Aggressive Clowns

[DennisL]

My clowns are causing me grief I really like them, and have 4 of them in two tanks, but their desire to "nest" in corals is killing corals. Is there any way to prevent my Clarkii from continuing to harm a beautiful sinularia? Does anyone know of a coral, that clowns will nest in, that won't be bothered by a nesting clown? I have a 25 gallon refugium, with wall-to-wall macroalgae and mangroves. Will the Clarkii survive in the sump, where the light is on 24/7 ?

Dennis
The Marine Aquarium Society of Los Angeles County meets the 2nd Friday of the month. Speakers have included Dr. Ron Shimek, Eric Bourneman, Charles Delbeek, Steve Tyree and a host of others. More at http://www.maslac.org .

 

[Reef Fever]

I have heard that they will nest in Sarcophyton, although I have not seen it.

 

[syau]

I got similar problem with my tomato clown which really like to "nest" in my bubble coral until I put in a bubble tip anemone. The clown moved his nest to the new anemone within half an hour.

 

[ReefLion]

I had a pair of clowns that adopted a colt coral. There was no negative effect on the coral, as far as I could tell. Colt is generally very hardy, so it should work well. Good lookin' too.

ReefLion

 

[monkeyboy]

I wouldn't throw the clown in the 24/7 light, I would think that it would go absolutely nuts, or at least be extremely stressed. Maybe a nice healthy tank raised bubble tipped anemone is in order as I know of no way to make them stop harassing the sinularia. HTH

 

[DennisL]

First, thanks to everyone who chipped in with advice. What a great community this is.

My Clarkii has chosen to ignore a large Sarcophyton. This picture shows a large sarcophyton right next to the sinularia, and Mr. Clarkii has ignored the sarcophyton. http://quikstor.com/reef/images/140-GeneralPicture.jpg is the big picture, and here's a 12KB version for the bandwidth challenged: http://quikstor.com/reef/images/140Gene ... eSmall.JPG


An anemone is a possibility, although I don't really want to add an anemone to this tank. This Clarkii used to nest in my 210G tank in a Rose anemone http://quikstor.com/reef/images/ClarkiiInAnemona.jpg . I moved him because two percs I had in in the 140 lost their anemone (a splittee of the other) and the percs killed a couple frogspawns and other corals. So I moved the percs to the 210G to be with the rose (and they've taken up residence there very nicely) and moved the Clarkii to the 140. Hence the problem.

The 24/7 refugium probably would drive the Clarkii bonkers.

I do have a small Colt frag which is now about 5 inches long in my 210G. I'll try moving it today to see if Mr. Clarkii is interested.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

Dennis
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