Are anemones efficient predators?

Dragonlady · #1 09/24/2003, 03:51 PM

Are anemones efficient predators? Does the health or hunger of the anemone affect/effect an anemone's ability to catch suitable prey? I don't know for sure, but my sebae anemone has snagged about 4 or more cleaner shrimp in the past 2 1/2 or so years. I finally got a picture of the last time this happened. Take a look in my personal aquarium gallery for predatory proof of this behavior. Moments before this picture was taken, this shrimp was doing its ritual cleaning of the bicolor angelfish, and the shrimp was obviously healthy. Have you ever seen cleaner shrimp antennae protruding from your anemone's mouth? I was sad, but I suppose it is natural. Has this ever happened in your anemone tank? If you have an anemone over 10 inches, cleaner shrimp are probably a poor choice for a tankmate based on my experience. The anemone is a a sebae, aka H. malu, collected from Hawaii.

4runner · #2 09/24/2003, 04:35 PM

Dragonlady do you have your malu and bta in the same tank, and do your clowns go back and forth between them? Has your bta ever eaten any tankmates? I have three btas and was alarmed when I saw antennae sticking out of one them. I thought that it ate my cleaner, but it turned out to be just a molt.

Dragonlady · #3 09/24/2003, 05:06 PM

Yes, the sebae and BTA are in the same tank. The BTA has not ever caught a cleaner shrimp, probably because of its relatively smaller size and the dwindling population of cleaner shrimp due to the sebae's predatory habits. I am obviously not planning on adding any more cleaner shrimp to the tank. I am certain that the sebae ate the entire shrimp, not just the shrimp's exoskeleton on more than one occasion. Yes, the clownifsh do go back and forth between the 2 anemones. I did see the BTA snag a live mysis shrimp that wandered into its tentacles at night a while back, and of course it ate the cleaner shrimp larvae that were once a regular occurence in the tank.

liv4speed1 · #4 09/24/2003, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 4runner
Dragonlady do you have your malu and bta in the same tank, and do your clowns go back and forth between them? Has your bta ever eaten any tankmates? I have three btas and was alarmed when I saw antennae sticking out of one them. I thought that it ate my cleaner, but it turned out to be just a molt.

I second that. I've seen it eat molts of my shrimp. The only thing in the tank it could catch is the lawnmower blenny, two Ocellaris, and the CB shrimp. I dont think any have a chance (hopefully) of getting caught up in it.

BTW...I've got a picture of your Black Ocellaris in the BTA taped up on the side of my aquarium. THe clowns were scared to death when I first put it up, but now they're accustomed to it. Hopefully they'll get the hint