Alternatives to anemones for clowns

[UMan101]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to avoid getting an anemone (lost last one to powerhead unfortunately). So I've been researching online and it seems clownfish will host even corals. So far I've seen lots of people having success with torch and hammer corals

Does anyone have any recommendations or success stories on what coral to try with? Also, will hosting hurt the coral in any way?



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[johntan]

I tried in order hammer, frogspawn, bubble, toadstool, nothing. Added a torch and the clown started hosting the bubble coral.

 

[Jim Tansey]

Greg Hiller sells a toadstool with very long polyps that Clowns just love.

Jim

Edit: I have mine hosting in a large Elegance.

 

[this is me]

The issue with clowns hosting in LPS is that depending on how "loving" the clowns are, they may damage the LPS against its own skeleton and the LPS eventually die.
I've got my clowns to host in a hairy mushroom before and it seems to be holding up a lot better than my torch. Toadstool is also another better alternative for clownfish host.
But of course, an anemone would be ideal. Sand dweller anemones are a lot more stationary than a rock dweller. You have to read up on your clown species and the anemone that will host them.

 

[thomb]

Our evil clowns (well the female is evil) hosted around an acan colony that encrusted on a rock creating a cave underneath - spawned numerous times there. The new tank set up they also "host" around a large brain coral which is near by - they swim back and forth all day - seems kinda repetitive but they are fish. Doesn't seem to be any harm being done to either party. That evil fish will likely live for 40 years...

 

[Newguy]

I've got a clown that for some reason calls a colony of gold dust Zoas it's home.

 

[Jim Tansey]

Found an old picture of my Clowns with Greg's Toadstool.

 

[sushi62]

Mine host in a Duncan and I have 2 anemones!

 

[GobyWanKenobie]

+1 to toadstool. I have three bubble tips and one long tentacle anemone in there, but it prefers the toadstool.

 

[dz6t]

Toadstool is the best alternative to anemone.
Clownfish can damage hammer and frog spawn by rubbing them too hard.

 

[Curren007K]

My clowns started out with anemones but moved on to hosting my pom xenia colony.
But then everything changed when my Sailfin attacked.
Afterwards, my clowns moved on to hosting my anthelia colony.
But then everything changed when my Sailfin attacked.
Now their back to hosting my anemones....

The pattern here is my Sailfin Desjardini likes to annihilate soft corals that get too big apparently.

 

[Technorch]

Mine jump between their anemone, to a gold torch, a hammer, and a frogspawn. They do this every night. Also, my clowns can be very"special" and they tendo to host my magnet scraper for some odd reason lol.

 

[UMan101]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the input. Fortunately, I have a toad stool to give this a try with. Mine might be a little too small for now but it's growing fairly quick!



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[s_kelley]

Clowns will host various stuff, I've had ones over the years host anems, toadstool, Xenia, anthalia, and even an acan which it did not enjoy at all. I think it's all about the clowns preferences and not ours unfortunately

 

[Bobbofin]

Our evil clowns (well the female is evil) hosted around an acan colony that encrusted on a rock creating a cave underneath - spawned numerous times there. The new tank set up they also "host" around a large brain coral which is near by - they swim back and forth all day - seems kinda repetitive but they are fish. Doesn't seem to be any harm being done to either party. That evil fish will likely live for 40 years...

The evil fish that you can't catch and wish would die live for many years!