Clownfish eating BTA?

[paulallen]

I posted this in the anemone and clownfish forum, but there are nearly the amount of people on those forums that are here, so maybe someone can help me out.

I just bought a BTA a couple days ago. For the first day I babysat it to make sure that it didnt get killed by powerheads or the overflow. It found a place that it hasnt moved from yet and my marroon striped clown fish went into it within the second day. Well, today is the third day and I cant find my MSC. I fed the tank and everyone came out but him. Is it possible that the BTA ate it. I looked everywhere. There is no way it got out of the top and it isnt in the over flow box. I am at a loss here and getting really upset. I thought I was giving my clownfish a home and protection not a predator. I tried feeding it a silver side the frist day but it wouldnt eat it, the silverside kept falling off the BTA.

[paulallen]

No one has any comments or experience with this?

[reddannyh]

It is possible but unlikeley. When your clownfish first went to it was it brushing against it or did it just look and leave? If so it may have drifted into it in the night and been stung and eaten.

[nccmike]

when your clown went into it the 1st time did it try and close up around him?

How long did you see the clown in it?

I have a bta and a clown and there is no way it could eat him. The bta is pretty slow.

[::PixelFish::]

BTA's aren't known as fish eaters, unlike carpet anemones and condies. I've read about clowns actually diving into the open mouths of anemones and getting stuck in the anemone and being eaten but nothing about a BTA eating a clown hosting in it. I just watched my Clarki diving into my RBTA's mouth to get food out of it so it's possible.

Did you check behind the tank, it might have gone carpet surfing and dried up somewhere or the dog or cat got it.

How big is the BTA, much bigger than the clown? If it's a smaller BTA IMO you are well off without the Maroon because they can be really hard on smaller anemones.

[paulallen]

No it couldnt have gotten out of the top of the tank, I had a problem with airborn wrasses, so i took care of that problem. It is a very large BTA the mouth closed was about half the size of the clown. When the clown went into the BTA it was swimming around brushing against it. I have seen it before, it was doing what it was suppose to. The problem was at night the BTA kind of closed around the clownfish, I think that is when it decided to eat it.

[reddannyh]

If it closed around the clownfish then it's very possible it could have eaten it.

[paulallen]

Well the anemone spit out what he didnt like of the clownfish today. I didnt get pictures of it spitting it out, but here is the aftermath. The first pic is 2 days after i put it in the tank (sorry about some algae on the glass), the second pic is 2 days later.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g2/1davram1/coral038.jpg


http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g2/1davram1/Clipboard01.jpg

[Scuba_Dave]

Yup, looks like they didn't pair up :(
Always possible, especially if the BTA is hungry to start

[paulallen]

Yeah I tried to feed him the first day I put it in, but the silverside kept falling out, I guess I shouldnt have waited 2 days to try again. I should look at the bright side, I know its eating... a $35 meal.

[acook]

This happened to one of ours a few weeks ago. We had a pair with the possible female already hosting the anemone. I posted the same question to the clown/anemone forum a few weeks ago and got NO responce.

We are one 2 weeks now without seeing the second maroon clown and now our anemone is not eating anything and has moved to a small dark space under a rock.

Funny - no one on the boards seems to think it can happen but our two LFS were pretty sure it did!!!

[Farrierfish]

ok so were making dinner tonite.
I happened to look at my tank while cooking over the stove.
I notice my clarkii doing a face first dive into the BTA
I look closer when I see him struggling and going nowhere.
to my surprise his whole head is into the anemones mouth and he/she (the bigger one) is going nowhere.

I quickly pull of the top and pull (the anemone did not want ot let go ) anyways I pull the clownfish out of the anemone
clownfish runs away anemone shrinks way down.

about 20 mins go by and the anemone is now scrubbing a very small anemone.

[Sisterlimonpot]

wow you revived a 4 year old thread. Can you explain this statement:
the anemone is now scrubbing a very small anemone