What Clown for a Carpet Nem

[katspaw]

Okay so the title says it all. I got this tiny carpet anemone last night that I have placed in my 53 gallon zero edge tank. And before I get flamed, I know I did some major screw ups here. I was planning on getting clown fish with an anemone in the future. I did a impulse buy to try and save this little guy. He was in a tank without the proper lighting and all closed up. I have Metal Halides on this tank, but it is new. It's parameters have been pretty much perfect the last week. This is my first real add to this tank, so no corals to sting, I have snails, macro algae and two banded shrimp in the tank. And I do have a 100 gallon system at my work if he gets too big for this tank. I have been researching clowns and anemones, and I know the carpet is more difficult anemone to house. He has attached himself to a piece of rock from at the LFS, they gave me the rock (nice) and cut the price of the anemone more than half off as it looked half dead. I am not sure as to which Carpet species this is. So I am attaching an image

 

[Conrad25]

Once you have some pictures up. We can help as there is a few types and that makes a difference.

Conrad

 

[t4zalews]

yes pictures and knowing what kind of carpet it is will help a lot in decision making.

 

[katspaw]

Does this help?

 

[t4zalews]

I'd concentrate on mending this little guy before introducing a clownfish..only because of its size. Is it still sticky? I'd suggest offering small feedings often of mysis until it gains its color back. Good sign of the tight mouth and I'm assuming it attached to the rock.

 

[katspaw]

Oh don't worry, I won't be buying anything else for a while. But I would still like to ID this little guy so that I can investigate what options I have as far as clownfish are concerned. I know that the Clarkii host all carpets, but still..it is better to know what I have in my tank.

 

[t4zalews]

I'd say its a haddoni, if not then its a mini-carpet

 

[kduen]

Do you have any pictures of the underside of the disk? That's the easiest way to properly ID something.

 

[kduen]

It actually is reminding me a lot of the atlantic I briefly had. There are no tenticles around the outer edge that are longer then the rest that would suggest either a mini carpet or a haddoni, unless the edges are curled under in the pic.

 

[Conrad25]

looks like it could be a haddoni but hard to say just from that picture. Picks of under it and everything would help. It could be a few different things from the way it looks right now and being so bleached.

 

[katspaw]

I didn't take a picture before I placed it in the tank. Tonight when I get home, I will see about getting picture of the foot which maybe difficult. At the store the foot was a reddish brown color and well attached to the rock. The rock he came on is so ugly compared to what I have in my tank that I actually want him to move so I can hide the ugly thing. Hopefully all will be well when I get home tonight.

 

[kduen]

Do you remember seeing anything like this before you put it in the tank

The little atlantic I had looked like this under my main tank lights

 

[katspaw]

no the LFS did not try to remove it from the rock it is attached to. I saw it closed up, the foot is about the size of a quarter and a reddish brown color. At this point I don't want to stress him further in trying to ID it.

 

[kduen]

How big is it exactly? The main reason I brought up the atlantic is that in the picture it appears to have the same puckered lips. The one in my pic was only about 3 1/2 inches in daimeter.

 

[katspaw]

This one maybe 1 1/2 to 2 inches. I am feeding it tonight and it is eating. When he ate he curled one one side and yes it does now appear to be an little Atlantic.

 

[kduen]

If indeed it is a atlantic which seems highly possible now they will not host clowns and most likely eat them if the clowns try to become aquainted. Do a search for " Haddoni or ???" on page two bonsia nut and other comment on the behavior of this deadly little guy.

 

[katspaw]

Great. Okay if that is the case I will indeed move him to my other tank later on or get a completely different clown that wont host this anemone with a anemone that does host it. Hmm that was confusing. At any rate I have a bit of time to make decisions on what fish are going into this system and this little guy is eating and looking oh so much better tonight.

 

[katspaw]

Okay update of pictures of this guy, maybe we can confirm if it is a Atlantic Carpet or something else. It is staying mostly white with yellow highlights, almost like someone took a highlighter and scrabbled on it. When feeding it last night, it's tentacles are very sticky, and I fed it with my bare hand carefully, it got my thumb, but no burn or sting if that helps. As it moved the food to it's mouth the side came up and I was able to get a shot of it's foot. So I am hoping that the ID of this guy can be confirmed.

 

[garygb]

My guess is an Atlantic. Stichodactyla helianthus.

 

[OrionN]

Yes that is a S. helianthus. They will eat any clowns that go into it. They do host shrimp.