The Trouble With Carpet Anenomes

[OmegaVes]

I purchased a carpet anenome about 1 year and some months ago. It was a green stripped, very good looking, it was around 6 inches. This carpet thrived in my setup for about a year by which time it was at almost 2 feet. This is where the problems started. My other corals, mushrooms, zoas, leathers, and star polyps all began to look shabby. My large kenya tree went from around 8 inches tall and 5 inches across to about 2 inches all around. The star polyps all but dissappeared, and the mushroom and zoa colonies shrank. It took me a bit to even give thought to the fact that carpets put out slime that is not very good for other inverts. After removing the carpet, it now lives in a invert free setup with 8 clowns hosting it, all my corals are recovering nicely and quickly. Just felt I would share my experince for any others considering one of these beautiful creatures, but the do need their own space. TY for reading.

[hobogato]

thanks for sharing.....

could you give us some more specifics about your setup? tank/sump size? were you running carbon? skimmer? fuge? etc.

[Troutmasters02]

I purchased a carpet anenome about 1 year and some months ago. It was a green stripped, very good looking, it was around 6 inches. This carpet thrived in my setup for about a year by which time it was at almost 2 feet. This is where the problems started. My other corals, mushrooms, zoas, leathers, and star polyps all began to look shabby. My large kenya tree went from around 8 inches tall and 5 inches across to about 2 inches all around. The star polyps all but dissappeared, and the mushroom and zoa colonies shrank. It took me a bit to even give thought to the fact that carpets put out slime that is not very good for other inverts. After removing the carpet, it now lives in a invert free setup with 8 clowns hosting it, all my corals are recovering nicely and quickly. Just felt I would share my experince for any others considering one of these beautiful creatures, but the do need their own space. TY for reading.

Thanks for sharing, would love to see this beauty.

[seatrueblue]

I have a carpet (mertensii) and it doesn't seem to bother my corals. Some thing else was going on there. I know a lot of people who own carpet (haddoni) anemones and have them in a sps reef.

[OmegaVes]

Believe me I wish it had been something else, that anenome completed the look of my setup. Its a 75 with an overflow filtration system, protein skimmer in the sump running with the fuge, 3 power heads for circulation. Water perm. were always within desirable range and until the carpet reached that enormous size there were no problems. After I removed it i did a small, 15 gallon water change which really wasnt needed, but nothing different then my usaul route like when the carpet was in the tank. After its was removed within a day everything started opening back up and growing. Its been two months since I removed it and all the zoas and mushrooms have started to multiply again, and the leathers are all growing and extending nicely, so Im lead to believe the carpet was the issue.

[OrionN]

Large anemone put out lots of waste, plus it will sting corals that it touch. I think you just got too much bioload on your tank with the anemone, rather than it is putting out any toxin or anything else.
There are many large anemones in tanks full or SPS or LPS without problem as long as you can keep the corals away from the anemone and make sure it doesn't put out too much waste/ or having enough capacity to process them.
You got to feed it quite a lot to have it grow from 6 inches to 2 feet in 1 year (in a 75 g tank). After you remove it, no more wast produced, and your tank recovered. I am sure if you was measuring ammonia and nitrite, it got to start to increase near the end right before you remove the anemone