I have had a big Gold Stripped Maroon Clown for about a year now.  (Thanks Mark.)  Every time I have put a new anemone in my tank the clown takes to it within minutes. 

First I tried a Long Tentacle Anemone.  The clown was in it before the anemone left my hand as I put it in.  Unfortunately it crawled into a cave and each time I pulled it out it crawled back.  Needless to say within a couple months it died.   I have a hunch the GSM was too loving and it was trying to get away.

The second one was a huge green Bubble Tip.  My clown loved this Anemone.  Never left it except to eat.  One time while I was on vacation it crawled into the overflow and killed itself.  (Shut down the entire tank, emptied the sump over the top onto the floor and died in the overflow tubes with no water.

Well after a few months I started feeling bad for the GSM.  It's not been the same since the BTA committed Harry Carey.  So I bought this guy for him...

The Carpet has been in the tank for almost a week and the GSM has not even taken a look at it.  Almost like she is going out of her way to ignore it. 

My understanding was that Maroon Clowns would take to almost any anemone.  Does anyone have a GSM hosting in a Carpet or ever seen one?  Maybe she is still in mourning over the BTA and doesn't want to start a new relationship right away.

Hello,

I used to sell Velvet Carpet Anemones and was warned that they will give you a 'rash' if the tentacles touched my hands. I never got a rash from other anemones, such as sebae or condylactsis. Hence, your Clownfish may feel the same thing. They don't like Velvet Carpet Anemones. I never ever seen a clownfish nest in a Velvet Anemone during the whole year I worked at that Marine Aquarium store.

Zoy

I have a pair of gold stripes and debated for a month whether or not to buy the an anenome.  I was told not to for several reasons mainly they were hard to work with and hard to keep.  I think alot of people on this forum have had or have anenomes and from what I hear some are fairly successful.  They require alot of light and good waterflow, but you probably know all this.  I just bought Joyce Wilkerson's book Clownfishes and here vote against anenomes finally decided for me that I would not get an anenome.

To answer your question though:  There are only certain host anenomes for clown fishes.  According to Wilkerson (she goes into good detail about the study of how an anenomefish can live among the nematocysts of an anenome) though no one realy knows the true reason for this symbiotic relationship it is clear that not all anenomes can be hosts, but there also is an acclimation time for anenomefish going from one species of anenome to another. 

Coral alternatives to the anenome are frogspawn, hammer, sacrophyton and elegance.  Mark has some oscellaris or percula that hang around a large clam!

Good luck,

John

The only other place my GSM has tried to host is in a green fuzzy mushroom, but it didn't seem very excited about he whole thing and soon gave up.  Probably a good thing too as the fish could have easily loved the shroom to death being about twice it's size.

Right now I'm dealing with my new anemone friend wandering all over the tank.  I read in my invertebrates book that they like sandy substrates so I found what looked to be a good place for it and tried to get it to stay there.  Of course this was all in vain and I knew it would be, but I had to try.  Anyway it has crawled up the rock and over my corals.  At first I was very displeased with this as I know carpets have a strong sting, but so far it has not killed a thing in my tank.  It has been right up against several SPS and they are still great after it moves.  It sat right on top of a Zoanthid colony and after moving they are still happy and healthy so hopefully it will soon find a home to it's liking and take up residence.

Jake Pehrson wrote: Hope this helps. http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/uploads/JakePehrson/46ECB_Clownfish_and_Their_Host_Anemones_version_1.pdf - Clownfish_and_Their_Host_Anemones_version_1.pdf http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/uploads/JakePehrson/1EAZ9_Clownfish_and_Their_Host_Anemones_version_1.pdf - Also, keep in mind that many of the "black percula clowns" sold are actually captive raised ocellaris clowns.

Try this table to see if the fish and anemone are 'pairable'.  Though my a.ocellaris prefer a frogspawn to a quadricolor.  it didn't work for me, if it doesn't work for you check with jake pherson who made it.

According to that list it is the Clarkii Clown that doesn't care so much what it hosts in.  I thought the Maroon was about the same, but according to that list a Maroon is actually quite picky about it's host.

Thanks for the link Crazy Tarzan.

Will,

maybe this is a blessing.  That anemone looks exactly like the anemone I had that ate all my fish.

Adam

It hasn't actually done in the mushrooms yet, but is certainly trying.

Adam, My wife keeps telling me that she wants the carpet to eat the GSM so we can get a couple Ocellaris.