Carpet Anemone

[DeepSeaBeauti]

So, I was looking around my LFS the other day and noticed they had a few large carpet anemones and eliphant anemones. I think one of these large animals would be perfect for the center of my tank, right between the two islands and at the entrance to my rock wall cave. Its a large area about 16" of 5" deep sand, and will get plenty of light from my MH. I have a few questions im hopen you guys and girls maybe able to help me with.

1. How do you choose a healthy specimen? (i.e what should i look for when selecting one)

2. Is the a particular type that are relativly easy to care for? ( besides daily feedings )

3. Is there a type that is best suited to host a pair of clown fish?

4. Anything else i should know when chosing one, or keeping it?

Thanks in advance for any and all tips and sugestions.

 

[BeanMachine]

So, I was looking around my LFS the other day and noticed they had a few large carpet anemones and eliphant anemones. I think one of these large animals would be perfect for the center of my tank, right between the two islands and at the entrance to my rock wall cave. Its a large area about 16" of 5" deep sand, and will get plenty of light from my MH. I have a few questions im hopen you guys and girls maybe able to help me with.

1. How do you choose a healthy specimen? (i.e what should i look for when selecting one)

2. Is the a particular type that are relativly easy to care for? ( besides daily feedings )

3. Is there a type that is best suited to host a pair of clown fish?

4. Anything else i should know when chosing one, or keeping it?

Thanks in advance for any and all tips and sugestions.

I'll chime in as I've had my carpet nem for about a year. Its a haddoni nem.

I only feed it about twice a month. It has grown since I aquired it. Now about 10" or so when fully expanded. What is interesting is one or two days a month it will completely dissappear in the sand to only be back the next day like nothing happened. I have a anemone shrimp with it, but my tank raised ORA clowns won't have anything to do with it.

I would choose a specimen that looks healthy, is nice and plump, and the foot looks in good shape with no tears or questionable looking parts that would make you second guess yourself.

When I changed tanks mine was stuck to the bottom pane through about 5" of sand... had to use a paint scraper to remove it. Its doing great in the new tank.

I run t5s over my tank so Halide should be just fine generally.

 

[deangelr]

1. How do you choose a healthy specimen? (i.e what should i look for when selecting one)

• Tightly closed mouth
• Anemone should appear taught, not flacid
• Fully inflated
• attaching to something
• eating

2. Is the a particular type that are relativly easy to care for? ( besides daily feedings )

• RAV 2 suggests that S. Haddoni are the easiest anemone to care for

3. Is there a type that is best suited to host a pair of clown fish?

• Gigantea/Magnifica are preferred carpet hosts for clowns IMO (if you consider H. mag a carpet)

4. Anything else i should know when chosing one, or keeping it?

• S. Haddoni is a notorious fish eater, The others are very difficult to care for.

Thanks in advance for any and all tips and sugestions.

What type of clowns do you have? What sort of carpets does the LFS have? What is an eliphant anemone?

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

Ocellaris Clown fish, two of them , male female. Elephant ear anemone.

 

[BeanMachine]

Ocellaris Clown fish, two of them , male female. Elephant ear anemone.

i think they are all related but I believe an elephant ear is a rhodactis species so more like a soft coral / colormorphian as opposed to a anemone in the traditional sense. Sorry if that doesn't make total sense.

You can find tables online which show which clowns naturally hose which anemones in the wild which would give you a good starting point.

Many clowns will host non-species specific nems, but other times clowns just won't hose anything... kinda like mine the last 2 years.

 

[deangelr]

if you are set on a carpet I would go with a S. Haddoni. I have never heard of an elephant ear anemone, do you have any pictures or another name?

S. Haddoni is a fish eater so you might have to consider your Mandarin.. S. Gigantea is another option, slightly more difficult to keep.

 

[deangelr]

i think they are all related but I believe an elephant ear is a rhodactis species so more like a soft coral / colormorphian as opposed to a anemone in the traditional sense. Sorry if that doesn't make total sense.

You can find tables online which show which clowns naturally hose which anemones in the wild which would give you a good starting point.

Many clowns will host non-species specific nems, but other times clowns just won't hose anything... kinda like mine the last 2 years.

Do you have a link for these natural symbiont tables? I have not been able to find a good one to reference people to.

 

[elegance coral]

This is the best referance out there. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...9MiyAQ&usg=AFQjCNGVwkzqlqgEWJsIlckuvq_WnfjY_Q

 

[elegance coral]

I have never heard of an elephant ear anemone, do you have any pictures or another name?

They're talking about the elephant ear shroom. The big ugly one that eats fish. It's not an anemone.

 

[deangelr]

Ya I know that book is a great reference.. I have been looking for like a one stop sheet that just says in 10 short paragraphs the hosting NEMs and their natural symbiont.. (maybe ill just make one). There is this link http://www.amdareef.com/ho_anemones.htm but its not complete.

 

[BeanMachine]

Here you go guys. Link to Advanced Aquarist-

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/2/fish

Here is the table.

 

[deangelr]

ahhh yes, that is the table.. Any idea how to get that table on its own link?

 

[kissman]

From what I have read clowns will not have anything to do with a haddoni so make sure its not that family of carpet anemone if you want a chance of the clowns hosting it. Carpets are beautiful I had one and lost it during a move I was highly upset. I ended up replacing it with a bubble tip.

 

[BeanMachine]

Not sure how to direct link table from Advanced Aquarist. I think the article has another link let me look.

Here is another table.

http://www.fishlore.com/clownfishanemonechart.htm

 

[BeanMachine]

From what I have read clowns will not have anything to do with a haddoni so make sure its not that family of carpet anemone if you want a chance of the clowns hosting it. Carpets are beautiful I had one and lost it during a move I was highly upset. I ended up replacing it with a bubble tip.

I've seen clowns hosting Haddonis before... but maybe they weren't haddoni? I can't imagine a major difference between different species but I am no expert.

 

[deangelr]

Oh ya.. that one is even better. I am adding it to my favorites. Thanks, no more typing info on clown/anemone combos.. just copy and pasting

dang.. Spoke too soon, no mertensi or aurora

 

[kduen]

From what I have read clowns will not have anything to do with a haddoni so make sure its not that family of carpet anemone if you want a chance of the clowns hosting it. Carpets are beautiful I had one and lost it during a move I was highly upset. I ended up replacing it with a bubble tip.

Maybe your thinking about a pizza anemone(Cryptodendrum Adhaesivum)? There are 5-6 different clowns that are naturally hosted by Haddoni's and even Percs and Occi's have been known to. Pizza anemone's only naturally host clarkii.

 

[kissman]

Maybe your thinking about a pizza anemone(Cryptodendrum Adhaesivum)? There are 5-6 different clowns that are naturally hosted by Haddoni's and even Percs and Occi's have been known to. Pizza anemone's only naturally host clarkii.

very well could be, i was doing some research a while back on clowns and hosting and there seemed to be a carpet they wouldn't host. I can't remember right off

 

[Alpha_03]

S. Haddoni will host the Clarkii clown fish wih great sucess- I have a large carpet (S. Haddoni) 24" and he hosts an adult Clarkii clown fish, the Clarkii takes very good care of the anemone- he (the Clarkii) is also a thief of food.

But be warned- S. Haddoni will eat anything- Algae, CUC, fish, even feather dusters.

These guys require a lot of space too- consider this as well, because they get very big in a short amount of time.

As for lighting- I have halides and t5- this works well in my system.

One thing, they are very agressive, if you so much as touch one it will latch on to you with a kung fu death grip, and trust me, on bare skin this is no fun- it can be a rather painful experience, so fair waring, wear rubber gloves.

For your tank size consider a maxi-mini, or perhaps a bubble tip- provided your sysem is aged enough and you have the correct lighting.

These are shot's from my 165 gallon reef tank- they are over 5 mos. old- he has grown even more since these pic's. That Soldier fish (the red one) is 8 inches easy.

A day time shot

[/IMG]

A night time shot

 

[this is me]

1. How do you choose a healthy specimen? (i.e what should i look for when selecting one)

2. Is the a particular type that are relativly easy to care for? ( besides daily feedings )

3. Is there a type that is best suited to host a pair of clown fish?

4. Anything else i should know when chosing one, or keeping it?

Thanks in advance for any and all tips and sugestions.

My following inputs are not applied with Atlantic anemone or Elephant Mushroom. Atlantic anemones are not hosting anemone and will eat all sorts of fish including your clowns.
I don't consider Elephant mushroom an anemone.

1) I would look at the overall color to see if it's bleached or not. If it is a light color to almost white color, then it is bleached. Bleached nems are usually no biggie given the next couple criteria are met.
Then, I would look at the overall shape. Is it fully expanded? partially expanded or just flat out deflated. If it is fully expanded then I would stand there and watch it to see if it's deflating and inflating. Some gig will deflate and inflate repeatedly within seconds if something is wrong.
I would check on the foot to see if it's firmly attached to the rock or substrate or something. If I'm happy with what I'm seeing then I would ask the staff to rub a small piece of food on the tentacle to see if it's sticking to it.
I know sometime you just have to take the risk and buy it because carpet anemones are rare in the area but that's what I would do if I have the choice.

2)I have both giganteas(2 purple) and haddoni(red). I don't think one is harder to keep than the other. But giganteas are just so so so much harder to find a healthy one. I've killed several giganteas from store bought before I eventually lucked out with one. But when I bought a gigantea from another member that have kept it for over 6 months, it's doing fine.
I see a lot more healthy haddoni in the store than giganteas. I would say over 90% of the time, there's something wrong with gigantea. Almost always bleached. Deflated or have trouble staying inflated.

3) Both haddoni and giganteas are hosting anemone depending on the clowns. My onyx(percula) will go in both giganteas and the the haddoni during the day but sleep in the gigantea.

4)Just make sure you know you will likely to lose some fish, snails, crabs, etc... I've lost probably 5 trochus snail, a hermit crab, and an emerald crab to the haddoni. The gigantea haven't ate anything yet.

Clowns in the red haddoni.

Clowns in the gigantea