AHHHHHH! Stupid Carpet Anemone is eating all my fish!
 

So yesterday I witnessed my larger carpet eat a Fang Blenny. It was slowly pulling it in as the fish thrashed around trying to escape. Today the smaller carpet (split a while ago from the mother) had something. It took me a while but eventually I got it partly open (you can't touch these ones, had to use a stick) and found my clown goby. I was really starting to like this little guy :(

I am also missing another goby.

These are the mini carpet anemones. Don't seem to be many around. They are very beautiful anemones but I don't know if they are worth it since my plan is to keep small fish. Just wondering how common this problem is with carpets?

Oh and the big ones "eaten" list is much longer than that even...It has eaten:

A monti frag that fell on it (spits the skeleton back out a few days later)
Many hermit crabs
A star fish
An arrow crabs leg
A Serpent Stars leg
A mushroom that it moved beside and proceeded to eat
Digi frag

And a partridge in a pear tree...

I am so torn because I love how it looks and would have a heck of a time trying to get it out but it just seems like it will keep eating my fish. I am even scared that if my new mandarin touches it that it will not be strong enough to get away. The mandarin is quite a decent size but this anemone does NOT let go once it touches something.

Really!! I didn't know the minis were that aggressive - are you sure it's a mini? (I know quite a few ppl who keep them in their nanos with nano-fish)

Well I was told its a mini and it stays small (4" across max) and just splits at a certain size. Is there any way of knowing?

This thing sounds mondo aggressive. :( Can you post a picture of the carpet?

The fact that it "splits" is a bit of red flag. It could mean that it is indeed a S. tapetum "mini carpet" but it could also mean S. helianthus which is an Atlantic species (and known to be an aggressive eater). I'm not sure how aggressive tapetum is supposed to be. S. gigantea and S. haddoni and S. mertensii are not known splitters (there are isolated stories of it happening, but generally as exception not the rule).

Just took one even though the lights are out. I am uploading it to photobucket now. I don't think I have Stichodactyla tapetum after looking at many pics on the web.

Yeah so lights are out and its not fully open (after just eating :cry:) but here is one of them.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...ith/Nem001.jpg

Any ideas?

I think they look a little different and are usually different colours, mouths, I mean, you may just have meanies!! Do you have pics of yours?


Here are a couple of true S. tapetum's (mini carpets)

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...MiniNems-1.jpg

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/atta...1&d=1166069541

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...hotos/4-23.jpg

I've never seen tapetum in person. It doesn't really look like S. helianthus to me though, they're sort of .. not sure how to put it .. "fatter". (Still smallish, but stouter tentacles). Might be worth posting in RC's anemone forum about the aggressiveness of tapetum?

Well, it's pretty, but I haven't seen any S. tapetum's that don't have multiple colours before.

Do you think it may be a large species that is just splitting a lot? Would that mean its unhappy?

To be honest it does sort of look like it could be S. haddoni (another super-sticky/aggressive feeder anemone). But I didn't know they could be splitters. I thought they were not, but ... maybe they can be after all??

This guy sure does split.

Sigh...I guess its going to have to go. I am going to read about them. I feed it silversides and it still eats my fish :neutral:

Too bad though, I really like it!

It does seem to look an aweful like S. haddoni

I guess it would get pretty darn big if thats the case. Weird that it splits though. From what I was reading too, they shouldn't be too aggressive.

I had a haddoni for a few years in a 20g. Had to sell it when it got to the point it touched all 4 tank walls at once. (wall to wall carpet anyone?? sheesh).

Never kept fish in with it but man it ate everything it touched. The occasional frag, snails, etc. would spit out the empty shell a couple days later.

It got bought and sold a few times after I had it and everyone who had it apparently eventually lost fish to it. Tangs, a moorish idol, blennies, damsels, a linckia star ... kind of made me sad to hear about these stories but I guess that's how it goes with this species... I think they belong in tanks all by themselves, maybe just a pair of clowns and that's it.

Anemones are headaches man!!

Yeah they are and I was an idiot and did not do my research. I thought it was a mini and harmless.

Do you think it would do ok in half of a 75G (my fuge) with PC lighting? Or does it need the MH? I don't know how many watts but its from a nano cube. Probably not enough...

My gigantic green carpet hasn't eaten too many things over the years. It apparently ate a surpent star while I was on vacation this summer...and I've seen a few hermits meet their ends. No fish that I am aware of.

I was actually just going to ask you about yours. Do you know what species?

I am pretty sure now mine is a Stichodactyla haddoni. I don't know why its splitting so much though. Maybe its unhappy...Looks very healthy though, so I don't know.

RC has a picture of this under Stichodactyla haddoni and I think that looks about right.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...dle_colony.jpg

The tentacle shape looks like S. helianthus to me, sort of ricordea like. That squares with your "can't touch it" statement as well, those things sting like crazy. Like Tony said, here are some pretty good anemone iders on RC or you could try sending that pic to Fenner @ wet web media. I'm by no means an expert on these.

I think mine is haddoni. Based on the photo, I think yours is something else.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0111.jpg

Brad yours is a haddoni but I think due to the large footprint of your tank, the "relative real estate consumed" by the carpet is proportionally much smaller than average. Thus the odds of a fish randomly stumbling into the carpet are much smaller than average (so to speak).

Justin, to me the carpet looks just like a smaller version of a haddoni, but I'm stuck on the fact you say it splits. Haddoni's just don't split, as far as I know. So I'm left with believing yours is indeed tapetum, and I guess we've just learned that tapetums are potentially very strong feeders much like haddoni's.

That's my guess anyhow. :)

Check out this link:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/carpetanemones.htm

Not sure if it will help with your ID but here is some pretty good info there.

Someone on RC is saying stichodactyla helianthus which is the "dreaded" Atlantic Carpet Anenome. Eats everything including clowns. The problem with that is, it doesn't look like stichodactyla helianthus! Those ones clearly look different to me. I could be wrong though.

I don't know but I had a hard time even sleeping last night knowing my new mandarin was hanging out beside it. He made it through the night though. Apparently they should know to stay away from the thing. Maybe the little fish got mesmerized :lol:

Brad I agree, it looks a bit different from yours but it is way smaller so maybe thats why? I am going to take a pic today once its all open. In that last pic it was kind of closed still after eating.

Thanks, yes I was looking at this last night and this is how I came up with haddoni.

Anyone want it? Hahahahaha...what am I going to do with this thing?!?

I am sorry for you. I saw those carpet anemones at an LFS last year but was too new to buy one. Sure glad I didn't. From now on I am asking you guys before adding anything since I learned my lesson the hard way already. I had no clue they could even eat most of the stuff you mention.

Oh I knew larger carpets can be a pain and the only reason I bought this one is that I was told its a small species. It was not from a store. Someones tank.

:eek: :surprise: WOW!!!! I had no idea carpet anemones could eat fish!!!!!! I was going to get a blue one but after reading this I think not! heaven forbid I come home to one of my angelfish being eaten! RBTA it is :biggrin:

Some species of carpets are not very aggressive. Just make sure you do your research and ID it right.

Good to know thanks. The one Carpet Anemone, Blue (Stichodactyla haddoni), that I liked is aggressive. Guess reading about them is important.

Yeah it can be. I think it depends on the fish you plan to keep and tank size. Brad is not having a big problem with his huge green haddoni but his tank is 400G and has big fish mostly.

I think if I was planning mostly bigger fish, I would keep my anemone because I really like it. Just not worth loosing all the small fish though. Im not sure what to do at this point. The two I still have in my tank are both is holes and will not really just come out easy.

I also don't even have an ID yet...

Fifth row middle pic...This is the closest I have seen to mine. Just a different color.

http://uglycoral.com/JOOMLA/index.ph...=17&Itemid=30#

A few experienced anemone keepers on RC are saying it is indeed a mini carpet in their opinion and that they are quite aggressive. Certainly not meant to be kept with bottom dwelling fish. So I either have to change my plans or get rid of it. Im very torn because I really, really like it. Its actually splitting again and a group of them would be cool. I can just sell the ones that move too much or if the numbers get too big. Might consider just keeping the Yellow Tang and clowns with a bunch of chromis instead of small gobies I had planned. I guess I would have to limit my tank to cheap shrimp too since they will eat shrimp. Could be a cool tank with a bunch if mini carpets though.

Sell one so someone else has it and can start propagating them locally. Mini carpets are pretty hard to come by up here so if we can get a few reefers to start having them split then we might have a viable number for sale/trade.

Thats the plan. I am going to sell them as it continues to split and keep the ones that don't wander too far. I think its starting to split now. Actually I already had some requests on RC from a few people who collect mini's and want to buy some because apparently this colour is rare too but I can't ship to the US.

It was kind of a hard decision because I was really set on small fish but I am actually willing to forget the small fish in favour of keeping the anemones. I really think they're cool and such a manageable size. I will most likely just keep the fish I have and get a bunch of chromis or something.