Anemones eating clowns

[blueridge]

I am intending to setup a carpet anemone tank in a 100g cube. I was speaking with someone about my project and they warned that carpets are known to eat fish (which I already knew) and that includes clowns (which I didn't know!).

How many have experienced losing clowns to carpets? Is this a real concern?

I tried the search function for this and didn't come up with anything.

Thanks,

 

[rkelman]

Of course carpets are known to eat fish. That's what anemone's do. Yes they will eat a clown if they get the chance. It depends on the clown really. If they have a good slime coat and / or have built up their immunity they will be fine. If they don't have a good slime coat and/or they haven't introduced themselves slowly there is a good chance of being eaten. Some clowns can jump right in a carpet right off the bat and be fine. Others get eaten. I would be really weary of allowing a freshly netted clown near a carpet for sure. The net can remove alot of slime. Chances are they will get stung to some degree but they handle nem stings really well unlike most other fish.

 

[OrionN]

Once the clown adapting to it, it should be fine. If you stick to clowns that it naturally hosted, it should be OK also. None of my clowns got eaten but I know of a Ocellaris and an Pink skunk got eaten by Hadonni carpet. Just other fish, including a rather large and healthy yellow tang.

 

[elegance coral]

This is my ocellaris after a bout with my haddoni.

This is him the next morning.

He would have been eaten if I wasn't right there to get him out. The only reason he got stung in the first place, is because I was trying to capture the him. It was in a tank with a divider between the clown and anemone. In the process of capturing the clown, I knocked down the divider, and the clown swam to the other side of the tank with the anemone. He had no time to acclimate to the anemone. He was trying to get away from me and bumped into the carpet. The thing that surprised me about the whole ordeal is that the clown survived. He was down for about 12 hours, breathy heavy and wouldn't eat, but I don't believe any other type of fish could have survived at all. He had stings over what had to be 90% of his body.

I've been keeping anemones and clowns for a very long time. This is the only time I've seen a clown get captured by an anemone.