Clown in Hammer Coral

[Bullet]

I have a pair (well in the progress of becoming a pair) of black and white perculas. They both took to my bta within an hour of putting them in my tank about 3 months ago. Since then, the female is the not letting the male into the bta. Because of that the male hangs around my hammer coral and the hammer is not liking it. My question is...what can I do to keep him out of the hammer coral? Can I cover it with something? If so, how long should I keep it covered and with what?

[Atticus]

The only way to keep them out is to remove it. Hopefully the coral will aclimate to the presence of the clown and learn to tolerate it. My hammer coral doesn't seem to mind my ocellaris clown hosting in it. Oh, just for future clearification your black and white clowns are not percs, but are really ocellaris clowns.

[Bullet]

Do you suppose he would get a hint if I covered it with something for awhile? Has anyone ever tried this?

[dellrio]

my clowns were hosting ion my frogspawn.. .. they nearly killed it.. funny too.. i had an anemone for them.. so i tried to fix the problem by adding another anemone.. this ddid not work.. but maybe worth a try... when it came down to it.. my clowns had to go...

[dknape]

My Hammer does not seem to mind having my Ocellaris clown establishing its home in him either. I have no suggestions on keeping him out of it.

How long has he been living in the hammer?

[Bullet]

Originally posted by dknape
My Hammer does not seem to mind having my Ocellaris clown establishing its home in him either. I have no suggestions on keeping him out of it.

How long has he been living in the hammer?

He has been in it for about a month now. I can tell that the hammer does not like it. One side of the coral opens great and the other side does not open as big as it used to, and that is the side he usually hangs around in. Has anyone tried putting like a strawberry basket around a coral to keep something out? I was thinking about trying it. Any thoughts?

[dellrio]

i dont think i would want something to be resting on its skeleton... b/c i dont think it will open.. but i suppose u can give it a shot.. but watch it carefully.

[lllosingit]

You might try moving the Hammer to the otherside of the tank.
My Clowns were hosting a rock:confused: so I moved it to the other end of the tank and they swam around like they were lost for a few hours until they found the Carpet Anemone.
I've heard of clowns hosting some odd stuff so you might move the Hammer and put something else where the Hammer was like a small cup or bowl, It's worth a shot.

[Bullet]

Originally posted by dellrio
i dont think i would want something to be resting on its skeleton... b/c i dont think it will open.. but i suppose u can give it a shot.. but watch it carefully.

I wouldn't rest anything on it...I would put it around the coral. It would still have plenty of room to open just protected from the fish. I will post post and let everyone know how it works. Thanks for the suggestions.