Blue Carpet Anenome - Eating better then me!

[aquadude]

I have a blue carpet anenome that is host to a couple of clownfish; I have had the carpet for almost a year and he is very healthy. In fact, at times he eats better than me, having an occasional expensive fish dinners .

I have a core group of fish in the tank that I have had for awhile that know how to avoid the carpet.
The following fish share the tank and has for several months:

Clownfish (Pair)
Coral Beauty
Green Chromis
Yellow Coris Wrasse
Algea Blenny
Neon Pseudochromis

However, when I attempt to add new fish - there is a good chance that they may fall victim to the carpet.

The fish are very healthy and show normal behavior and disappear in the middle of the night & if the fish is big enough, the anenome will spit out a ball of bone & material a few days later. I am convinced many disappearances can be attributed to a fish wondering into the anenome in the darkness.

I am really tired of forking over a wad of $ for a new fish for it to end up being dinner for the anenome, does anyone know if certain types of fish seems to be better at avoiding anenomes than others? I have had very bad luck with gobies (large & small). Does anyone have suggestions on types of fish that would be less likely to fall prey to an anenome? Are some fish more prone because they do not come into close contacts with anenomes in wild? Aren't anenomes fairly common in all reef enviroments?

By the way, getting rid of the carpet is not an option. I got this guy when I first started out (before I knew better) & he is actually doing very well which from my research is not usually the case. Would not be right to send him back to a pet shop to land up in enviroment he would not thrive - plus the clowns would be pissed.

Thanks.

[Cookie_Monster]

Might want to add a couple moonlights, keeps them aware of where there at.

[Geoff]

carpets tend to be easier to keep because of the fact that they are more predatory then some of the others.

the core group of fish. were they in there before the anemone? i am just wondering if the new fish are just so disoriented that they can not find a safe place to sleep and end up in the anemone. may be you could put an eggrate box over the anemone at night. i know this would really annoy the clowns. or maybe just divide the tank at night for a couple of days. my guess is that after a week the new fish will know where not to go at night.

G~

[Stanfill Reef]

We had similar problems, but with losing new fish to the overflow box at night. Our simple, and cheap, solution was to plug in a nightlight behind the tank. We haven't lost a fish since. It is just bright enough that the fish can see shadows, but not so bright that the tank stays awake.

[Stang69]

When I had my green carpet the Saddlebacks would kill green Cromis and feed the Carpet. Just an Idea


Jeff