got ethical husbandry?

Mandarin + anemone

Just thought I'd toss this out here before actually pulling the trigger. I have a well established mandarin (it eats frozen, woohoo!) in my 40 long tank along w/ 2 clowns. I was really really thinking of getting an anemone for the tank as well. It's between a BTA or LTA. I know a BTA will be more out of the area of the mandarin, but was also really attracted to a sand-bed anemone like the carpet I used to have (previous tank). Any input from people? And yes, I know the LTA will get big, but I'll also be upgrading probably in ~6 months.
 
Mandarins and anems are a bad combo. They are routinely killed in such situations. The carpet I would say not if it'll eat it, but when. I'd go BTA and know you're running the risk of loosing the poor mandarin.
 
My friend had one for years in a tank with LTA and BTA and one day he actually saw the mandarin cruise too close and was nabbed.

I saw countless perish the way of anemone while working at a LFS.

Some do work... and some one actually does win the lottery. It's the odds that are stacked against you though.
 
I heard a costumer at one of the LFS say that his RBTA were doing great, so he was going to propagate them, but when he cut them open he found his missing 6-Line Wrasse hanging out with his Blue Spot Jawfish. So I think there is no guarentee the anemone won't eat the fish, because that is what they do in the wild, so if you try it you may want to take the safest anemone, and probably a small one.
 
Hey Gresh, thanks for the heads up. And to clear the air...I'm not wanting a carpet right now. I had one, and I know what it can/will do to most fish, so that's for a future species tank.

I was leaning towards the BTA to keep it up off the substrate, and hope that constant feeding combined w/ the clowns will prove a thorough deterrent. The fem. already bites my hand whenever it comes close to 'her' toadstool.
 
That sounds very doable then :)

I dream of a species tank for a large carpet as well. Rich really kicked that one into me. I thought about it years ago.. getting an Oceanic 30g cube (starphire) and hanging a pendant with a radium over it. I had it all picked up but never pulled the trigger.
 
Had a 60g cube, but not the lighting, and a ~14" carpet in a separate tank, but never got around to putting it all together into one. One of these days.....
 
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