Mandarin safe(r) Anemone

HumanIMDB

Premium Member
I've read that mandarins fall victims to anemones quite often...are there any anemones that are safer than others?

I have found several post to other forums indicating that rock dwelling anemones (BTA), would be less threat to the mandarin, since presumably, the fish spends most of it's time on the sand bed, whereas the LTA is a sand dweller. And that carpet anemones are notorious fish eaters, and shouldn't be avoided.

Thoughts?
 
Actually those mandy's will spend more time in rock looking for pods, so opposite.
But fact is all nems will eat anything that wanders in.
I had a pair of mandy's, and even w/ my giant sebae and LTA, no problem, most fish stay away.
In over 5yrs w/ those nems I've lost 3 fish total, and all 3 were tangs(baby naso's)
 
BTAs are pretty safe with mandarins. I've had mine together for a year and a half. I would assume that having a clownfish hosting in the anemone would help out. The clowns will probably keep the mandarin away from the anemone a bit. The carpet species are definitely known for eating fish. And, unfortunately, Percs and ocellaris clowns don't naturally host BTAs.
 
I've had a LTA and mandarin together for over a year and not had any probs. From what I've seen most of my fish seem to naturally know to stay away, and the only one that didn't seem to know better (foxface) just barely touched it once and knows better know.
 
+1 on the LTA and mandarin together in the same tank as well. As far as the carpet goes... its not a matter of whether it will eat the mandarin, but when.
 
I have a spawning pair of green mandarins that are active all over my 300gal and they never get close to my anemones. I have a BTA and a carpet.

I do agree that the clowns play a big part in keeping all other fish away
 
Just in case you did not know, mandarins will eat clownfish eggs, especially if the male is not tending them, or pretending to ignore them. You know how aggressive most clownfish can be when they are protecting their eggs, right? Most large healthy fish eating anemones will eat a healthy mandarinfish that the clownfish team up against to protect their eggs and later the anemone will spit it back up.....especially if your tank is under 100 gallons. This was the demise of my 4 years in my care mandarin that I made the mistake of keeping with a breeding pair of clownfish, anyway.
 
I have a GBTA with my mandarin for 8 months now, he even swims right near it sometimes to eat pods with no hesitation.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14288430#post14288430 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dragonlady
Just in case you did not know, mandarins will eat clownfish eggs, especially if the male is not tending them, or pretending to ignore them. You know how aggressive most clownfish can be when they are protecting their eggs, right? Most large healthy fish eating anemones will eat a healthy mandarinfish that the clownfish team up against to protect their eggs and later the anemone will spit it back up.....especially if your tank is under 100 gallons. This was the demise of my 4 years in my care mandarin that I made the mistake of keeping with a breeding pair of clownfish, anyway.

Funny enough back when I had a Mandarin in my 75 I would watch it eat the Clarkii eggs. For some odd reason they didn't pay any attention to that. Any other fish that got near the eggs would be attacked, but not the Mandarin for some reason.
 
Had a Mandy for years with a BTA without problems but three or four months after I got my green carpet it went MIA. Carpets are crazy sticky.
 
Had a Mandy for years with a BTA without problems but three or four months after I got my green carpet it went MIA. Carpets are crazy sticky.
 
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