Carpet anemone in inconvenient location

Erin Kathryn · Mar 20, 2019

I posted in here in February asking about a carpet anemone retreating into a hole in the rocks after being added to my tank, and was told to leave it alone and let him come out on his own. There was a brief period since then that he looked like he wasn't going to make it, but he's still kicking after five weeks in there.

My issue now is that he's wedged himself inside the entrance of the hole, so everything's inside but he blocks about a quarter of the opening. I came downstairs this afternoon and saw my poor dead coral beauty in the same hole, and I'm now wondering if he got stung on his way past or something, as he was eating and happy only a few hours before. There are multiple smaller holes and tunnels into and out of this area the fish like to swim through, and it wouldn't surprise me if one of the fish accidentally bumped into the anemone on the way by.

My question is, is he getting enough flow/light that he's just decided to live there permanently? Is this an extended hunger strike? If he stung my coral beauty, should I be worried for the rest of my rock-dwellers? Would relocating him even be worth the hassle? I'm completely new to anemones, apologies if these are common sense/stupid questions!

KrisReef · Mar 20, 2019

That is a bummer,
Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I would think that if your carpet killed the fish it would also have eaten it for the trouble. This description doesn't sound right to me. Maybe someone else on here has a better idea. I have not tried to keep a carpet anemone because they do eat fish and move about.

Also, if you could post a picture of the carpet (and the coral beauty if you still have it) that might help trouble shoot your tank.

scriptmonkey · Mar 20, 2019

Welcome! Thanks for posting.

They will move around a lot till they find their happy spot. You need to make it more appealing to be somewhere else.

What is the light situation? Is your tank flow high?