

 

[sdellin]

Dang Mel!! What a hammer! I think I could host that one.

It is gorgeous, isn't it!

 

[thincat]

I heard that one of Mikes clowns went missing for about a month before he found it hosting in that hammer.....lol

 

[Mitchell0605]

I don't blame the clown.

 

[InfernoST]

Put the clown in TIME OUT