Killer Carpet Anemone?

[TeamPlayer]

Hey guys, I just got a gigantea today with a hosted clown and so far everything is great. The guy at the LFS assured me that most fish would be smart enough to stay away from it, but after researching alittle bit I've heard some horror stories about some other types of carpets eating fish. Is the same true of giganteas? and is there anything I can do to reduce the likelyhood of an accident?

Thanks

http://img03.picoodle.com/img/img03/8/5/2/f_Carpetm_f73a82c.jpg

[FOSELONE]

you could let me have em...

[phender]

All the horror stories are true for your anemone because it is not a gigantea carpet, it is a haddoni.
Most preditory fish like basslets, pseudochromis and wrasses are normally safe. Grazers and bottom feeders like dwarf angels, tangs, rabbitfish and gobies are in grave danger.

[GSMguy]

that is a haddoni carpet.

[Toddrtrex]

I am not saying that phender is wrong, but I am going to add my $0.02, I've had my haddoni for just over 6 years now -- the only fish that I have lost to it was a yellow watchman goby. Over the years I've kept (most of them have been sold) a gold rim tang, yellow tang, purple tang, koran angel, lemon peel angel and a few others that I am sure I have forgotten about. I am not sure if mine haddoni is "stupid" ;) or I've just gotten lucky. Or is it that I am stupidly lucky. :)
Or it could be that my clarkii pair have keep the fish away -- but they do spend most of their time in my BTA.
Here is a recent picture, the haddoni that I've had for these 6 years is in the back middle. The blue one is new.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/toddrtrex/75FTS.jpg

[TeamPlayer]

Well I guess the concensus is that this is a Stichodactyla Haddonii. Thanks for the input. However, the question remains.... will it eat all my fish? Will the hosted clown fish help prevent this?

[GSMguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9865887#post9865887 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TeamPlayer
Well I guess the concensus is that this is a Stichodactyla Haddonii. Thanks for the input. However, the question remains.... will it eat all my fish? Will the hosted clown fish help prevent this?

it wont eat all your fish but it might eat some sick ones or an unlucky wanderer. the clown should help keep fish away.

[elegance coral]

I have to agree with GSMguy (even after battling it out with him in another forum) Your carpet is great at removing sick fish. Any fish that may try to rest on it could be eaten also, like gobies.

[OrionN]

They are fish eater and will kill large and small fish. Even 7 inches tang will get stung and kill if not eaten by this very aggressive fish eater. Many well know authors recommended S. haddoni for species tank with his clowns and no other fish.

[marc price]

you've been lucky , especially in a 75g .

how long have you had the purple tang ? it looks to be about 3.5"- 4" is it the only fish with the clowns ? the low stocking number and strong species help explain why you've been so lucky .

maybe because it's folded but your 6 years in captivity carpet looks a little small in the 75g , what size is it ? my haddoni grew from 5" to 18" in a year with every second or third day feedings of table shrimp .

my a. polymnus badgered a few wrasse into the carpet but would chase the orchid and sunrise dottybacks away .

in the dec. '95 FAMA article titled choosing tour next anemone , phil henderson wrote , "dwarf angles, small tangs, blennies and seem prone to getting eaten. psudochromis, hawkfish and some others don't " .

i'd like another blue or red haddoni but will not risk loosing my copperband butterfly and 3" purple tang to it .

[GSMguy]

i have a friend with a 180 that has had a blue haddoni for 3 years and it has not taken one fish exept a male bluethroat trigger that had been beaten up by the Powder blue tang.

im not saying they dont eat fish in fact i have one fish im hoping mine will eat.

[triggerfish1976]

The Haddoni's are probably the most notorious fish eating anemone available to hobbyists. I hear Magnificient's can also be a high risk but I am guessing that most do not stay alive long enough to eat to many fish.
You take the risk of losing sick or healthy fish to Haddoni's so if you are concerned about it then I wouldn't get one.

[phender]

It is true that some individual haddoni seem to be less aggressive than others. You are pretty much rolling the dice. I certainly wouldn't keep any fish with it that weren't easily or cheaply replaced.
IME, they don't have to be sick to be eaten.

[marc price]

phil , i don't know how you would go about judging the aggressiveness of individual haddoni when there are so many variables but i'll take your word on it . i learned something new today . based on my exp. with haddoni (only had three ) i would have thought that they were simply reacting to stimulus . equating aggressiveness with overall good health and not individual traits .

for others reading this , when i had referred to todd's fish as strong i was describing typical characteristics of those fish . not health . tangs are strong swimmers however i had a healthy @8" power blue tang lay on it's side hyperventilating after being stung by a newly introduced carpet . if i remember correctly , it jumped that night. in the following days a large blueface angel picked that haddoni to death. i now know my aquarium conditions were all wrong for an anemone , again diff. variables . that was ten years before phender's well written and researched article sited in my previous re. to this post.

[ccorpse27]

That's a really nice carpet. What'd you pay for it? I'm thinking of doing a tank with just a carpet, my two clowns and that's about it.

[Toddrtrex]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9866951#post9866951 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by marc price
you've been lucky , especially in a 75g .

how long have you had the purple tang ? it looks to be about 3.5"- 4" is it the only fish with the clowns ? the low stocking number and strong species help explain why you've been so lucky .

maybe because it's folded but your 6 years in captivity carpet looks a little small in the 75g , what size is it ? my haddoni grew from 5" to 18" in a year with every second or third day feedings of table shrimp .

my a. polymnus badgered a few wrasse into the carpet but would chase the orchid and sunrise dottybacks away .

in the dec. '95 FAMA article titled choosing tour next anemone , phil henderson wrote , "dwarf angles, small tangs, blennies and seem prone to getting eaten. psudochromis, hawkfish and some others don't " .

i'd like another blue or red haddoni but will not risk loosing my copperband butterfly and 3" purple tang to it .


I have the purple tang about the same time as the carpet, can't remember which one came first. Looking at that picture again, it does appear smaller than it is in person. I would say it is over a foot it was folded up as much. But, it loves that spot. I had recently redid my tank -- sold off all the old rock (too many mushrooms) and re-scaped around it -- didn't want to move it.

As for feeding -- I don't fed it as much as I should -- maybe every other week. The only thing I've noticed with me feeding it less is slower growth. Other than that it is doing great -- stickey as all get out -- that is way I didn't want to move it.

As for other fish in the tank -- there is the purple tang, my clarkii pair, and a Juv. Blue Face angel. ((if you look down [at about 45*] from the Clarkii, on the right hand side, you can just see its face sticking out of that cave))

I wish I knew why I've been so lucky with it only eating that one goby. The tang will sometime "mess" with mama clarkii when she is in the carpet, but seems to know to keeps just far enough away.

[toddroi]

I have had a haddonii for two weeks now and haven't seen it even attempt to capture a fish. I do feed it three times a week with krill. I have also a bengai cardinal fish and it seems to like "hanging" with the haddonii. The Bengai doesn't act like a clown in it, she just hovers above it about an inch away! Anyway the haddonii hasn't eaten anything yet. (fish in this tank with the haddonii, two false perculas, two three striped damsels, blue hippo tang, yellow tail damsel, two yellow headed jawfish, pink spotted shrimp goby, mandarin dragonette, bengai cardinal fish. Also skunk cleaner shrimp, and peppermint shrimp.) oh, it's a 120 AGA.

[phender]

Marc,
I didn't mean that it is something that the anemone does on purpose as far as being aggressive. I just meant that there are a lot of factors that go into just how hard an individual anemone stings (how sticky it is). Health of the anemone, water chemistry, chemical composition of the fish slime all may be factors. IME, haddoni that have short dense tentacles seem to be stickier than those that have longer, less dense tentacles. I don't know why or even if it is true in all cases, but that has been my experience.


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9875083#post9875083 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by toddroi
I have had a haddonii for two weeks now and haven't seen it even attempt to capture a fish. I do feed it three times a week with krill. I have also a bengai cardinal fish and it seems to like "hanging" with the haddonii. The Bengai doesn't act like a clown in it, she just hovers above it about an inch away! Anyway the haddonii hasn't eaten anything yet. (fish in this tank with the haddonii, two false perculas, two three striped damsels, blue hippo tang, yellow tail damsel, two yellow headed jawfish, pink spotted shrimp goby, mandarin dragonette, bengai cardinal fish. Also skunk cleaner shrimp, and peppermint shrimp.) oh, it's a 120 AGA.

Carpet anemones don't "attempt" to capture fish. Fish just blunder into the anemone and can't get out. Fish that are grazers tend to fall prey more than others. When fish make contact with a BTA or sebae (H. crispa) they get a little jolt and then move on. When they make contact with a healthy haddoni, the anemone's sting in strong enough to capture the fish and it is eaten.

FWIW: I have seen Bangaii cardinals in aquariums actually adopting BTAs and living within their tentacles without being stung. I have a feeling if your's actually touchs the tentacles one day, it might be over for him.

[45commando]

I have two good sized carpets,sitting side by side in my tank.I had lost quite a few fish,untill I installed some moonlights.Up to this point,I have not lost a fish.It might be worth considering adding some inexpensive moonlights(if you don't already have some).HTH & good luck

[MIREEFER]

sory to hijack but what kind of carpet is this
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a194/ltz40055/2007_0505newsdcard0064.jpg

[GSMguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9879737#post9879737 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MIREEFER
sory to hijack but what kind of carpet is this
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a194/ltz40055/2007_0505newsdcard0064.jpg

a very bleached S.Haddoni should be green

[BonsaiNut]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9865744#post9865744 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Toddrtrex
[B]I've had my haddoni for just over 6 years now -- the only fish that I have lost to it was a yellow watchman goby.

If I had a dollar for every fish I've lost to haddonis... angels, tangs, clowns, gobies... all healthy as far as I could tell. Generally I recommend bright night lighting as a deterent, as well as a pair of clowns (who tend to keep other fish away). Don't take my word for it - do a search on this forum and you will find dozens of other "fish death to haddoni" stories.

[Toddrtrex]

Oh, I've read all the stories, and I have no idea why it hasn't happened to me. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but my sump/fuge is not under my tank, but beside it -- there is some light spillover from my fuge being lit 24 hours, but not a whole lot, in fact for a while I had an old t-shirt b/t the two to block the light.

I wish I had a reason as to why I haven't had many issues with mine eating fish.

[OrionN]

TeamPlayer,
You got to be from Corpus Christi. The Petco here got about 20 of these anemone in last week. They all rather large and seem healthy.