Do you have a captive bred clownfish? How long did it take for your fish to begin hosting an anemone?
I am truly fascinated by the genetic instinct of animals. There is no denial there are things you cannot, and frankly do not need to teach. Clownfish for one- even when they are captive raised in a bare bottom tank with a flower pot, instinctively knows to become attached to an anemone when they see one. Though results vary…. Here is my tank raised misbar maroon clownfish hosting a rose bubble tip anemone.
The anemone and the clownfish have never met. I am not sure if the anemone was fragged in captivity (most likely). But know for certain the clownfish have never seen one in its life. It did take the maroon clown two days to become a full time host though. The fish shown some interest the first day but hesitates to “dunk” into the anemone.
Here is the anemone acclimating in the frag tank.
And here is my other tank. I am planning to turn this tank into an anemone tank. Currently it has five maxi mini carpet anemone, two flower rock anemone, and this long tentacle with an AI prime shining over it. I also have a few colonies and frags of xenia going on. The snow onyx clownfish here is the one clownfish that struggled to find an anemone to host. It had hosted clam, soft coral (branching finger), frogspawn coral, long tentacle plate (at least this one looks like an anemone), but the whole time ignored anemone’s presence. But now that after two years of living in larger tanks, I moved it to a smaller (28 gallon) tank and it seems to finally find its forever home in this long tentacle. 