WOW O. clown hosting Xenia

[Lance M.]

I thought I'd share this with you guys since I've never heard of it or seen it before.

A little background- I've had the two ocellaris clowns for about 10 months now and they have been hosting a bta for around 9 months.

I just went to my tank about ten minutes ago and the lights where off of course since it's 10:30. So I decide to turn the moonlights on. I'm looking around my tank everything looks fine, I see my ruffle ridge coral flourescing (sp?) then I see my bta all green in the moonlight. Then I notice something strange.... My female o clown is rubbing all over my xenia... I was stunned I've never seen this before or heard of it. And the clowns had been hosting the bta so I guess the bigger one is starting to host the xenia. I just hope she doesn't end up hurting the xenia, since the heads wont open up if she keeps rubbing on them, but if it's just at night then I guess it's fine since the xenia isn't open at night anways.

 

[Ziggy953]

Hmmm....I had a clown that went from a toadstool to a frogspawn....didn't hurt either one but I would be concerned about the xenia...they are a little more delicate....

 

[Innovator]

Clownfish and even damsels will gravitate towards soft corals and lps quite frequently. Then again; powerheads, overflows, and other props will play surrogate to their odd lil' behaviors

 

[Lance M.]

Yea but they had been hosting the bta for months and I thought they where happy. Now I see the bigger one rubbing all over the xenia... I thought that they would stay with the bta since it's more natural.

And yes I hope she doesn't hurt the xenia, I was planning on fragging it and selling it to my lfs...

 

[lando]

This is not too uncommon in the captive tank, but often fun to observe. My pair of percs have looked to my xenia, hammer coral, torch coral and toadstool as hosts. They always seem to return to their favorite host...the BTA...in the end.

 

[melosu58]

This is not too uncommon in the captive tank, but often fun to observe.

Mine totally ignored my BTA and host a bubble coral and a pagoda cup. Here is a pic of it hosting a bubble coral.

 

[roka64]

Aren't clowns, damselfish as well?

 

[Innovator]

Aren't clowns, damselfish as well?

Same Family: Pomacentridae

 

[roka64]

Awww, one big happy family! Cool, thanks for the info. I had seen them called anenmoe damselfish, and it got me to thinking....I just wanted to doublecheck.