Black Storms to Host?

[Washingtonian]

 

Hello, any advice on how to get these Black Storms to host in a rainbow BTA?

 

They have been lingering around it for the last few months, but yet to see them take a dive.

 

Thanks!

 

 

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[Jon Lazar]

I don't think ocellaris or perculas will normally host in a BTA.

[gmerek2]

If they are hanging around it like that they are going to host it when their slime coats adjust and it starts to feel like a back rub instead of stings. Mine hung around for several months also before they started hosting (regular clowns)

Edited August 2, 2018 by gmerek2

[gmerek2]

I probably should mention though, seems to me Clowns will host anything they can adjust to and is close to where they call home. I had a set host frogspawn then moved on to torch after(2 BTA were in tank) Again though that’s great that they are hanging around the BTA as I think they are just “testing the waters” lol

[YHSublime]

I don't think ocellaris or perculas will normally host in a BTA.

 

I've had both host nems!

[Jon Lazar]

I've had both host nems!

 

That's good to know. Mine have paired up with everything _but_ BTAs. They've picked frogspawn, leathers, and large mushrooms, but never a BTA.

[newbie2014]

Yeah, it can be tricky to get BTA to host regular ocellaris or perculas. It's not their natural host. Mine were the same way. But once I switched to Clarkii, no problem. They dived right in within five second I introduced the RBTA. 

 

Some suggested starting feeding the clown very close to BTA to entice them to go in.

[menglish]

Try this

[YHSublime]

There was a similar thread to this earlier on WAMAS. Try feeding the nem, not the clowns, and that's usually a good trick. 

 

 

That's good to know. Mine have paired up with everything _but_ BTAs. They've picked frogspawn, leathers, and large mushrooms, but never a BTA.

 

 Both my perculas are hosting a series of anemones in my tank currently. It amazed me when I started in this hobby that the ORA captive percs I started with went right for an RBTA as soon as I put it in.  

[Origami]

I've never had any issues with Oscellaris hosting BTAs over the years. During an interval between having GBTAs and RBTAs (the green split too much so I took them all out and restarted sometime later with red), my clowns headed over to a large frogspawn and made it their home. After introducting the RBTA, they eventually found it and moved over.

[BtmDweller]

I think you can get just about any clown to host a bubble tip. Unless they prefer something else.

 

 

 

 

 

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[Washingtonian]

Thanks for the replies! Gonna try feeding the nem, as well as feeding clowns close to it.

[AlanM]

Mine just went for the bubbletip.  Seems some are more picky than others.

[ronl]

I have an orange oscellaris that was hosting in BTAs for 6+ years in an older tank. The last year was after its mate had died. Then I transferred everything to a new tank 2 years ago and added a black & white as a new mate a couple months later. It took a year for the orange to go into the BTAs in the new tank even though they were the same BTAs it was hosting in the other tank. Now the orange is hosting for the last year but the B&W still won’t go into the BTAs after almost 2 years. They hang out together all day and then sleep separately at night; orange in the BTAs and B&W in the corner.

[miggs76]

My gold nugget clown literally took 3 hours and started nipping at the nem when I bought him. By hour 5 he was knee deep in the nem. I think a small tank helps.

[bues0022]

My gold nugget clown literally took 3 hours and started nipping at the nem when I bought him. By hour 5 he was knee deep in the nem. I think a small tank helps.

 

Bubble tips are natural host anemone's for Maroon Clownfish. In this case your tank size has far less to do with success, but rather the natural pairing of host nem and fish species. 

 

Outside of the natural pairing, success is individualistic. I've had some percs host in BTA's, and I've had different pairs of percs completely ignore the exact same BTA. I've had some fish that were great with a Haddoni anemone I had once, then the same Haddoni eat one of them (fish was not sick). (moral of that story: green stripped haddoni's pack a nasty sting: be careful!).

 

If your goal is to have your clownfish host in your anemone, about the only way to stack this extremely strongly in your favor is to switch either your anemone or your fish for a natural pairing. Otherwise, regard them as the separate species they are and be OK with the possibility of your fish diving tail deep into the tentacles.