clowns trying to host in feather duster?

[Mahoney]

Hey All!

Have had my 55g salt water tank about 2 years. I have a mated pair of clowns that I've had for most of that time (in addition to a yellow tang, clown goby, 6-line wrasse, some peppermint shrimp, hermit crabs, snails, and a decent sized feather duster--prob 4 inch diameter when fully open). Lately, my male clown has been paying a lot of attention to the feather duster the past week or two. He swims up in it and nestles around in a passive, non-agressive way, and sometimes he'll try to stick his head down in the center area(again, in a non aggressive way--it doesn't look like he's trying to eat it or anything) and it will cause it to close up. Lately, he has done it so often that the feather duster doesn't want to fully open--it will stay about 3/4 of the way open most of the time. I'm worried that it will feel attacked/bugged enough to shed it's head or something or will somehow be harmed.

Is this a sign I need to get an anemone for the pair to host in? I've noticed the female does not exhibit the same behaviors, she's usually nearby the male, but never nestling in the feather duster like the male. I'd say the clowns are roughly a year and a half to two years old each.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
Amanda

 

[Peppie]

IMO ,
The feather duster will get stressed and bail out.
The clowns dont need an anemone to host. They will be attracted to a number of softies and LPS.
Mine live in and around a Leather.
I had to move my feather duster further away from their territory. They kept pecking at it.

 

[senji]

from what i read and been told clowns can do that to feather dusters eventually killing it and eating it. watch it carefully.

 

[seedlessinseattle]

Mine host my frogspawn which is about 10 inches in diameter when fully open

 

[Mahoney]

Thanks for the input! I moved him and the clowns seem to be leaving him alone now.

 

[Stomatopod]

Anemone fish often can't tell the difference between a coral, anemone, rock, fan worm, etc.. seriously I seen them host fake sps corals in the lfs. One thing about fan worms is they will attract attention to some animals to go near it as when stuff passes by they retract making the curious animals (clowns mainly) want to go check it out. Infact, believe it or not.. I had a pair of harlequin shrimp litteraly host my one fan worm... They were always hidden in caves.. then when I introduced a fan worm out in the open they stuck by it all the time and even dragged their food to it... then I gave the worm to my pistol shrimp and it got tore up...

Like said clowns can host pretty much anything, I recommend a peaceful large xenia colony since they can't hurt anything and don't have sweeper tentacles, and they can sometimes be confused with anemones, and try to get the clowns to host that.