Anyone seen a clown eat its host anemone?

[texman]

I just transferred the contents of my 120g tank from my old office to a 250g new tank at my new office. One of the contents is a pair of gold stripe maroon clowns. The clowns were in the new tank without anemone for about 1 week when I added a small rose BTA. The larger of the two clowns immediately started biting off a few tentacles at a time. I fed some food to the tank and he seemed to have stopped, however today, again, I have noticed the clown rip off a few tentacles and eat them. The anemone still looks good, but I am concerned that it won't be able to take too much more of the clown nipping at it. Is the clown's behavior normal? Is it trying to incorporate some of the toxins into its body such that it will be able to live in the anemone or is the clown just being malicious?

 

[Anonymous]

I believe it's normal behaviour.

Is it trying to incorporate some of the toxins into its body such that it will be able to live in the anemone ?

yup.

 

[wade1]

I've seen fish eat at corals when the corals aren't doing well... seen it in both a magnifica and a carpet. I watched a A. negripes eat so much carpet its gut bulged. Really can't say if its normal as a way for the clowns to clean up or if they are doing something else....

 

[pardsie]

I had this happen to me once with a maroon clown and a ritteri anenome. I believe the clown or clowns are testing the anenome before actually taking up residence. At least that is what happened in my case. It stopped after a couple days.

HTH
Pardsie