Now that's a cool sight to see... IMO. When feeding your tank (more specifically your anemone) when using big pieces of food (that can't be pigged out on by the clown) they will (and maybe not right away) take the food in their mouth and go put it on the anemone's tentacles.

I had a Clarkii that would go stick it right inside the anemone, placing it on it's mouth. The clown wouldn't leave it until it started to digest the food.. it was too cool.

They will, sometimes.. (IME) swim all around the anemones area and peck at rocks, pretty much as if it's cleaning house.. making everything perfect for them. I had a pair of CB Ocellaris that would move small pieces of rubble around the anemone if it wasn't to her liking . It's fascinating to watch..

But.. not ALL clowns will do this.. at least in my experience so far. My recent pair of true percs have yet to feed their host.

HTH :D

My gold-striped maroon pair love their LTA. The larger female will grab bigger pieces of food & feed it to the anemone, but as mentioned, smaller foods like loose mysis are scarfed down by the clowns. Originally, in the 110g, the female had the large LTA & the male stayed in the small RBTA but now they host together in the Long Tentacle.

My Ocellaris pair have never even looked at an anemone. They love to host in a green bumpy Rhodactis mushroom coral & have always done so. The RBTA is in the tank with them but they ignore it.

Anthony

How long should one wait in a new tank before adding an anenome?

I got my anemone about 2.5months after I setup the tank. Mainly because a LFS suddenly got a shipment of them (and I havent seen any RBTA for sale up to that point), so I jumped in and got one.

Having said that, my tank was jump started because I pretty much took over a friend's setup (got most of the LR and corals he had, so there was minimal cycling involved).

I would wait around 6 months to be sure the tank is stable, longer is better.

I am definately no pro when it comes to the facets of the clownfish/anemone symbiotic relationship. I just know that they definately feed it. I can drop a piece of krill in now and there is no way the clowns can eat it, and they will take it into the anemone and drop it. The big female does anyways. And they protect it with their lives. Keeping small predators away and constantly picking at the tentacles. I have seen them just laying in it and routinely inhaling and exhaling tentacles one at a time as if vacuuming them. I have seen the big female throw hermits off the top near the anemone. That's funny. Just a couple thoughts.

Mike