Ordered haddoni carpet from swf.com...fish eater?!?

[fishy all the time]

We ordered a haddoni carpet from here and I am worried about putting it into our tank. I was talking to my LFS owner and he told me to be very careful with this particular carpet. He told me they were also know as fish eating carpets. Is this true? I am really worried about it eating my fish of course. I usually listen to this guy because he has never sent us in the wrong direction. This is a really nice hugh carpet so I hope he is wrong. We spent over $200 dollars on the whole order and everything else was perfect and alive. I just want to know if anybody else ordered this item and if they had problems or if anybody has any advise. Right know I have it is the sump with lighting. Thanks in advance.

 

[plum70rt]

They can eat fish, Im sure no one will say that they will never eat one, my blue carpet is suspect to a few fish disapearences

 

[fshhub]

same with our green carpet anemone
suspect, with lots of reason
plus they grow large and fast, also becareful handling them. They are known to be one of the bigger ones as far as human allergies and reactions. And, once they grab, they odn't let go it is like velcro and very difficult to get off.

 

[hairtrigger]

Ok ok ok... I know you aren't supposed to do this and all, but:
When I used to work at an LFS we used to take live fish and feed them to our resident carpet anenome all the time. This way he didn't eat his tankmates. He was huge... about a foot and a half in diameter.
We'd also take sickly or dying fish and fill him up.
Sorry sorry. I know it wasn't humane. Chalk it up to a mis-spent youth.

 

[rook]

I don't have first hand knowledge, but I have been researching anemones quite a bit for my personal knowledge.
From what I have found, they will indeed eat fish if given the chance, but you can mitigate the likelihood of this happening. Feed it often and try to get a mated pair of clownfish to host it. Try to go for agressive clownfish that are natural host of the anemone.
The clowns should keep all other fish at a safe distance so they will not get close enought to be eaten.
I have also heard that moon lights, and gradually turning lights on and off help by not scaring fish into accidentally running into the anemone.
How is the anemone??? Does it appear healthy? What does it look like?

 

[hairtrigger]

That's a good point Rook has about the distance thing. Because if fish get too close to carpets, they could be history. Those things are more sticky than fly paper. I accidentaly brushed the carpet we used to feed and it stuck to my hand, really freaked me out. I dont remember a sting though.

 

[fishy all the time]

The carpet is still in my sump. I guess I didnt realize that this was going to be a problem. I have a real small one now and my mom actually bought this one and it was too big for her tank...this is how I ended up with it. I wish SWF.com would have mentioned this in the product info...we would never have bought the thing. Oh well I guess we should research a little more before buying. We have moon lights. The actinics come on first when they turn off and then the halides come on. I still dont know what to do with the thing. It is hugh and the mouth looks like it could eat everyone of my fish. I am not willing to risk loosing any of my fish. Anybody want to buy a carpet cheap

 

[plum70rt]

why not trade him in at a LFS, I love to adopt him, a little far from me though

 

[rook]

I would love to have him, but he is surely too big for my 29 gallon tank, and I have mated maroons, in a bta already.
You could try adding a clarkii clown to the sump, and once it accepts the anemone, move both to the tank. If you want to try it.
Or else try to find it a new home as you say
If I had room, I would definately take it.

 

[fshhub]

Well, I can say form experience thqat keeping fed and getting him an aggressive host will not work much.
Like I had mentioned, we had one that I am almost positive ate a couple of fish, and we had a domino damsel that would not let anything near it.
That lil bugger would attack me, when i would do maintenance or even feed it. and not just tap once, he would keep biting at me, over and over. We also had a full grown yellow tang and this domino was nearly an inch long. 7 inch tang, 1 inch damsel, kinda funny, but somehow, we still lost fish, mysteriously. Non jumpers, no carcass. And since trading him, we have lost none like that(only what we lost during a 3 day power outage). The good news is many lfs's will take them, if they are healthy. Ours traded nicely, 3 corals(one wa a moon coral) and a maroon clown. We only paid 35$ for it too. But, it was big and healthy.