TankBud

Haddon's carpet anemone

Stichodactyla haddoni

Also known as Saddle Anemone, Saddle Carpet Anemone, Haddoni Carpet Anemone

SaltwaterAnemone

Haddon's carpet anemone (Stichodactyla haddoni)
Liné1 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Care at a glance

Temperature
75–81°F
24–27°C
pH
8.1–8.4
Adult size
33.5 in
85 cm
Minimum tank
53 gal
200 L
Temperament
Aggressive
Social behavior
Solitary
Tankmates
With caution
Swim level
Bottom
Difficulty
Difficult
Breeding
No record
Rarity
Common
Reef safe
Reef safe with caution
Family
Stichodactylidae
Origin
Indo-Pacific and Red Sea

Overview

Needs strong, stable lighting and good flow across the sand, plus regular feedings of fish, shrimp, or squid, since this is one of the most actively predatory anemones in the hobby: it will and does eat fish that wander into its grip. Only keep fish tankmates it cannot swallow, and never trust it around ornamental shrimp or small crabs. It moves and can sting nearby corals and clams, so keep it isolated on its own patch of sand well clear of powerhead intakes and sessile invertebrates. In the wild it is the primary host of the saddleback clownfish, which dives into the sand at the anemone's edge, and it also hosts clark's and several other Amphiprion species. This is not a beginner anemone: it needs a large, fully mature, stable reef tank and a slow, careful acclimation to have a real chance of surviving long term.

In the wild

Lives half buried in soft sand or muddy substrate on shallow reef flats and lagoons across the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea, with only the wide, carpet-like oral disc exposed on the surface. In the aquarium it needs a deep sand bed to bury its base in and a large footprint of open substrate to spread across as it grows, since a mature specimen can carpet nearly a meter of sand. It is best known in the trade as the natural host of the saddleback clownfish.

Good to know

Stichodactyla haddoni is one of the larger carpet anemones, with short, blunt, button-shaped tentacles that are unusually adhesive, among the stickiest of any anemone in the hobby, and studded with a potent sting that can cause a serious reaction in sensitive people. Like other Stichodactyla it hosts symbiotic zooxanthellae and actively captures prey, and it reproduces both sexually and asexually by fission.

Did you know

Haddon's carpet anemone tentacles are so sticky that a hand or a careless fish brushing against one often cannot simply pull free, which is part of how this species catches fish that other anemones would only irritate.

Symbiotic relationships

Clownfish and their host anemones

A clownfish lives inside an anemone that stings and eats other fish its size. Its mucus coat keeps the anemone's stinging cells from firing, and a new fish builds that protection up over hours of brief touches. The fish gets a refuge no predator will follow it into and a nest site at the anemone's base. The anemone gets a guard that drives off the butterflyfish that would graze its tentacles, a steady supply of nitrogen from the fish's waste, and water movement at night, when the fish fans its fins among the tentacles and the anemone takes up more oxygen. Only ten anemone species host clownfish in the wild, and each clownfish species uses its own short list of them.

Captive-bred clownfish have never seen an anemone and do not need one; they settle for a coral, a powerhead or a corner of the tank. If you want the pairing, the anemone is the harder animal by far and goes in first, into a mature tank with strong light and stable water, at the tank size its own profile lists. The bubble tip anemone is the hardy host, and the one most clownfish accept in captivity even when it is not a natural host, so a clownfish profile lists it as the usual tank host where that is the case. The sebae, magnificent and carpet anemones are marked difficult, and the carpets eat fish. Expect a paired clownfish to defend its anemone against everything else in the tank.

Shrimp and crabs that live in anemones

Several small crustaceans live where almost nothing else can: among the tentacles of an anemone. Sexy shrimp perch in the tentacles in a cluster, bobbing their tails in the display that named them. The white-spot anemone shrimp is near transparent apart from its spots and lives on carpet anemones. The porcelain anemone crab sits at the anemone's edge and filters plankton from the water with two fan-like arms. Pederson's cleaner shrimp lives in the Caribbean corkscrew anemone and cleans fish from there. In every case the anemone is a bodyguard: its sting keeps off the small fish that would eat the shrimp. The anemone gains little, and the white-spot shrimp will nibble its host's tentacles when it is hungry.

Give each of them its anemone. Sexy shrimp take a rock flower anemone, a bubble tip or a carpet. The white-spot shrimp and the porcelain crab want a carpet anemone or a long tentacle anemone, both of which need a mature tank at the tank size their profiles list. Pederson's shrimp wants a corkscrew anemone or a condy. Without a host they perch on a coral or hide in the rock and are picked off by any fish that eats shrimp, so they suit a peaceful nano reef. A clownfish will evict them from an anemone it has claimed.

Every symbiotic relationship in the catalog

Common questions

What size tank does a Haddon's carpet anemone need?

A Haddon's carpet anemone needs at least 53 gal (200 L). It spends most of its time in the bottom.

What temperature and pH does a Haddon's carpet anemone need?

A Haddon's carpet anemone is comfortable at 75–81°F (24–27°C) with a pH of 8.1–8.4.

How big does a Haddon's carpet anemone get?

An adult Haddon's carpet anemone reaches about 33.5 in (85 cm).

Related species