Anemone with a taste for clowns?

[acroporas]

who were previously happily hosting it..

I had a small Stychodactyla haddoni (~6") in with a pair of Ocellaris clowns for a few months. The clowns never went close to it so I moved it in with a pair of A. sandaracinos who instantly bonded to it. They were hardly ever not buried in it's folds.

But a few days later I noticed the male A. sandaracinos had some marks on it's tail. Then when I feed the fish, and they both ate aggressively. But the male chased a bit of food into the anemone, and the anemone grabbed the male and tried to pull him in. The clown escaped, but now it had those marks covering half it's body and didn't swim quite right. Though after a few minutes it was back to aggressively chasing down bits of food. The male was now keeping it's distance from the anemone, but the female was still happily trying to bury itself if then anemone.

A hour or so later I was watching them and the anemone grabbed onto the male when he went to join the female in the anemone but this time the male was unable to escape. (I intervened and freed the fish, and moved the anemone into another tank, but this time the injuries were to great and the clown died two days later)

So I removed the anemone out of fear that it would eat the female sandaracinos even though it was happily hosting it. I moved it this time in with an A. perideraion. After the first night together I noticed the perideraion had some marks on it's tail just like wounds the anemone left on the sandaracinos. But the perideraion keeps it's distance from the anemone so I don't think it's in danger if being eaten but I would like to move it back in with the remaining sandaracinos since they were the only clowns who appreciated it, but I am worried that if I do she will suffer the same fate as her mate.

So what do you think. Was it just a fluke that the anemone ate the clown, or does this anemone have a taste for clownfish and any clown who is foolish enough to host it, will eventually get eaten?

[PayasoDelMar]

Bump. Can anyone answer this? Sounds interesting. (Maybe you have an Atlantic Carpet?)

[ssterling]

I am interested in the answer too, my haddoni actually ate one of my ocellaris. See my anemone ate my anemone fish (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1328521)

[AquaReeferMan]

My haddoni killed 3 Ocellaris clowns but my saddlebacks were able to utilize it with no problems. Haddonis are very sticky and pack a mean sting. This means clowns not accustom to these larger and more powerful have to be extra careful and take time to build up a tolerance to them. My 3 Ocellaris clowns never showed any interest in the anemone. One day my power cut out and for some reason it spooked them. They tried to take shelter in the anemone. They all got stuck. I was only able to pull one of them out. Unfortunately it ended up dying shortly after.

[beely]

this is an interesting subject. I've looked into purchasing one of these for my clowns myself. and also recently at a lfs some of the workers claim that their haddoni have also eaten a few of their clowns. And now they keep it seperated from any other fish. I've heard from one of the workers that sometimes the clowns dont have enough of that stuff they need to avoid getting stuck/stung (maybe from the lack of a less potient anemone?health of the fish?) but whatever the reason, we think that it is on the fish's part not the anemone. Since anemone's are still opportunistic eaters and they tend to eat what they can grab. And maybe the male was hurt bc of the lack of buffeting? in comparison to the female? ( from what ive seen, the females get more anemone loving then the males) Hope you find an answer :) bc im interested as well. and sorry to hear about your clown :(

[traveller7]

S. haddoni is a frequently confirmed fish eater, including clowns. It is a classic YMMV, so keepers of haddoni may want to consider naturally hosting larger clown species only. Not to mention, keep the anemone in a dedicated tank.

[acroporas]

What is curious to me is that it ate the clown after the clown had been happily hosting it for several days...

[traveller7]

A wound, infection, age, bad luck triggering a discharge of nematocysts, etc.

[Mitch529]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11926481#post11926481 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AquaReeferMan
My haddoni killed 3 Ocellaris clowns but my saddlebacks were able to utilize it with no problems. Haddonis are very sticky and pack a mean sting. This means clowns not accustom to these larger and more powerful have to be extra careful and take time to build up a tolerance to them. My 3 Ocellaris clowns never showed any interest in the anemone. One day my power cut out and for some reason it spooked them. They tried to take shelter in the anemone. They all got stuck. I was only able to pull one of them out. Unfortunately it ended up dying shortly after.

Something very similar happened to my Ocellaris pair and a 6" haddoni, turned the lights on and one of them spooked into the nem and almost got eaten. We freed him and he was in rough shape but survived and is still alive today.