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RBTA Ate Clownfish (1 Viewer)

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Was working in the fish room tonight. Fed the clowns and they were perfectly fine. Little male looked great, he even fed one of the smaller RBTAs. Anyway fed the nems and within an hour lights went out and I did my tank checks for the night. Can’t find the male anywhere but the anemone regurgitated a little food and the male usually sleeps in this anemone. Search entire tank can’t find it. Finally shone light on the anemone and it closed up so I could massage the foot, sure enough a clownfish sized bulge in its mouth. This dude was perfectly fine an hour previously.

Water parameters are perfect, checked them this afternoon and again afterwards. No other fish look sick or have any problems. This is a 3” maroon clown and the RBTA is in the 10-12” range.

Any thoughts here because in the past decade I’ve never seen something like this. Having an absolutely terrible week in the fishroom lol.
 
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LitzmanMarine
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This idiot is “mouth diving”, I’ve never seen an anemone close it’s mouth around one. I have to get video of this.
 

sneezebeetle

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Wow! Your right, what a crumby week!

Im no anemone expert, don't even play one on TV...but I remeber hearing somewhere that, while its certainly possible, nems won't typically eat a host fish unless it is dead or near dead. Are your tanks on a closed loop system? I only ask becaue you commented earlier that your got some illness going on with some other clowns. Or did they go straight into qt when you got them?

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LitzmanMarine
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Wow! Your right, what a crumby week!

Im no anemone expert, don't even play one on TV...but I remeber hearing somewhere that, while its certainly possible, nems won't typically eat a host fish unless it is dead or near dead. Are your tanks on a closed loop system? I only ask becaue you commented earlier that your got some illness going on with some other clowns. Or did they go straight into qt when you got them?

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No the dude swam out of the anemone this morning. I could feel it inside the anemone. It either dove into the mouth when it was expelling waste or it was wedged in between folds of the anemone and just felt like it was inside. Like I said I’ve never experienced it on this level, I’ve had mouth divers before but this would be on another level. I’m setting up a camera for tonight.

Just to clarify he is 100% alive and hanging out with his lady as of 7am.
 

sneezebeetle

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Wow! That is crazy! Hope your able to get it on film, would love to see it.

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