NOAA Divers to Explore for Venomous Fish

[padiscubapro]

Actually, the anemone fish needs to build up their immunity to the anemone. If they have been out of "touch" with an anemone for a while, they are likely to get stung by even an anemone they used to live in. Fish in shops have lost their build-up of Tolerance. They have to approach the anemone and make minute touches and build up their coating all over again. Often the fish forgets this and dashes in.....yummy.....burp!!!

I was aware of the acclimation, but I also think it has to do with the various chemistries of the individual anemonies.. I haven never had a clown fish consumed by a normal host..

BTW most clown fish today in the trade are "farm" raised.. There are exceptions of course with specific species..

I used to breed Sebae, Tomatoe, and few others.. WIth the right type of hosts they quickly take to them without danger...
It became too much work so I gave it up...

SInce I had a pretty much unlimited supply I did try getting them to see If I could get common atlantic anenomies to accept them I was never successful..

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Just visited Key West and their aquarium - in one of their tanks was a clownfish existing with other Caribbean fish species, in what appeared to me to be a Caribbean anemone. I should have paid attention to the stickers with descriptions of the critters above each tank, as that would be the confirmation of whether both the anemone and the clownfish weren't from local stock.

 

[padiscubapro]

Just visited Key West and their aquarium - in one of their tanks was a clownfish existing with other Caribbean fish species, in what appeared to me to be a Caribbean anemone. I should have paid attention to the stickers with descriptions of the critters above each tank, as that would be the confirmation of whether both the anemone and the clownfish weren't from local stock.

Being with other caribrean fish is no big deal.. I would like to know if the anenome was local.. Unfortunately there are many caribean and anenomies from around the world that LOOK the same..

In other parts of the world anenomies dies without the protection of their residents.. In the caribean most anenomies have no residents (there are a few crab species that do live with anenomies) and they are able to survive most likely by having stronger chemical weapons..

 

[BeauB]

SInce I had a pretty much unlimited supply I did try getting them to see If I could get common atlantic anenomies to accept them I was never successful..

I have a maroon clown that hosted in a Condy for several months. I eventually removed the Condy because it began to wander around the tank too much. The clown never looked like he had any problems in hosting in it. He now, comically, hosts in a Candy Cane coral.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Being with other caribrean fish is no big deal.. I would like to know if the anenome was local.. Unfortunately there are many caribean and anenomies from around the world that LOOK the same..

In other parts of the world anenomies dies without the protection of their residents.. In the caribean most anenomies have no residents (there are a few crab species that do live with anenomies) and they are able to survive most likely by having stronger chemical weapons..

That's what I wish I'd paid attention to as well - the anemone looked like a lavender tipped Caribbean variety, and I didn't think to pay a lot of attention to the sticker above the tank on the anemone.

Of course, I've also observed many Spotted (Lavender) cleaner shrimp, Pederson's cleaner shrimp, and Squat Anemone shrimp inhabiting Caribbean anemones during regular open water dives - Bonaire & Curacao seemed to have an abundance of these.

 

[archman]

Although the Caribbean boasts obligate cleaner species, I believe it does NOT host obligate anemone species for those cleaners. Meaning the anemones couldn't really give a rat if the cleaner was present or not. The corkscrew and pink-clubbed anemones most commonly bear cleaner-type crustaceans... more often than not you'll find these two species lacking any cleaner shrimps on them. Both of these species also do well by themselves in properly configured reef tanks, we've got two giant Condylactis in a couple of our tanks.

The corkscrew anemone is pretty potent, but the pink-clubbed anemone is not, in fact it barely stings at all. Ironically, you're more likely to find cleaner shrimps associated with corkscrews. This begs the question, who's really doing the defense, the anemone or the shrimp?

 

[Allison Finch]

I spend a lot of time in PNG and I often see anemone without any anemone fish living in them. The anemone is not totally dependant on them. They do just fine without them. I also see anemones with different species living together and, on occasion see hybrid fish (white cap anemone, for instance). I spend more time watching anemones that anything else.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Archman - how is an anemone "resident" defined?

Padiscubapro- I think my wife got a pic of the clown & anemone. PM me with your e-mail address and I'll send.

 

[archman]

Archman - how is an anemone "resident" defined?

Hmmm... I'm no reef hobbyist (which use their own lingo), so I'll use ecological descriptions.

1. Obligate residents. Species required to be present in said habitat (in this case an anemone). Typically such species are highly co-evolved for specific habitat type. I believe this would be the clownfish and most cleaner shrimp.

2. Facultative residents. Species that can occur in said habitat, but do not need to be. More generalist-type species. Banded coral shrimps. Arrow crabs. Peppermint shrimp. Maybe cleaner gobies too. In the case of the peppermint shrimp, those things have been genetically and behaviorally determined to be the ancestors of "true" Caribbean cleaners.

Anemones tend to be fairly extreme "habitats", which keeps the load of facultative symbionts down. Hence you will commonly find such species in rocks and crevices near anemones, but not usually on/in the anemones.

Of course, what happens in an aquarium can be quite different from the wild. Thus you can keep obligate-type species in empty tanks. And facultative species will do the weirdest things. Our lab's had peppermint shrimp clean our student's fingers, and we've had a banded coral shrimp park in front of a Condylactis. We don't keep arrow crabs anymore, they're just mean!