jbacker7
Community Member
Hello Everyone,
This week I received my new haddoni carpet in the mail. This is the second time I have attempted to keep one. My first attempt in December 2023 was a failure and was documented here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-haddoni-carpet-declining.1024494/.
I have changed many things since then, along with the tank and myself maturing for an extra 1.5 years.
Things have been going very well with this anemone; my group of 4 black saddleback clowns are living in a separate 10 gallon tank for the moment.
It set its foot where I made it a spot with rocks buried beneath the deep substrate. It's not getting blown around, but is receiving enough flow to blow debris off its oral disc. The lighting is right; no major expulsion of zooxanthellae has been observed. No mouth gaping, deflations, or excessive inflations. Today the mouth is closed completely.
My plan is to wait until next Tuesday, which will mark one week in the tank, and if the mouth is closed tightly and nothing else has changed, I will spot feed with a small bit of Rod's Original frozen food in the evening. I'll see how it takes it and maybe feed every few days or so in the evening. I do plan to spot feed this anemone with Rod's Original frozen regularly as size is my goal. This is an anemone aquarium and the carpet is the centerpiece.
At that point I'd like to consider reintroducing fish, and I'm at a bit of an impasse here.
Like I mentioned, I do already have a group of 4 black saddlebacks that I've had for about a year and a half. The female is about 3 - 3.5" long, two males are between 2 - 3" long and the smallest male is about 1.5" long. During my last attempt at keeping a haddoni they were very rough with it. I believe that the constant dive bombing inside the anemone was one of the factors that led to it's demise.
In my head here I have a couple options:
#1 - Keep the Black Saddlebacks. I would reintroduce the female first (too big to fit into mouth). After a few weeks I would reintroduce the smaller males and see how it goes. Maybe she will keep them out of the anemone, but there's no way to know until you try. It seems like a high risk option. Failure isn't acceptable at this second attempt, these anemones are so much work to procure, introduce, and settle in.
#2 - I want to keep the anemone with a natural clown pairing so I believe the only other species acceptable is Clarkii. I have read that Clarkii is generally very good with anemones. No relentless dive bombing. I believe I have read that they are more pair bonding than the Saddlebacks and would likely only tolerate a single pair in the tank. That's ok if it means a healthier anemone.
What do you guys think? Do you try to reintroduce the group of 4 Saddlebacks or take the safe route and trade them in for 2 Clarkii?
Thanks for your help. I've attached some pictures of the anemone just for reference.
Jacob
This week I received my new haddoni carpet in the mail. This is the second time I have attempted to keep one. My first attempt in December 2023 was a failure and was documented here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-haddoni-carpet-declining.1024494/.
I have changed many things since then, along with the tank and myself maturing for an extra 1.5 years.
Things have been going very well with this anemone; my group of 4 black saddleback clowns are living in a separate 10 gallon tank for the moment.
It set its foot where I made it a spot with rocks buried beneath the deep substrate. It's not getting blown around, but is receiving enough flow to blow debris off its oral disc. The lighting is right; no major expulsion of zooxanthellae has been observed. No mouth gaping, deflations, or excessive inflations. Today the mouth is closed completely.
My plan is to wait until next Tuesday, which will mark one week in the tank, and if the mouth is closed tightly and nothing else has changed, I will spot feed with a small bit of Rod's Original frozen food in the evening. I'll see how it takes it and maybe feed every few days or so in the evening. I do plan to spot feed this anemone with Rod's Original frozen regularly as size is my goal. This is an anemone aquarium and the carpet is the centerpiece.
At that point I'd like to consider reintroducing fish, and I'm at a bit of an impasse here.
Like I mentioned, I do already have a group of 4 black saddlebacks that I've had for about a year and a half. The female is about 3 - 3.5" long, two males are between 2 - 3" long and the smallest male is about 1.5" long. During my last attempt at keeping a haddoni they were very rough with it. I believe that the constant dive bombing inside the anemone was one of the factors that led to it's demise.
In my head here I have a couple options:
#1 - Keep the Black Saddlebacks. I would reintroduce the female first (too big to fit into mouth). After a few weeks I would reintroduce the smaller males and see how it goes. Maybe she will keep them out of the anemone, but there's no way to know until you try. It seems like a high risk option. Failure isn't acceptable at this second attempt, these anemones are so much work to procure, introduce, and settle in.
#2 - I want to keep the anemone with a natural clown pairing so I believe the only other species acceptable is Clarkii. I have read that Clarkii is generally very good with anemones. No relentless dive bombing. I believe I have read that they are more pair bonding than the Saddlebacks and would likely only tolerate a single pair in the tank. That's ok if it means a healthier anemone.
What do you guys think? Do you try to reintroduce the group of 4 Saddlebacks or take the safe route and trade them in for 2 Clarkii?
Thanks for your help. I've attached some pictures of the anemone just for reference.
Jacob
