Any help/suggestions very welcome.

Our smallest Percula has bonded with our crocea, constantly hovering around it, laying in it, rubbing it's body against, fighting away any other fish, etc.

The crocea is taking it fairly well, retracting it's mantle when the clown gets too "pushy" but otherwise just tolerating the clown.

I've thrown the clown in our refugium for the moment, until I can figure out how get him to leave the clam alone.

We've also got a larger percula (they are a bonded pair) and a black/white ocellaris (not bonded) ... the black/white is a little nippy towards the pair, but no high aggression in the tank.

I don't want to throw in an anemone (personally dont agree with throwing them in aquariums)

I also don't want to lose the clam from the clown tearing or harassing him to death, and I don't want to lose the clown from the clam losing it's temper and clamping down.

You shouldn't throw rocks in a glass aquarium either In reality, clowns and anemones aren't really magnets so there is no guarantee that adding one will result in that relationship being formed...at least not right away.

I think that because clowns are so territorial, you might be able to rearrange things while it is in your refugium and when you put it back, it may just look for another place call home. Otherwise, if you can do it, you might want to try the opposite and let the clown spend a couple days in the tank and then put the clam back in a spot that the clownfish doesn't seem interested in. I've always had an anemone so I can't speak from experience but I've heard a few people wishing that they had added their clownfish before they added corals because these fish can make some unexpected bonds shortly after finding themselves in a new home.

If other people want to keep anemones, that's their choice. I dont stick my nose up or think differently if someone has one - I've had them before.

I'm just not crazy about keeping them... since research has been unable to determine lifespans of anemones in the wild that aren't otherwise affected by external forces (predators, temps, etc)... they could theoretically live indefinitely. On the other hand, it's normally considered successful to keep them alive for a few years, and it's not highly common for them to live more then a few months.

Dont get me wrong, I'm not saying mankind bringing about the death of anemones, and I will still keep species that are considered difficult to keep and statistically dont have a great chance... but anemones are just too much for me to personally deal with...

I digress, back to the clown issue -

Yes I was very surprised when they went for the clam. I've had the black/white clown in the tank for 1.5 years or so... he bonded to the one anemone we kept a year back, but never bothered the corals (we've never kept soft corals, which is what I normally hear clowns going for!)

I'm almost speechless about the clam. The LFS's only recommendation is that I throw an anemone in the tank

I definitely respect your opionion on anemones, as I am sure everyone does. You make some great points and I think they should always be mentioned; although they rarely are.

Like I mentioned, I really don't think that adding an anemone would result in creating perfect harmony instantly. In fact, just from my experience on forums like this one, it does seem like a lot of people have a hard time getting a clownfish to host in a newly aquired anemone so it might not be worth the risk to hope that this clownfish finds the anemone before it has done too much damage to the clam. Point being, I think the LFS advice is short-sighted to a large degree even if it makes sense theoretically.

Anyways, if I was in your shoes, I would try to keep the clown out of the tank for a couple days...maybe a week...if it doesn't put it in jeopardy and then move it back. If the problem is still there, I would take it out again, rearrange things as much as you can and see what happens. If all else fails, maybe this is a golden opportunity to buy another aquarium

nice... yeah i dont think the wife's going to let me write off an aquarium as necessary infant-room decor

It's not a big deal to keep him out of the tank for a while - the refugium's pretty big, with calm water conditions, no other fish... just macro algae and hermits. I'm going to move the rock the clam's on before reintroducing the clown, but any other suggestions/advice always welcome!

I had actually moved the yellow tang (former sole inhabitant) out of refugium on friday to monitor how he'd do in the main tank, since he wouldn't accept algae sheets, or macro, and he had picked all hair algae out of tank. I expected a day of bickering, but after a few hours he's getting along great with the sailfin and purple tangs, and actually has some hair algae to graze on now.

Do I need to move the clown's mate to the refugium? (never had to worry about clown gender changes, breaking bonds, etc before... dont want to screw things up)

In the tank at my church, one clown hosted with some mushrooms. There is really no telling what they will do. I agree that it is a personal preference on what you stock in your tank.


I agree with Tommy in separating them for a while and change things up in the tank.

It worked, left the clown out for a couple days, moved the clam to a different area of the tank and put some montipora digitata where the clam was.

Now the clown's bonding to the montipora Much safer bizarre bond . . .