A difficult pairing :D

[liveforphysics]

I struggled for about 3 weeks to finally get the big mean monster gold stripe maroon clown to accept this little guy I got from Ilham and raised in my frag tank.

For the first week or so, she wildly snapped at him, and seemed to be focused on trying to kill him right through the little plastic container I was floating him in. He actually got loose in the tank a few times when she tipped the container over, and chased the poor little guy like a tom and jerry cartoon. Anyways, through all sorts of suprizes in the process, they are finally friends.

The size difference is so extreme, its really pretty comical to watch them together. The female can easily open her mouth up wide enough for the baby to swim in, turn around and swim back out.

Enjoy the pics!

 

[Elmo18]

LOL!

THat is great!

They make a great pair and the little one will grow just as quick.

Best,
Ilham

 

[liveforphysics]

I love watching the interaction between them. The little guy seems just a tad untrusting of the big clown still sometimes, but I could understand that since just a few weeks ago she would wildly try to attack him on sight.

She has never made an agressive move towards him in anyway for the last 5 days or so, and actaully seems to be shareing food. I dump in my usual thick swamp of brine shrimp, and she seems to leave the smallest chunks for him to get. Its so cute to see them rubbing around in the RTBAs together, but very difficult to get a pic that shows the little guy, since he just dissapears into the folds of the anemone most of the time. Thats why the pics I took are when he is on the edge of the RTBA so he is actually visible. At a glance you would swear its just a lone GSM in the RTBA, then you just catch a flash of the little guy pokeing out.

 

[Krish]

That's very cool Luke!

 

[WAFalconer]

Too cool ! Beautiful RBTA !!!

 

[bc_slc]

i love GSM clowns. They are one of my favorite clowns. I only wish they didn't kick my sand around so much and nudge things in their area. They don't like it when I add frags to their territory. They look awesome with a red BTA. Enjoy them.

 

[wrightme43]

Thats cool Luke. I got a pair for one of my customers. They started out the same size, but now they are crazy different sizes. She is huge. Attacks and removes any corals I place near any one of her anemones. She even took a big chunk of pocilpora and droped in the anemone and killed it, less than a minute after I glued it down.
Did the Barry White music help any? LOL

 

[liveforphysics]

Steve- I have had the big momma GSM push a few corals into the RTBAs to kill them too. They are pretty smart like that. I watched her pickup a hermit and drop him in the anemone, appearently just for kicks. She pushes over all my hydronphora corals and burys them. That gets a little annoying, and it doesnt seem to matter where I place them in the tank. I guess she takes perticular offense to the very strong sting they have.

Thanks for the complements on the RTBA. It is 3rd generation snipped in half with sisscors to propagate brood stock. In another week or so I will snip it in half or thirds again. Amazingly resiliant/durable animals in the right conditions.

 

[rudeanduncouth]

Thats awesome! How exactly did you go about getting them to share an anenome let alone tolerate each other?