Fish selection, but with a catch

Snail Man · Dec 9, 2023

So I have a very large green carpet anemone, it’s about 12 inches in diameter. This anemone is hosted my clown fish and in the back of the tank in the shape of a toco in between top rocks. I’m trying to determine weather I should get a leopard wrasse or mandarin goby. The last thing I want is one of them to become lunch for the anemone. Which option would be the safest?

KrisReef · Dec 9, 2023

Mandarin's are bottom feeders while Leopard Wrasse swim about more freely. Based only upon your anemone being shaped like a taco, (feeding edges above the substrate) I would lean towards the Mandarin as having maybe a slightly better chance of survival with that fish killing anemone.

The Clownfish may assist in keeping both fishes away from the nem, or if it is like my Tomato Clown it may drag either fish into the nem for a lunch date?

Does your tank have a good copepod population to keep a Mandrin healthy?

Snail Man · Dec 10, 2023

KrisReef said:
Mandarin's are bottom feeders while Leopard Wrasse swim about more freely. Based only upon your anemone being shaped like a taco, (feeding edges above the substrate) I would lean towards the Mandarin as having maybe a slightly better chance of survival with that fish killing anemone.

The Clownfish may assist in keeping both fishes away from the nem, or if it is like my Tomato Clown it may drag either fish into the nem for a lunch date?

Does your tank have a good copepod population to keep a Mandrin healthy?

Yes, I seeded my tank about a year ago and doses phyto consistently, and I just dosed more pods yesterday in preparation for one