anemone "eating fish?"

[corbettb]

A guy at my LFS said that a pink tip hatian anemone will "eat fish" if they swim into it. This site says they are known to accept different species of clown fish. Is the guy at the LFS just a big idiot like I'm assuming or is there any truth to what he said?:nervous:

 

[skirrby]

not that the lfs is always right. but he is right on this one.. they might accept clowns,, but that dont mean they wont eat fish.. it will eat fish if it gets the chance

 

[viper_930]

Haitians don't usually host though, but they may. Those anemones are from the atlantic ocean and the clownfish are from the pacific.

 

[johnny5]

In my experience (which is very limited) ive seen the opposite.. My hatian pinktip (condi) eats silversides/squid/krill like a pig but its never grabbed ahold of any of my fish. Maybe its just that I keep it well fed. :notsure:
I bought it about 2 months ago.. When first put in, my 2 3dot damsels started hosting it. Recently I bought a pair of tomato clows and the LTA they were hosting at an lfs. Immediately (like same day) both clowns moved over to the condi. At night both 3dots and the male tomato sleep in the pinktip, and the female always goes and snuggles in the LTA (but only at night).
Anemones do some weird things tho.. I think it really depends on the specific organism, not so much by what species it is.
My pinktip is turning out to be more of a community anemone, which may be rarity. But who knows what will happen as time goes by..

 

[reefer44]

my sabae which is about 10 -12 inches hosts a clown...but it eat my sixline wrasse a month ago poor buggar

 

[johnny5]

OUch, that will happen tho. No guarantees with anemones, they do some weird stuff sometimes. In nature the clownfish is the bait to lure fish in close for the kill.
I was referring specifically about my pinktip and clowns/damsels. But id put my money of the fact that it would eat any other type of fish that was stupid enough to get too close.
Sorry to hear about that tho reefer, sucks to loose a fish. Esp a cool wrasse. :nope:

 

[beautful]

o,k so going reef is not allways good hu?

 

[corbettb]

Well, the guy at the LFS WAS an idiot. I bought some Pink-tips and the Clown hosts ALL of them and LOVES it. He's become a total anemone whore and is very healthy!

 

[johnny5]

Congrats CorbettB, you gotta take lfs advise with a grain of salt and a handful of swf searches
I love my pink tip! My pair of tomatos kicked everyone else out recently too, which I dont mind at all. Its cool to think that an alantic anemone and a pacific clown can still get along.

 

[corbettb]

This is only a 15 second video, but it's pretty cool....
http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/tank/website.mov

 

[viper_930]

Do you mean it show he is an idiot because there is a clown in the haitian? That is normal, because the clown coats himself in the anemone's stinging cells, then the anemone no longer sees it as food.