Can clownfish kill coral?
 

I have a very beautiful duncan with very long tentacles and it was doing great growing really big, then I put the clownfish (pair) in the tank and the male started to host the duncan. The duncan was not so much upset then but I could see it was not inflated at maximum.

But today the female also decided to host that same duncan and she is kind of rough with it. Today the duncan looks really bad, bearely inflated and with shriveled tentacles. I have this duncan for a year and never saw it like that. It was always inflated a lot each day.

Can they kill it? or will the coral get used to it? Not sure if I should move that coral elsewhere or what?

Here is a video of the male in the duncan...the duncan was still looking ok on that video but not at its best, now half of the heads won't even come out :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=3JjzfcUNJHs




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Clowns can love their host a little too hard sometimes. I had a clown that hosted my duncan for a while and it really beat the crap out of it. It looked closed up for a while but then started to open up again like nothing was wrong.

Duncans can do this thing from time to time where they look really ****ed off and stay closed for weeks on end, then open up like nothing was ever wrong. Duncans are funny like that. And they're stupidly hardy... I doubt your clown could kill it unless it's getting to the point where it is doing actual damage to the flesh of the duncan.

I'd give it some time and see what happens... likely your clown is going to get bored of the duncan an move on.

I decided that if this goes on much longer I am going to separate the duncan in 2 colonies so that at least I won't lose both. I have this duncan for a year or more and it never looked like that, even on acclimatation on the first day.

I will watch it for a few days and if it get worse I will split it.

Yeah, they can kill it.

yup.....the best relationship for a clownfish is with a nem.....clowns can both kill some corals and be stung themselves by other corals......

damn. I really like that duncan but I can't get a nem as they move and sting coral and I have my tank full of coral, no more room for anything else.

Is there a nem that is relatively safe and will not move too much?

The only other thing I can think of is to put a plastic cage over the duncan to prevent the fish from touching it, at least until they settle on something else.

I've had gold stripe maroons kill many corals by grabbing them with their mouths and tossing them across the tank. They particularly liked killing my frogspawns and branching hammers.:twised:

I've also seen clowns hosting corals both safely and to the detriment of the coral. I have a small clown hosting an open brain right now.

Bubbletips are the safest bet, but it is always a toss of the coin. I have two unrelated RBTAs that are right next to eachother that have never moved once they grabbed on. I have even moved their rock all around the tank and they haven't done anything other than shift a bit. I hope I am not jinxing myself because I have a heck of a lot of coral in the tank that they could annihilate!

ok, I may try a bubbletip. They are quite nice as well but my fear is that it would detach and get stuck in the pump and kill everything. This hapened to one of my friend and she lost a lot of fish.

Nothing is easy in this hobby!

When I get a new anemone, I place it in a rock that has a hole where it can stick its foot and feel safe. I also have my powerheads away from any rock structures so the anemone cannot be sucked in unless its reallllllllly suicidal. Most of the time, these measures work for me and the anemone stays in place.

Ya, never any guarantees with BTA, but I've had one in my tank for close to 4 years & it has moved, but never very far. Early in the game it moved behind, almost under the rock I placed it on & after about a month I had to turn the rock, otherwise it would have wasted away due to lack of light. That was a pain, since the rock was supporting others & most everyone knows what happens when you start shifting one rock....

It has split a number of times & has always hosted a Maroon, first a single, now a mated pair. The original BTA & one clone are still on the same rock, I've sold or traded at least three other clones. Things that will help keep them in place IME are, as mentioned already, a slight depression or hole for their foot and probably also a clownfish partner. The original BTA I have shifted again just recently, not sure why but possibly due to some nudging by my Maroon female. The pair has been spawning for some time now & quite often will encourage the nem to make room for the spot they select to put down the clutch of eggs. Just as I was starting to get a little nervous about where it might end up, it stopped shifting, not all that far from the spot it's been anchored on for a couple of years. I have two VorTech pumps & they would no doubt make short work of a wandering nem that got too close.

That really scare me. I would prefer one that stay in the sand and does not require too much high light. Maybe a hiteri? That way I would not be afraid of it wandering in the pump.

Today I had to put a net over my duncan...it does not look too good today and it is all shriveled. Usualy it is fully inflated at that time of the day with the light on.

It was ok with the male because he was more gentle but the female is a freaking bully!

As soon as I put the net over the duncan, the make went to try and coach the female to adopt my other duncan, wich I also like but has shorter tentacles and it is even more anoy then the other.

sign...no way around getting an anemone or getting rid of the clownfish. If only I could find an artificial anemone :)

I bought an anemone
 

I got an anemone but now if the fish are going to go in it is another story. It's huge! It did not look so big at the store but in my 75 gallons it's a monster, about 10" across. I think it's the long tentacles, not sure, but it is one of the type that stay in the sand and are supposed to host clownfish.

Now beside the photo tric, any way to make the clownfish adopt it?

Time and patience.

If you discourage it away from your duncan it'll go looking for another home, so it make host the nem sooner. But don't stress out your fish! Just give it some time.

You must really like your clowns... When ever I had the issue of a fish pestering corals I've always removed the fish. I don't have alot of patience for unruly fish...:biggrin:

I try to accomodate every living thing in my aquarium and yes I do love my clownfish :)

But the anemone is nice now that it has settle properly...it's big though :)

The clown have started to go near the anemone tentacles. The male touch it sometimes but he does not really rub its full body yet, but I think it's will be just a matter of day. I put a net over the duncan and it is recovering. Today it looked much better, although the net is preventing it from fully inflating. That's still better than having a clow pestering it.

I am going to wait and see but I think there is good hope now that he's showing interest.

Can it go the other way around? Can a coral kill a clownfish? Had a baby ocllaris (1") in a tank with a torch coral. One morning the clown is gone. Never did find the body, not on the floor or anywhere else. I'm thinking maybe the torch got hungry?

Had an elephant ear-type, very large mushroom coral close up over my eating-frzn mysis mandarin goby about 8 years ago. One minute the goby was sitting on the coral, then next the coral was closed over the "stupid" fish, (I thought it was smart enough to swim away), and a few minutes later, when I looked again, the coral was slowly opening up with the goby dead in the middle. Mandarin gobies are poisonous I believe, so the coral didn't "eat" and digest it, but it certainly killed it.

no, I don't think so. your clownfish probably dies and the cleaning crew ate it.

My clownfish went into the frogspawn and decided it was not a pleasant experience and did not return but it was fine.

I even doubt a torch can sawllow a whole fish.

What do you mean a few minutes later?? you did not pull the fish out?!!??

Nope, no cleanup crew in that tank. If you saw the size of the torch you might think again.

I am surprised. Did you actually saw the fish get into the coral mouth and being sawllow whole?

My torch have such a small mouth.

Like I said, I couldn't find the body anywhere. Not dried up on the floor or anywhere else. The torch is the only other place it could have gone. When it's happy I've seen it swell to about the size of a baseball and I've fed it chunks of shrimp the same size as the missing clown.

I didn't see the fish inside the coral. I thought it was smart enough to swim away when the coral closed up. I just noticed it sitting there. A couple minutes later, saw the coral closed up. A few minutes later saw the coral open up with the dead mandarin sitting on it. I was working on my computer at the time and glancing over sporadically, not sitting right at the tank staring at it.