My juvenille clown eats flatworms!!

[crazyfishlady]

Some of you have read my about my recent outbreak of flatworms in my new nano. I still have low numbers and I am waiting for my flatworm exit to arrive....

While siphoning some worms out yesterday, I blew some off the back wall and they began to float around the tank (near the clown's corner) He began to gobble them up. I have watched him since and he seems to be looking for them on rocks and glass and picking them off. :eek2: I could hardly believe my eyes! I read another thread about some blue damsels that eat them; and clownfish are damsels...

Anyway, just thought I had to share. He was sold as a tank bred true perc, but due to his coloring I think he may be a false. I post a pic of my little guy when my batteries are charged.
Erika

[TippyToeX]

Congrats! Very odd to hear about a clown eating them. My true percs use to be pod munchers to the extreme! The whole left side of the tank was wipped out of pods (only the left side because that is where their host resided) I wonder if they would have had a taste for flatworms.
I hope to see your pics soon.

I hope he keeps it up so the can whip http://216.40.249.192/s/otn/happy/zzwhip.gif your flatworm problem. Unless the FW comes first.

[dchisenh]

My female squamipinnis anthias ate some of my coral-eating flatworms. ;) I bought a canary wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus) to eat them, having heard from a couple of people that they might, but he showed no interest in them :( I blew some off of a hammer coral a couple of days ago and, still no interest from the wrasse, but the anthias went to town! She ate everyone one she could chase down. :D Unfortunately, the tank started leaking from somewhere this weekend so I was forced to take it down and sell the wrasse, the anthias, two corals, and two more fish back to the LFS, but I was able to salvage some of it for a 10 gallon I was in the process of starting up. Oh well.

-Dan

[crazyfishlady]

http://mrscassel.com/flatwormeater.jpg
He isn't making much of a dent in the population, but the flatworm exit arrives tomorrow.
http://mrscassel.com/pairperc.jpg
He's the one in front. He's also a tiny bit bigger and will eventually become the "she" of the pair. They really isn't much powerplay yet...I think they are too little.

I can't seem to count the spines. Still not sure if they are the true percs as advertised. The false percs in the tank next to these guys looked different. They had virtually no black on their bodies and their eyes had more black than just the pupil. May have to wait till they're a little bigger...

:D
Erika

[JHardman]

They look like A. Percula to me. The low dorsal fin and the eyes are typical of A. Percula.

[sea-horsea]

buy insurance for the clown!!!!!!
don't let anyone know where you live......lock the tank and stuff...do anything to protect it!!!! lol

congrat.

[serpentine5]

Originally posted by JHardman
They look like A. Percula to me. The low dorsal fin and the eyes are typical of A. Percula.
I was told that the thin black outline on the white stripes ment that they were false, and that thick black outlines ment that they were true. Mine look just like your do. I bought them from saltwaterfish.com and they are posted as: Aquacultured Percula clown. http://www.saltwaterfish.com/ikoperc.html this is the page that describes them. So what we have here is "A. Percula" which is a true percula, not a faulse? Please explain.

[JHardman]

Originally posted by serpentine5
I was told that the thin black outline on the white stripes ment that they were false, and that thick black outlines ment that they were true. Mine look just like your do. I bought them from saltwaterfish.com and they are posted as: Aquacultured Percula clown. http://www.saltwaterfish.com/ikoperc.html this is the page that describes them. So what we have here is "A. Percula" which is a true percula, not a faulse? Please explain.

You are correct in your understanding, but it only applies to the adult coloration. A. Percula are the ugly duckling of the clownfish world. They are very plain looking, IMO quite a bit more so than A. Ocellaris, but in their adult coloration and when fully grown into their bars they are very nice looking fish. Even to the experienced eye it can be very hard to tell juvenile A. Percula from A. Ocellaris unless they are side by side for comparison...

I ones posted in this thread are juveniles, and have not grown their thick black borders next to the bars, or into the tail bar completely yet. In a year or so they will be fully sporting the wide black trim and likely a full tail bar.

At this age they can be very hard to tell from A. Ocellaris. In this case these show the tell tale signs I look for; first the clear orange eye, A. Ocellaris has a muddy darker eye, and second the low dorsal fin, not the sail that A. Ocellaris have.

If the fish you bought were sold to you as A. Ocellaris, it is very likely that is what they are. A. Percula cost a fair amount more than A. Ocellaris. So unless someone made a big mistake, they are losing a lot of money selling A. Ocellaris when it is really A. Percula which is worth a fair amount more money.