A little background: tanks been set up for almost three years now. It is full of lots of live rock and softies. It is home to some clowns, a yellow tang, bicolor blenny, mandarin, long tentacle anemone, hermits, snails, and a red linkia star.

About a month ago I started to notice things were disappearing. First the snails, then hermits, then my mandarin. I thought the hermits were killing the snails so I added more shells, but then the hermits started to disappear. Two days ago I walked by the tank and noticed the anemone had my tang in a headlock. I helped the tang break free but the next morning I found it dead. Yesterday when I turned on the lights to the tank I could see one arm of my linkia star extened from the mouth of the anemone. I managed to pull the linkia out of the anemones mouth. I hope the star makes it. I removed the anemone from the tank and traded it to my LFS last night.

The anemone has been in the tank for over two years and I feed it twice a week. It was a model citizen up until now. I'm not sure if it caused the deaths of the snails or hermits since I didn't see it, but I did notice that when I removed the anemone their were shells near its base. I do know that it killed the tang and would have killed the star.

Just wanted to pass this along to anyone with anemones -- Rachel:cry:

Yup Rachel another great example showing why I'm not an anemone fan. So sorry about all the destruction. Once those anemones get to a decent size they can do that.

On a recent tank tour, we say a guy's tank and he had two large carpet anemones that ended up eating his tang he had for several years and several other fish and said how hard that was. He now keeps a semi aggressive tank and has kept the anemones- they are very beautiful though.

So sorry to hear about your losses. :( At least you know it won't happen again.

Here is a pic of that tank and his big anemones..

Thanks Gwen,
I'm pretty bummed about it. I really liked the mandarin but the tang was my favorite. The LFS gave me a nice trade in so I got two very large feather dusters and a firefish. I felt bad about running right out and getting another tang so i'm waiting. I hope my star comes through this. --Rachel

I hope so too Rachel- Keep us posted.

Firefish are very pretty!

Gee Rachel, that is awful. I am sorry to hear about your losses.

Thanks Carmie,
I just wanted to get the word out for anyone who has one to be on the lookout. I thought I was fine with mine, but guess not. I never thought it would be able to grab hold of the tang and keep hold. Learn something new every day, Rachel:roll: