Anemone eating your fish?

[OldmillXxX]

Does anyone have any pics of their anemone that caught a fish and ate it?

How often does this happen?

Should I worry when my tank is mature enough to place an anemone in there?

Please post some pics!

 

[johnjjk]

About 2 months ago someone posted a picture of a Yellow Tank being eaten by a carpet. It was half way down the mouth.

However, I do not remember the subject or give you other hints as to where to search.

Sorry I couldn't help but try searching as it's a good picture.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Re: Anemone eating your fish?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6529932#post6529932 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OldmillXxX
Does anyone have any pics of their anemone that caught a fish and ate it?
How often does this happen?

This is what it looks like when an anemone catches a fish and eats it.
It happens every time the anemone is fed a fish.

 

[OldmillXxX]

Good one Gary, I'll have to remember that one the next time I am down and need a good laugh!

Anyway, I am wondering how often an anmone catches and consumes a fish that the owner would rather keep.

"Expensive meal" might be a good term.

 

[stykthyn]

I had agreen haitain eat a yellow tang once,I think the tang was sick though. was getting skinny.

 

[Pinksteel]

I had a fairly small long tentacle anenome eat one of my bengai cardinals, it disappeard real fast

 

[DMK]

i'm 99% sure my 7" RBTA ate my 2 yr old 4" royal gramma last night. i saw it before i went out. he was cruising around kinda close to anenome, along w/ lawnmower blenny. i came home about an hour later and the RBTA was huge and puffed up all around mouth. i didn't see royal gramma. he's always out when there is food so i fed tank. he was gone. still missing 24hrs later. i wouldn't be surprised if blenny is next. he perches up on LR sometimes 1" from RBTA.

 

[phoenix]

More of a problem with carpet anemones - I have bubbles and not had a problem but a few yrs back I lost two large tangs to a green carpet that was about the size of a dinner plate.

 

[davocean]

I've had two anemones for about three years now.
I've never lost any fish.
I do make sure my fish have a nice path to swim.

 

[BonsaiNut]

I have had anemones eat many expensive fish over the years, though I don't have any photos. The common themes were:

1) Almost always happened at night
2) Almost always happened with a new fish not acclimated to tank

This is not hard and fast rule - I've lost pygmy angels that have been in the tank for years. I cut down losses substantially when I started using night lighting in my tanks.

The telltale sign is to look for the anemone to disgorge bones when one of your fish goes missing I can generally tell when one of my anemones has been fed and I didn't do the feeding, plus when you know what you are looking for you can immediatey tell when an anemone is disgorging a fish skeleton. It is a little (much smaller than you would think) bundle of sliminess with a bone or two sticking out - much less obvious than you would think. Can't say that I ever lost a fish to a BTA, but it happened fairly regularly with carpets. Largest fish I lost was a Powder Blue Tang to a S. gigantea. Also, there was a time that I rescued a pygmy angel from a S. haddoni when it was half ingested. The angel was badly stung and stressed and had lost most of its slime coat, but I put it in isolation and it eventually recovered.

 

[818]

This happened to a So Cal Reefer.

Its a Male Naso Tang

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=759503

 

[RA]

I have a carpet anemone which had eaten a fish or 2. So I thought it would be a good idea to add 4 percula clown fish for it to host. Well the carpet thought they were a tasty treat and ate them also. I'm going to try a saddle back clown, i've heard the carpet won't eat them.