I have a 75 gallon tank with a carpet anemone (abt 4 inch wide). It is ferociously guarded by a Saddleback female about 3.5 inches big and her mate who is just allowed to hover close to the anemone, not actually enter it. Is the mandarin ok in this tank which has about 50-60 kg of LR? Or is it a matter of time before its eaten by the carpet?
Mandarin with a carpet anemone?
- Thread starter pree
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Tofumushrooman
New member
Ive had varying experiences with keeping mandarins with carpets. I personally have kept several tanks with carpets and mandarins and have found that in most cases my mandarins give a WIDE berth of my carpets. However ive seen and heard numerous cases where it does not work out. Currently i have a H. gigantea (12 inches+) hosted by 2 perculas and have no issues with my current target mandarin who ive had for nearly 2 years.
I do run moonlights and one is centered above the anemone, I feel that may be helping.. but Im not sure
I do run moonlights and one is centered above the anemone, I feel that may be helping.. but Im not sure
Rant begin.
Okay...this is trouble for me...My saddleback female was a complete loser before I got the anrmone for her. She used to shy away from me whenever I approached the tank. Even after keeping her for 1 year, she never trusted me. Now with the anemone, she has come out of her shell and is more interactive....and she loves the anemone...She takes food from my hand...is out in the open more and her love for the anemone is unparalleled in my tank. She snuggles up to the carpet and looks up at me with eyes that seem to say "I love you for getting me this"
On the other hand, the reason I got into this hobby was due to the mandarin. For 2 years I have researched this fish and waited and waited till 1 was available. It never was. And as far as I think, it won't be available for quite some time again. Back here there is a simple rule to buying marine fish you have wanted. When its available, you BUY it. If its not in good health, you BUY it and try to nurse it back. We have like 2 shops getting 2-3 varieties (mostly clowns and wrasses) of fish one a fortnight and if you are lucky, maybe very very rarely you will see some fish not collected locally. This fish along with my occys are my dream fish!! What do I do ! Sigh!!!
Rant over...
Okay...this is trouble for me...My saddleback female was a complete loser before I got the anrmone for her. She used to shy away from me whenever I approached the tank. Even after keeping her for 1 year, she never trusted me. Now with the anemone, she has come out of her shell and is more interactive....and she loves the anemone...She takes food from my hand...is out in the open more and her love for the anemone is unparalleled in my tank. She snuggles up to the carpet and looks up at me with eyes that seem to say "I love you for getting me this"
On the other hand, the reason I got into this hobby was due to the mandarin. For 2 years I have researched this fish and waited and waited till 1 was available. It never was. And as far as I think, it won't be available for quite some time again. Back here there is a simple rule to buying marine fish you have wanted. When its available, you BUY it. If its not in good health, you BUY it and try to nurse it back. We have like 2 shops getting 2-3 varieties (mostly clowns and wrasses) of fish one a fortnight and if you are lucky, maybe very very rarely you will see some fish not collected locally. This fish along with my occys are my dream fish!! What do I do ! Sigh!!!
Rant over...
CaliReefer12
New member
How big is your tank? If you are keeping a haddoni I would be cautious but its not impossible. I have one in my 40 gal with my 16" gigantea. Ide say if youre tank is 40 gal or more it may be okay. Also, you said your clown ferociously guards it so I doubt that she would let the mandarin get too close to the anemone.
CaliReefer12
New member
I think you will be pretty safe since its only 5 inches in a 75 gal. However Haddoni's do grow fairly fast. I highly doubt that you saddleback would pull a mandarin into the nem. I have heard of Maroons taking chunks of food to their nem but never another fish. If you keep the haddoni well fed and you give the mandarin a nice rockwork hunting ground you should be fine. I would highly suggest building a small pile of small pieces of rock on the opposite side of the tank from the haddoni and putting a small ball of chaeto inside of it. Copepods will go inside and reproduce and it will act as a makeshift refugium for them. Just make sure fish cannot get inside the pile of rocks. Also the mandarin will most likely spend a lot of time cruising around and hunting near it. Works great.
CaliReefer12
New member
Sounds good. I would say go for it since you have a chance to get a mandarin and just keep a close eye in him for a while.
good luck!
good luck!
Toddrtrex
Premium Member
Didn't you state in another thread that you have 2 pairs of clowns in this tank, and have a divider in the tank? Will the Mandarin only have access to one part of the tank?
Either way, I still think that having a Mandarin and a Haddoni in the same tank is a bad idea --- speak from personal experiences.
Either way, I still think that having a Mandarin and a Haddoni in the same tank is a bad idea --- speak from personal experiences.
CaliReefer12
New member
I got an acrylic divider made for a short period of time while I was treating a fish for ich and I need to put one more clown in my main tank. It was only in there for a while before I got it into a different tank and the divider is out now. The mandarin roams all around hunting.
reefbegood
New member
I have a big maroon fem from hell, wont let the male even close to my bta's all 3 but the Mandarins one big one small chill right next to it all the time with No problem. It a 75 with lots of rocks.
The divider is there for only a couple more days till I take my clowns back. I actually have 4 of them (occy) and 2 now seem to have formed a pair. Atleast after almost 1 year of all 4 of them living together happily in my H.Mag, they have kicked out no. 2 and no. 4 (hierarchy , dominance and size wize). So now I figured either the no. 2 was a female or juvi and no. 4 was a juvi. I am just keeping them till I see that my main pair is truly atleast staying together. We rarely get occy clowns here, so getting a spawning pair is out of question. Also the varied size of the fish made me wonder which was female and which male. Sorry for the long drawn out answer.
P.S.: On a side note how good do you think my chances are of getting a pair this way?
As for the mandy, he is in the rock part of my tank. I have kept one side kinda empty so I can drop food there so it doesn't enter the gaps in the rocks...He has been pecking all day...He actually looked at the carpet with great interest and then finally gave it a wide berth from then on...He is about 1.75 inch.
P.S.: On a side note how good do you think my chances are of getting a pair this way?
As for the mandy, he is in the rock part of my tank. I have kept one side kinda empty so I can drop food there so it doesn't enter the gaps in the rocks...He has been pecking all day...He actually looked at the carpet with great interest and then finally gave it a wide berth from then on...He is about 1.75 inch.
OrionN
Moved on
I just saw that you are from India, not Indiana in the US. I though that the comment about buying fish in one of the previous post was unusual.
Some people posted in this thread seem to did not understand the differences between Haddoni versus other host anemones (H. magnifica, S. gigantea, E. quadricolor all mentioned in this thread) in term of fish eating. Haddoni is THE FISH EATER in the host anemones group, especially fishes that crawling around in the surface.
My Haddoni is so aggressive and sticky that he will eat anything. Bristle worms, hermit crabs, crabs, shrimps, and fish. Anything moving and touch him, it is gone. Shells and bones if any are spit out a few days latter.
IME, Haddoni should be keep in a species tank with it's clowns. Unless the tank is large, other mobile animals don't have much of a chance to live a long live. Even in a large tank, if you really don't want to loose certain special fish, best not put it in with an Haddoni. People have even report of Haddoni ate clowfish that naturally live in it (A. clarkii in one post I read a while back)
Our experiences does and should color our interpretation and guide what we do. My experience with Haddoni was not good in term of loosing fish while Todd's experiences was not too bad. Good luck at whatever you choose to do.
Some people posted in this thread seem to did not understand the differences between Haddoni versus other host anemones (H. magnifica, S. gigantea, E. quadricolor all mentioned in this thread) in term of fish eating. Haddoni is THE FISH EATER in the host anemones group, especially fishes that crawling around in the surface.
My Haddoni is so aggressive and sticky that he will eat anything. Bristle worms, hermit crabs, crabs, shrimps, and fish. Anything moving and touch him, it is gone. Shells and bones if any are spit out a few days latter.
IME, Haddoni should be keep in a species tank with it's clowns. Unless the tank is large, other mobile animals don't have much of a chance to live a long live. Even in a large tank, if you really don't want to loose certain special fish, best not put it in with an Haddoni. People have even report of Haddoni ate clowfish that naturally live in it (A. clarkii in one post I read a while back)
Our experiences does and should color our interpretation and guide what we do. My experience with Haddoni was not good in term of loosing fish while Todd's experiences was not too bad. Good luck at whatever you choose to do.
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