Cottony growth on clwn fish resolved

So the regulars may remember I posted a few weeks back about my
clownfish having a white, cottony growth on a couple of his fins. Per
suggestion of the LFS I added a cleaner shrimp to my tank...I didnt
mind, I wanted one anyway...but beyond that, I watched him 'clean' the
clownfish a few nights in a row, and sure as spit, bye bye cottony
growth. Clownfish appears to be happy and healthy again, apart from
forming a relationship with an algae bloom (he seems to think its an
anemone)...sorry clownie, but that algae is gone soon as I get home
from work today.

With that in mind, anybody have a suggestion for a coral that might
make him happy? I've heard of clowns forming relationships with
hammer corals and the like...
Mitch

Big Habeeb wrote:


With that in mind, anybody have a suggestion for a coral that might
make him happy? I've heard of clowns forming relationships with
hammer corals and the like...
Mitch

Good to hear of his improvement. To answer your question my tomato
clowns host in a toadstool....the toadstool just retracts when it has
had enough.....my perculas hosted in a feather duster and sadly that was
the end of the feather duster....

Gill

Big Habeeb wrote on Mon, 26 Nov 2007:
I watched him 'clean' the clownfish a few nights in a row, and sure as
spit, bye bye cottony growth.

Glad your problem is resolved.

Clownfish appears to be happy and healthy again, apart from forming a
relationship with an algae bloom (he seems to think its an anemone)
With that in mind, anybody have a suggestion for a coral that might
make him happy? I've heard of clowns forming relationships with
hammer corals and the like...

Depends on the species of clown, and the type of host.

The best combination is of course to get a native host anemone that is
appropriate to your clown species.

After that, you can sometimes use sea anemones that aren't hosts in the wild,
but sometimes become hosts in captivity.

Depending on the clown, though, many will use lots of different corals as
hosts, if they can't find the anemone they want. Basically, large-polyped
soft-flesh stinging corals are "almost" anemones. I've heard of clowns
sometimes adopting large mushroom corals.

For myself, I've had ocellaris clowns that have hosted in frogspawn corals,
and in hammer corals (which are closely related coral species). It's sometimes
taken a month or two for them to adapt to a new host.

For that matter, my clowns previously made a small depression in the sand and
slept together in a little pile on the sand for awhile. And for awhile they
slept in a large plate coral (montipora capricornis), which isn't soft or
stingy at all:
http://reef.geddis.org/cgi/show-phot...nfish/dsc01534

But the good news is that it doesn't really matter. Clowns will do just fine
in a bare tank with no other corals at all.

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.
-- Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

On Nov 26, 12:35 pm, Gill Passman
wrote:
Big Habeeb wrote:

With that in mind, anybody have a suggestion for a coral that might
make him happy? I've heard of clowns forming relationships with
hammer corals and the like...
Mitch

Good to hear of his improvement. To answer your question my tomato
clowns host in a toadstool....the toadstool just retracts when it has
had enough.....my perculas hosted in a feather duster and sadly that was
the end of the feather duster....

Gill

OK good to know. I just don't want to depress the poor little thing
by suctioning out what he's established a relationship wtih...its
fairly amusing to watch him playing in the algae...serves me
right...got busy over thanksgiving and one part got a bit out of
control, with some strands being up to about 7 inches in length...got
most of the rest of the tank clear, but missed that one patch.

Mitch

Clownfish are often hard on corals, often to the
point of killing them. They can also kill anemones
if too small for the clownfish. The best choice are
frilly mushrooms. They take the abuse very well.
Also frilly mushrooms don't move around anywhere as
much as anemones usually do.

Wayne Sallee



Big Habeeb wrote on 11/26/2007 10:27 AM:
So the regulars may remember I posted a few weeks back about my
clownfish having a white, cottony growth on a couple of his fins. Per
suggestion of the LFS I added a cleaner shrimp to my tank...I didnt
mind, I wanted one anyway...but beyond that, I watched him 'clean' the
clownfish a few nights in a row, and sure as spit, bye bye cottony
growth. Clownfish appears to be happy and healthy again, apart from
forming a relationship with an algae bloom (he seems to think its an
anemone)...sorry clownie, but that algae is gone soon as I get home
from work today.

With that in mind, anybody have a suggestion for a coral that might
make him happy? I've heard of clowns forming relationships with
hammer corals and the like...
Mitch

Glad to hear your clown is in better shape. I've had a pair of true perculas
that found their home in a rather large patch of glove polyps (anthelia)
where they rarely ventured from during the past year or so. When they first
"discovered" the glove, the mass had only about six or seven polyps, now the
mass has dozens of polyps speading to the glass and sand. The clowns didn't
effect their growth (to my knowledge). Before that they made their home in a
growth of colt coral (cladiella), which did not appreciate them being there.
They are fascinating to watch as they try to feed and clean the mass of
glove polyps, but I do miss them swimming about.

Patrick

My female tomato clown fed the leather toadstool with a demised cleaner
shrimp.....(being replaced by the LFS)......now that was interesting to
watch......I was suprised when the shrimp bits disappeared as I had
never thought of leathers as injesters of large chunks of food.....but
it certainly went and no other fish/critter other than the clown
approached the leather.....I've heard of clowns feeding their anemone so
it was interesting to see my tomato following the same behaviour with
her surrogate host.....didn't expect the host to eat it though (if
indeed it did - still a little sceptical here but may be wrong).....

Gill