Clowns and flowerpot corals?
 

I recently bought a flowerpot coral, it opened up all the way the day after I put it in but now my 2 clowns have started to host in it and it doesn't open up much any more. Will it get used to the clowns and open up soon?

No it probably will not and from what I have been told the clowns will harm it. They will rub their slime off on it and when it retracts it will pull some of that slime inside itself which is not healthy. Plus they are not fond of the thrashing about from the clowns.

Try covering the flower pot for a few days and see if they will host something else.
Otherwise you might as well sell it.

There is nothing else in there that they will host. They are the first two fish I bought several months ago and they have never hosted in anything else I have. Can I buy something that they might like better so I can keep the flowerpot?

If your not ready for an anemone,you can try frogspawn or hammer.No guaranees that they will host any of them.Flowerpots can be a challenge in themselves with out the clowns added to the mix.

i have a pair of black percs that a fairly good size that host in my flowerpot and have been doing so for the past 2 months or so with no ill effects on the flowerpot.

I think this is one of those "it works for some, not for others" . I think for the most part, flowerpot's and clowns aren't usually a good mix. Even frog's and hammers aren't the best.. as they will irritate them as well... but those two are more likely to adjust to the clowns.

I had a flowerpot coral in my nano with two clows who never touched it (they had an anenome though) The coral later moved to my larger tank where my clown goby liked to sit it, which didn't fair well for the coral at all. They seem to really hate touching...

I moved the FPC back to my nano, got my goby a brain coral which he loves to death, and re-introduced the flowerpot coal and so for so good.

How long do you think I have before the flowerpot will get hurt? I have read both negative and positive comments about this (here and other sites) so I'd like to wait it out for a bit, I will get an anemone if I need to but I don't want to jump the gun and rush out to buy one. If I do have to get an anemone which type?

It all depends how vigorous your clowns are hosting in the coral. If they're really beating it up with their tails, then asap. If they are very gentle & the coral doesn't look like its getting damaged, then you have time. Bubbletips & Long tentacle anemones are the ones most people have success keeping in captivity. Do you have halides, because anemones do like lots of light. Some people are able to keep anemones under PC & such, but MH is what I keep mine under now. In the past, my LTA was raised under 96w PC & 2 T5s.

Anthony