The Anemone Thread/Anemone 101

[fishfanatic2]

I plan to launch a thread tat will be the 101 help desk, the epicenter, the hot spot, for... anemones. :wink: Ambitious. :mrgreen:

Please share your experiences with anemones, conditions, water quality, tips and tricks, if clowns made a difference, when you added them to your tank, species, wrongs and rigts,etc.

You get the idea. :wink:

I, too, plan to e adding an anemone to my tank, so this will especially help.

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

http://fins.actwin.com/species/anemone.html
http://www.reefs.org/library/article/r_toonen8.html

A good guide on which anemones are easier to keep, and which ones shouldn't be taken from the ocean. They are somewhat complimentary articles, so it's worth it to read both of them.

HTH, Matt

 

[fishfanatic2]

Hmmm, very successful. :lol:

 

[SaltyNewbie]

I have had a bleached Sebae Anemone for about 7 months and seems to be doing good. There are two percula clowns that LOVE this anemone. The anemone has only moved twice the whole time. I mainly feed him brine shrimp and squid. I have only had "good" lighting for about 2 weeks, but he seemed to do fine before w/o good lighting. He likes a spot with low water flow. Let me know if there is anything more you'd like to know.

 

[esmithiii]

Is it true then that the bubble-tip does not hose ocellaris clownfish?

E

 

[Anonymous]

Not in nature, Ernie. That's what kind of sucks about ocellaris clowns, all their natural hosts are fairly hard to keep species. I've seen several juveniles hosting in rose bubble tips, so they will probably go in them pretty readily.

 

[Tiffany]

I had 2 mating Ocillaris and they never went near the BTA, (I'll stay away from Ocillaris in the future with a BTA) they slept either on top of each other or with their noses touching, in a bare corner of the tank. very cute.
As with the anemone, BTA can have a tendency to hide from the light behind a rock and I had to turn the rock around every morning for about a month so it wouldn't kill itself..I discovered that if I left the P/H on at night it wouldn't move, as they don't like much water movement I trapped him by placing him near a rock with a nice deep hole for it to bury itself into, which it did happily, and with the P/H"s by placing them in a way that he didn't get the water movement but if he moved, he did.. He hasn't moved for 6 months, and looks great, they don't need clowns, I give mine a gentle turkey blast to remove debris etc.

 

[Eryl Flynn]

I read those articles and searched around and I am still unsure on viability of getting an anemone and keeping it alive. I would like one for variety and looks, but honestly if all I am going to do is kill it months later it would be wasteful. I am just going to have to wait and see unless I get some more useful and consitent info.

 

[fishfanatic2]

The problem, I think, is that some say yes, it' possible and use a positive attitude and some say,Don't even go there. Depending on your oinion, well...

 

[reefann]

I have a green carpet anemone. I have had him for about half a year and he has grown and acted great. Since the whole time I have had him he moved about 3" when I first placed him in the tank. I have two tomato clowns that came with the tank, I think they are about 5 years old, one goes into the anemone but one rarely if ever does.
Here are some pics

another

Last

Cool idea for a thread
jj
BTW do you guys think it would be possible to add a few percs to the tank to host the anemone? I tend to think no because of the tomato clowns but I would love to see a couple clowns always near it.
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[reefann]

I dont know why it's showing the URL, anybody?
Either way you can just copy paist the URL
JJ
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[reefsnreptiles1]

BTW do you guys think it would be possible to add a few percs to the tank to host the anemone?

The tomato clowns would most likely harass if not harm the percs. I wouldn't do it.

 

[Anonymous]

fishfanatic,
I think Rob's article makes it pretty clear that it's NOT just an opinion--host sea anemones have a pretty dismal survival rate in captivity. Anyone considering getting one should consider them the most demanding species in the tank, and should be tailoring the tank to suit their needs. It's not a matter of having a positive or negative attitude, IMO, it's about assuming responsibilty for the animals in your care.

 

[fishfanatic2]

True, true

Certainly I wasn't saying that anemones aare easy, but some people make it sound easier.

 

[Anonymous]

My S. Gigantea has been almost bulletproof for the past several years, but I certainly have tailored my entire system around it. Over the summer I upgraded my entire system--tank size, lighting, etc.--just to make the anemone happy. It's currently about 18" and can just about stretch from front-to-back in a 125.

Still, even though he's been tough as nails for me, I would never advice any anemone (except maybe an aiptasia! ;-) ) for beginners. The main reason my anemone has been so tough is because I know my system. I mean I know it to the point where if I don't see a certain bristleworm that lives under one section of the rockwork for a couple days, I know something is tweaked in the tank.

 

[Anonymous]

I have had a big blue carpet, most likely a haddoni, for two years now. My ocellaris took their time getting used to it, but eventually adopted it as a host and started spawning shortly thereafter.

 

[anemonelover]

I had a cute button anemone in my 10 gal. nano that loved to burrow down into the sand. He fed great, looked great, and was definately very happy.

The emerald crab kept trying to rub up against him and hide under his "mantle". Finally the anemone got so pissed off it just uprooted itself and decided to have an adventure. You know what the intake tube of the penguin filters look like, with the really narrow tiny slits? Half of him got sucked into it (although I can't imagine how, it really doesn't suck hard). Part of his insides came out

That was this morning. He was just barely alive, but we couldn't possibly get him out without having to harm him. And, he was undoubtedly not going to make a recovery. I felt so awful I actually cried about it.

The moral is... don't get an anemone if you're going to have that kind of filter. It was heart wrenching to watch him die.

 

[fishfanatic2]

Is adding the anemone or clownfish first better when trying to create a symbiotic relationship?

 

[reefann]

Personally I would put the anemone in first. Although I can not say for sure.
JJ
BTW My clowns were in before my anemone and they are starting to take to him, it is slow though.
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[surfdawake]

the anemone so it has time to establish to the tank, then later match the clowns, and make sure if your anemone is only 4" around, u match the fish right, do get a huge clown for a small anemone, they can be hard on them. just my 2cents. austin