Best anemone for Saddleback
- Thread starter Cliving1
- Start date
SalinFL
New member
Pinkskunk, I'm curious to know what are your experiences that make you say that saddlebacks are destructive? I have two with a BTA, both have been with me for four years now. The BTA has split and the child split again just a week ago. They are very protective of the anemones (all of them), but even during the division process they were not destructive to the dividing BTA. I hand feed them, but even with that contact, they will go after my hand and bite me when I clean, I have to say that.
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I can't speak for Pinkskunk, but I can say that I had one before that I believe killed a large, healthy and highly prized BTA. It had a habit of making a fast dive into the anemone, then immediately thrashing it's way back out in a way that got pretty rough.
As the clown grew bigger this seemed to irritate the anemone to the point where it would recoil and retract slightly every time it did it. When signs of illness like shrinking of tentacles and loss of overall size started to appear I took the fish out but it was too late. I now suspect that the irritation the fish caused over time made the BTA more susceptible to a bacterial infection that finished it off.
Experiences with individual fish will probably vary and these are definitely cool fish otherwise, but I'll never risk having another one.
OrionN
Moved on
Same here. My Saddlebacks pair did the same and kill my large Green Haddoni. They do have a habit of dig their way into the mouth of anemone. Often rip chunks of the anemone and eat it. It not like I don't feed them. They are fat. It is just what they do and it is very destructive to the anemone. Seeing what happened I removed them but not in time to save my very nice healthy Haddoni. The irony of this is that I got a very nice large healthy Haddoni and wanted to display him with a natural clown species. Black Saddle back pair was perfect until this happen.
All this time I thought the rough treatment would somehow be beneficial to their natural host species, otherwise why would they do it? Though ripping chunks off is more severe than anything I ever experienced.
phender
Active member
It might have to do with the fact that in the wild, haddoni will often retract all the way under the sand leaving their clowns totally exposed. If the clowns can dive into the anemone's mouth before it retracts, they will still be protected. Just a hypothesis. The biting of the anemone might be stress do to captive conditions. As big and mean as saddlebacks can be, they are still quite skittish.
Now that you mention this and thinking back to how mine behaved, the motion that they made would be very effective at clearing sand from a particular spot, such as the mouth of an anemone that is otherwise buried.
ThRoewer
New member
Haddonis are somewhat dangerous to other fish, especially if they are clumsy swimmers or disoriented.
If you keep your polymnus on their own or with fish that know how to navigate anemones (Banggais for example), I would not hesitate to add one.
But haddonis don't mix well with bottom dwellers like gobies, jawfish or dartfish to name just a few.
BTW, how big are your polymnus?
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If you keep your polymnus on their own or with fish that know how to navigate anemones (Banggais for example), I would not hesitate to add one.
But haddonis don't mix well with bottom dwellers like gobies, jawfish or dartfish to name just a few.
BTW, how big are your polymnus?
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