Carpet anemone & Clams

ponokareefer · #1 11-14-2008, 10:28 PM

I have an opportunity to get a carpet anemone(not sure on id yet), but have clams in my system and was wondering if anyone has any personal experience with them together or not? The only resource I can find on the internet is from wetwebmedia, but was hoping to hear from other reefer's who have attempted this. I'm not suggesting the carpet will "attack" the clam, but more concerned with chemical warfare. The carpet is from another reefer, so I don't have to be as concerned about poor shipping, which sounds like is the major killer of these anemones.

Powertec · #2 11-14-2008, 10:38 PM

I wouldn't worry about it at all. I have a Deresa clam the size of a football and a gigantea in the same system and there has never been any issues at all.I don't believe that clams have chemicals that they release as other corals and nems do.

ponokareefer · #3 11-14-2008, 10:47 PM

Thanks for the reply Powertec. Now I just need Delphinus to come and identify it to see what I'm getting into if I do buy it.

Powertec · #4 11-14-2008, 10:51 PM

Put up a pic i have got pretty good at id's as we'll. I at one point had 2 gigantea's....and have had haddonis as we'll..

Delphinus · #5 11-14-2008, 11:10 PM

They can coexist together in the same tank. It's not good if there's repeated prolonged contact however, so make sure they are far enough apart, but otherwise should be OK.

I eagerly await the pictures.

Powertec · #6 11-15-2008, 12:33 AM

And there's Tony...lol
Hopefully it is another healthy gigantea

ponokareefer · #7 11-15-2008, 01:55 AM

From what I've read, it sounds like I want to watch out for a haddoni as they are the most likely to eat fish. What is the most obvious sign it is a haddoni?

Delphinus · #8 11-15-2008, 02:15 AM

It's hard to describe but I think if you see each then it's hard to mistake them for each other.

The main thing with gigantea's is that they have coloured verrucae (the raised dots on the sides that they use to help adhere in place). Here's an example..

With haddoni these are smaller, more regular (like a grid), and the same colour. They're almost invisible.

Of course the tentacle length is longer on gigantea but they don't always have them all out after shipping. For example, here's a picture of my green when I first got him:

.. then here's a picture of him with longer tentacles:

Haddoni's tend to lay flatter and get bigger. Haddoni's come in a larger variety of colours though. For example you can find a red haddoni but I don't think there's such thing as a red gigantea. At least I haven't seen or heard of any so far..

ponokareefer · #9 11-16-2008, 11:47 PM

The good news: it was a gigantea for sure, looking pretty much identical to Tony's green gigantea in his last picture, including the verrucae. The bad news: the reason it is for sale is that it ate pretty much all the fish in the system it was in. I turned it down as I don't want to lose all the fish in my system, and I don't want to set up another sytem off my current one to hold it, although that would be awesome, and fairly easy to do.

Delphinus · #10 11-17-2008, 04:59 AM

Oh ... weird. I would not have guessed a gigantea to be a fish eating problem. I had a mandarin sleep at night right under the oral disk of the anemone. The two I have also don't seem to be much excited by larger pieces of food but do seem to enjoy smaller pieces like mysis so I thought they were more into plankton than fish. But I guess it goes to show there are always differences out there!