clownfish & anemone question

[fishforu]

i just got a mated pair of black and white tank bred ocellaris clown fish. the false percula currently in my tank is peacefully co-existing with them.
however, it has stopped eating.
1. is this normal? will it eventually regain its appetite? what can done to rectify the situation?

i would like to add a rose bubble tip anemone and a yellow sebae anemone.

2. if the pair of b&w clownfish or false percula host with an anemone, will the current peaceful relationship turn sour?

thanks.

 

[bfessler]

With clown fish its a crap shoot. If they are getting along now adding an anemone won't be the reason for the relationship heading south. Make sure there are enough options for them all to have a place to go. In my clown tank the biggest fish gets her choice of where she will host and who hosts with her. As long as the others have a place to go every things fine. If the dominant fish isn't willing to share you won't be able to make her. In my Dad's tank he had one black and white ocellaris and 2 false percula's. They got along fine when tiny but as they matured the percs ganged up on the Ocellaris. It was more a matter of maturity then anything else.

 

[Len]

Hey Billy, LTNS

If your existing clown isn't showing any other symptoms of disease, I wouldn't worry too much. Sometimes fish will lose their appetite due to aggression (even if you don't see any fighting, there's always territorial aggression). If this continues for over a week, I'd consider removing the specimen that isn't feeding to a separate temporary tank and see if it starts eating there. If it does, then the issue was aggression. If it doesn't, it may have a disease (e.g. internal parasites would be the first guess ... Prazipro works great to deworm marine fish, is easy to administer, and is pretty gentle on fish).

I've only seen clowns share anemones with other species in really large anemones. Usually, the dominant female will drive off all the other species. There's a chance the female will allow both to host the anemone if the other two remain small males.

 

[Anonymous]

My tomato has dominated both of my clarkii clowns and was very aggressive to the larger one. Now that they are both the same size she treats them the same.