Recommend a Nem?

I'm aware of the sticky and the natural hosts for perculas. What worries me is the horror stories of those hosts eating tank mates. Is there a host that is slightly safer? That's what I'm asking. I get the feeling tha the answer is no.
 
1) H. crispa. One of the least risky clownfish hosting anemones to aquarium fish. Not exactly a natural host but we recently found underwater footage of the paring. Fairly easy to keep alive and well.

2) S. gigantea. Natural host anemone. Can eat tankmates, probably not too risky, should get away with it in your 150g. Most difficult to keep of the three species I listed.

3) S. mertensii. Natural host, can eat tankmates.
 
Killing and eating is a triggered response to an unprotected organism touching the tentacles. Unfortunately, all nems sport that capacity, and fish are not the only creatures on the menu; I've lost a few shrimp and crabs to a small variety of popular nems when they got caught trying to steal their food.
 
I would try a crispa first, ocellaris are usually not too picky and the ones I had before liked their crispa.
A gigantea would be another good choice, but you would need to be prepared to treat it with antibiotics if it arrives sick. So far I had to treat 3 out of 4.

As for the eating of tankmates, I'm not sure how often that actually happen and why. One of my regals is in a tank with my largest gig and every time I feed the anemone he goes in to steal some of the food still floating above the anemone. It looks quite scary but it seems he knows what he is doing.
Back in the day I had my blue stipend pipefish swimming right through the tentacles of my crispa and nothing ever happened.

I think the key is not to startle the fish or have wild chases going on. Fish get to know their surroundings quickly and as long as there aren't any changes to the setup they know the danger spot and tend to avoid them.
 
Thanks. I will have to think this over carefully. Seems like a big risk. I can see my wrasses bumbling into it and getting eaten. I think the clowns may have to be homeless. But thanks for the help.
 
^ I wouldn't worry about the wrasse's sharing your 150g with H. crispa. Odds of getting eaten are possible but not probable.
 
I've housed every popular anemone in this trade, minus a mag, and have observed 2 eating's from carpet anemones, both happened with a dead fish that glided into their tentacles. I haven't even lost a shrimp to an anemone yet however I did have a harlequin that got scared from a coral banded shrimp chasing it and swam right into a carpet anemone, red haddoni, and molted immediately.
 
akida said:
I've housed every popular anemone in this trade, minus a mag, and have observed 2 eating's from carpet anemones, both happened with a dead fish that glided into their tentacles. I haven't even lost a shrimp to an anemone yet however I did have a harlequin that got scared from a coral banded shrimp chasing it and swam right into a carpet anemone, red haddoni, and molted immediately.
Click to expand...

Well that is your experience, not everyone can say the same and we can go around and around with this.

I for one had:

S. haddoni, stung the daylights out of a otherwise very healthy full grown power-blue tang, it got away but still died. Also ate a half dozen flasher and fairy wrasse's. Those which i was around to see get eaten were all badgered into the carpet by its clownfish, A. polymnus which S. haddoni is a natural host to.

H. crispa, ate a Echinometra sp rock urchin.

S. gigantea, ate a Tripneustes ventricosus sea egg urchin.
 
Exactly. I don't want to take the chance. It's too risky.
Honestly, I was asking the experts in this forum in the smallest chance someone gad a magic bullet answer. A rarely seen in the trade anemone; brightly colored carpet, looks like a Haddoni but stays under 10" and is completely peaceful, like a mini maxi, and reasonably Hardy like a BTA. I was wishing for the impossible, I admit it. But I had to ask.
 
Whiterabbitrage said:
Exactly. I don't want to take the chance. It's too risky.
Honestly, I was asking the experts in this forum in the smallest chance someone gad a magic bullet answer. A rarely seen in the trade anemone; brightly colored carpet, looks like a Haddoni but stays under 10" and is completely peaceful, like a mini maxi, and reasonably Hardy like a BTA. I was wishing for the impossible, I admit it. But I had to ask.
Click to expand...
You are over thinking this and blowing it out of proportion.

Chances of H. crispa, H. malu (sebae's), M. doreensis (LTA), and E. quadricolor (BTA) eating your fish are minuscule to none, go for it:)

I'd even take my chances with S. gigantea, especially in a 150gallon aquarium.

So far I'm having no troubles with my ORA Red Sea mimic blenny and ORA yellow assessor getting snagged by the S. gigantea in my 40gallon breeder tank, and they both swim very close. Plus it seems the A. percula clownfish doesn't seem to care, let alone know those two are in the tank with it.
It is possible the gigantea ate three of the five peppermint shrimp I put in the tank, but who cares, they're tank bred and expendable.

S. haddoni and H. magnifica, I'd think twice about, especially the former and decide which I like better, the fish or anemone.
And even then there are fish which are smart enough to never get snagged by one of the "notorious" fish eating anemones, specifically Pseudochromis and some others.
 
I haven't had any luck getting my Osci into a BTA. I'm slowly considering trading it for LFS credit since that's the entire reason I bought the thing. It's making me money though, it's split twice.

Some people get lucky I guess. But luck is not my forte.
 
Bent said:
I haven't had any luck getting my Osci into a BTA. I'm slowly considering trading it for LFS credit since that's the entire reason I bought the thing. It's making me money though, it's split twice.

Some people get lucky I guess. But luck is not my forte.
Click to expand...
If it's not working for you either give it more time or consider getting a clownfish which a BTA is a natural host to.

To be clear I was not recommending the OP get a BTA for his Percula complex group clownfish. And I have seen the pairing work may times over. I listed E. quadricolor BTA to put it in context with "fish friendly" host anemones.
If not a natural host, H. crispa would be my first choice to pair it with followed by H. malu and M. doreensis.

Really only responded to call BS advice on the "i've had had every clownfish hosting anemone never lost a fish which to me is the same as the i've had every anemone never spot fed any of them statements.
 
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