Check this out!! (Anemone eating my Mandarin)

[Lynn]

Not long ago, I was with my daughter at a petstore. We were admiring a beautiful fat Manderin. We wandered around for awhile and then went back to look again at the manderin. But to our horror, the fish was being consumed by the anemone.
I know some people have luck keeping both of them, but I would never risk it. Couldn't stand the thought of losing them!

 

[dizzy]

Not long ago, I was with my daughter at a petstore. We were admiring a beautiful fat Manderin. We wandered around for awhile and then went back to look again at the manderin. But to our horror, the fish was being consumed by the anemone.
I know some people have luck keeping both of them, but I would never risk it. Couldn't stand the thought of losing them!

Two thoughts. First is maybe something chased it into the anemone. I think I remember doing this once when I was trying to catch one to sell it.
Second is that mandarins come from the Pacific and the Condys are from the Atlantic. I don't what type of anemone you saw, but maybe condys don't smell like danger to a mandarin. Just a thought and another argument for keeping fish and inverts from the same geographic locations together like the public aquariums usually do.

 

[beast]

Dizzy,

I agree with you completely, and it's what is passed down from Tullock's book, but sometimes I am met with the temptation to keep fish like the Mandarins that remind me of what got me into the hobby(puffers, Mandarins, blennies, etc).

I buy them and hope for the best, thinking that perhaps my artificial reef environment could have a region classification of its own, an artificial one. That said, I have learned lessons from each loss I've had and would avoid those same mistakes. Part of the hobby is trial and error though, right? (Bring on the flames!!)

Beast

 

[EmilyB]

A healthy mandarin, in a healthy size tank, will not be attacked by a hosting anemone, IME.

There are many non-hosting, fish eating anemones out there, and many sickly mandarins, as well.

I believe it is Scott Michael who does not recommend keeping a mandarin with anemones. However, I did not learn of that until I'd kept mandarins with (hosting) anemones for years.

And absolutely not carpet anemones. They eat BIG fish.

 

[SPC]

Posted by beast:

I buy them and hope for the best

-Well that answers the question as far as I am concerned about why this mandarin ended up with the anemone. The mandarin died from lack of proper nutrition and was eaten by the soon to be dead anemone, nothing new here :roll: .
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds good, MandarinFish. Looks like you're in the bay area too, great area to live, huh?

I miss living in the Bay area!!! I'm stuck back in this humid hellhole of Indiana. *sigh*


-John

 

[Anonymous]

Part of the hobby is trial and error though, right?

trial and error??

sure, when it comes to tying to figure our how much sand to use, what kind of rock, refugium or sump or both, what kind of skimmer, what kind of lighting, etc...

but to just buy and animal and "hope for the best" is very irresponsible. i myself am guilty of housing a critter that i may not be able to take care of - even after i *thought* i could because i did some research and asked a couple people - not knowing that there was a lot more to caring for this animal than i might be able to provide. this makes me very sad that to think i may unintentionally be responsible for it's death. but i am doing my darndest to take care of it the best i can. had i just read a bit more and asked more questions, i could have avoided this.

 

[wade1]

It was mentioned a bit earlier, but that looks like an atlantic condylactis anemone, a BAD thing in a tank with pacific fish. The fish can withstand a brush by some anemones, but condy's are horrible for grabbing. I bet you can even feel it "sticking" to your hand when you touch it can't you?

Its not a good idea to put any smaller fish in near it IMO.

 

[aquarist=broke]

I have only been coming here for a few months, and with only 30 or so odd posts I tend not to answer these really deep issues, but I was telling my co-workers about this issue and they said I should add to it. It's just that alot of people hate when something in a tank dies because of a "lame" aquarist's idea. Be it trial and error(which I think we are all guilty of somehow), or experience we have developed from years, we are the reason people are trying to have aquariums. Somebody had to use trial and error for any of the things we do and don't do in this hobby. If we really want animals to stop being killed or whatever, then maybe we should just stop this all together. I really don't want to stop because I have been successful thus far, however if I infrequently had animals die because of my care, or lack thereof, then I would definately QUIT as much as I would hate to......

my 2 cents.....

 

[Lazyreefer1]

I think your manderian was already dead and just was in the area. If not I think its funny

 

[esmithiii]

aquarist=broke:


You have not lost a single fish? How long have you been in this hobby, a couple of weeks? I don't know any beginner that has kept a tank longer than 6 months that hasn't lost at least one fish.

We should do our best to provide the best care possible for these animals, but loosing a fish once in a great while should not be a reason to quit this hobby.

I have been in the hobby for only 3 years. In that time, I have lost several fish, including:

2 yellow tangs (underfeeding)
1 atlantic blue tang (no idea what happened)
2 ocelaris clowns (pump incident)
2 regal tangs (1 would not eat, the other was quite healthy until he jumped)
2 blue damsels (disappeared)
1 neon goby (disapeared)

Should I quit? My last death was 3-4 months ago when my regal tang jumped out the back of my open canopy. Who knew they were jumpers?

I have a 180G w/ a 50G sump/refugium, 270 lbs of LR, a 6" DSB, good circulation, lots of light and I have 10 fish, 9 of which are smaller fish. I plan on adding 2 more fish for a total of 12. I am trying to give my fish a healthy place to live. I research each purchase before I buy, and have been planning my stocking list for 18 months now. Things still happen. If the attitude is that only people who will never loose a fish should be in this hobby then we should all take up crocheting or bingo or something.

Ernie

 

[aquarist=broke]

Please don't jump to conclusions, here are some of my previous posts.....

Are any of your animals in danger of getting sucked into the intake?(Stupid aquaclear 402 ate a clown fish once )

I've only had about two years of experience as a broke aquarist. I don't really know what side to take on the chiller issue, but I am constantly thinking of ways to better safeguard the lives of my wet friends.

I agree with beginners losing fish, In my "beginner" time I lost three chromis, and one clownfish.... Since then, I can honestly say that I haven't lost anyhing else with the exception of the little critters that live in the sand. I have been at this for two years for the record, but as I said before some people here have been doing this for ten years plus.....

I have not at all intentionally given bad advice to anybody which is why I don't reply to really heated topics. The people I am referring to are such people as follows:

I am determined to add corals to my FOWLR tank, and I am willing to risk a few corals to see what these preditors will not eat.

Oops. I thought I could cycle a saltwater tank (my 20 gallon Q tank) with some hardy fish as I cycle my freshwater tank. I got 3 damsels to cycle it and they all died this week.

sometimes I am met with the temptation to keep fish like the Mandarins that remind me of what got me into the hobby(puffers, Mandarins, blennies, etc).

I buy them and hope for the best, thinking that perhaps my artificial reef environment could have a region classification of its own, an artificial one

I have this cycle of keeping them beautiful and then letting them slip. So my tanks waiver between something that could be photographed for a mag and a newbie tank with red slime. When they slip I get all gung ho and mother the crap out of them. This cycle takes about 1 1/2 year to run from one extreme to another. (This has been for over 10 years now)

Not trying to bash anyone, but some people do these things all the time. I think my main point was:

It's just that alot of people hate when something in a tank dies because of a "lame" aquarist's idea.
If we really want animals to stop being killed or whatever, then maybe we should just stop this all together.

 

[Dewman]

Esmithii-

I have been keeping a reef tank for a year this month and have yet to lose even ONE fish.
Thanks to all the good advice I have gotten from members on this board, and the health of my LFS live stock, I have not had a mortality yet.
I did lose 2 camel back shrimp when I transferred my 29 gallon into the 75 gal, but I still think they are around and I am just not seeing them.(they were very shy)
They were hitchhikers anyway...

Of the four friends I have who keep reefs or salt fish, (some for over 5 years), I think only two of them have ever lost a fish. And both of those were from the same shipment to the same fish store, and weren't acclimated properly at the LFS.
I don't claim to be a "master" or anything, but I think I have just gotten healthy specimens and have not managed to screw up too often with them.


Now I've done it... I'll come home from work in an hour and find all my fish floating at the surface!!! Should've kept my mouth shut.

 

[esmithiii]

Dewman,

I think you would agree that you are in the minority. I didn't find out about this resource (reefs.org) until I had killed most the fish on my previous list.

I hope your luck continues. I know, it is more than luck, but IMO some things can not be prevented by even the most experienced enthusiast.

Ernie

 

[Terry B]

The majority of animal deaths in this hobby are avoidable if people would just do two things BEFORE they purchase an animal and place them into thier display. Unfortunately both of these things seem to be really difficult to get people to do until after they have killed several animals. I have seen it over and over again in my 29 years of experience keeping marine aquariums. Far to many people think that they can skip silly things like researching and reading about the care of each species they are interested in. They buy animals and then ask how to care for them later when it is often too late. The other major thing that people usually refuse to do until after they have learned the hard way (with several dead animals) is to quarantine all new fish for a minimum of three weeks. If people would just learn that quarantine is NOT optional the number of losses would be greatly decreased.
People seem to think it is OK to spend hundreds of dollars on animals that they are ill-preparred to take care of. At the same time they think spending 35 dollars on a simple quarantine set-up and spending some money on a good book is a waste of money. If we could ever change the attitudes of those people (mostly newer hobbyists) then we could make some real progress.
BTW I have kept the same Mandarin with my Seabae and Rose bubble anemones for years. I do understand the caution here though and most hobbyists should not attempt to keep host anemones anyway because there survival rate for three years is less than 5%. Both anemones and madarins should be researched well prior to purchase and anemones like this should be left to advanced aquarists.
Terry B

 

[Dewman]

DAMN!!!!

Esmithii... from my lips to God's ears...

I got home yesterday and noticed that my Blue Linkia star had not moved from where it was a day and a half ago. He moved REAL slow most of the time, so if I didn't see him move for a while, it seemed normal.
Well, I had to move some rock so my Fuzzy dwarf could find a piece of krill and when I moved the rock, the star stayed in the position it was in before the rock moved (bent and formed to the rock).

Animals now lost ..to date

1 - Blue Linkia

Someone had told me he might be sick when he started to slow down a bit. I wish I could diagnose starfish disease.
What a shame... he was so beautiful.

 

[LilBugger225]

Condys are evil if you have a slower moving fish in your tank. I had a condy eat a damsel once when I first started in the hobby and that wasn't even a slow fish. In my opinion what probably happened was that the mandarin was probably wandering over there looking for food and got grabbed by the condy which has a pretty harsh sting. Either that or the mandarin passed away and blew into the anenome. The latter is probably the most likely especially if you didn't have a good pod population.

LB 8)

 

[esmithiii]

Dewman,

Sorry to hear about your loss. Keep up the good husbandry. Linkias are notorious for having issues.

Ernie

 

[Dewman]

Thanks. I got him when I was having red algae issues. I was told he ate red algae. Not sure if that's true, but he seemed ok for the past 3 months.

RIP

 

[Saltykirk]

:? That really sucks is about all you can say.
Instead of beating you up over posting the pic maybe someone else will see this and avoid the same mistake. I have kept wrasses, dottybacks, gobies, etc. with a really large LTA. No one eaten except for one newly added dottyback. This LTA is currently living w/ a royal gramma & an eyelash blenny. They stay away from it. The mandarin may have just died and ended up there as house cleaning for the anemone.