Green Carpet Anenome Fish Eating Question????

[trigger0214]

Hi All,
I recently added some live rock 'shelves' to the pile in my 125-gallon reef. The shelves seem like the perfect place to put a green carpet anemone (as I have wanted one for years). This would place the anemone something like 8-10 inches under a 250 watt 10 K metal halide. I have heard that green carpets can be fairly aggressive and sometimes fish will disappear. I currently have a smaller Chevy tang, a male and female pair of Japanese swallow tails (3-4.5 inches each), 2 perculas, a neon dotty back, and several peppermint shrimp. Now, none of my fish are all that terrible wimpy (maybe the dottyback….). However, I would be highly upset if I lost one due to my ignorance. Any thought on the matter???

 

[wombat1]

Carpets like S. mertensii and S. haddoni prefer a sandy substrate to attach in, not a rocky shelf. Do you know exactly what species you plan on getting?

 

[cavediver]

My green Carpet, who went back to the LFS to find a fosterhome yesterday, used to "love" the fish I had in my tank.

To a 6-8"carpet, I lost, over the course of 2yrs ;
2 sailfin tangs
2 yellow tangs
2 gobys (well maybe this was my fault, opps)
1 Blue Damsel
1 3 stripe Damsel
Many Turbo's
Asst Shrimp

Most of these fish were very healthy, with the exception of the 3stripe who was stressed from an ich attack.

That damn thing ate better than I did!!

 

[wombat1]

There are many fish in the display tank at our university that have not been killed by the S. mertensii (alive for 7 years). Among them are a regal tang, sailfin tang, bicolor angel, and 2 royal grammas. There is also a pair of banded cleaner shrimp that is doing just fine.

 

[DNA]

I've got two green S. Gigantea and they are just as interesting as any fish so they are there to stay. All the fish, except a Scooter blenny I used to have for a few days, seem to known that luring green carpet to be an instant death.

What I found to be very interesting was how it ate a big black spiny urchin along with all the spines witout becoming stung at all.
Then it ate the insides of a Tuxedo urchin through a small hole wich was even more interesting and amusing in a way..

Most of the time anemones and starfishes are seen eating a "loved" fish and instantly judged wrongfully as a killer, instead of assuming it died of other causes wich is more likely.

If something the anemone likes touches it, there is no turning back. The anemone will no let go 99% of the time.

 

[Garry thomas]

Just the other morning my carpet decided to spit out the remains of it's last meal, which happened to be a large anthius squampinnis! The risk is obviously there my friend, its a case of paying your money and taking your chance? certain fish more susceptable than others IE: manderins, scooters,goby's, and especially flighty fish (fast movers) fire fish ect if this bothers you ,the answer is simple DONT KEEP ONE!

 

[King Jason]

Your anemone might not feel that the place you want him to be is the place for him. I had one a while back and he moved until he found his perfect place...Then he made a snack out of my Purple tang, and Yellow tang and then took a field trip back to the LFS. And I fed him twice a week!