Sometime in the future I would like to get an anemone...

[Muerten]

I've had a small host of questions this week, and sometime in the future, after a few months (or more, when I set up my new lights) I would like to get an anemone. I have heard all that they are incredibly hard to keep, and that they will most likely die within a year.

I've had my aquarium for a little over a year now, it is a 37 gallon tank that came with an Eclipse 3. (which I turned off due to the fact that it would spill the water out the back and cause electric shock. It won't happen again, not what the pump is off, and I have a GFCI now to make sure of it.) What I have in the tank is this, equipment-wise ---

1 Rio 600
1 Maxijet 400 (I think)
1 Rio 800 hooked up to a Seaclone Skimmer
1 150 watt heater (I think it's 150)

By the time I want an anemone, I'll have two 55 watt power compact bulbs, one full spectrum and I think one blue actinic.

As for livestock I have-

6 turbo snails (or maybe astrea)
1 Tomato Clown
2 Yellowtail Damsels
Too much Caluerpa
1 Mushroom
A few nasty aiptasia.

The tank is a little tall, and the highest point of rock is maybe about a foot or so below the lights.

Is there any anemone I can get that I will have a decent chance with? I'd like to get one that my Clownfish can live in. If an anemone is completely out of the question, are there any reasnoble replacements that I could get? I've heard that a leather toadstool could possibly function as a clownfish host, can it, and can anything else? I don't want to get an anemone if it's sure to die, but I would really like to try.

Any help would be appreciated, and I apologize if I sound a little foolish.

 

[Tybond]

Hi,

Anemones can be difficult to keep. They like to move around alot until they find a sweet spot in your tank to call home, which is usually just about where you wished they wouldn't be.

Two very good sugestions for clown hosts that are not anemones are the LPS frogspawn and anchor corals. Most clowns will readily take up home in these corals. Percula clowns seem the easiest to do this IMO.

If you really want an anemone for your tank, I suggest a carpet anemone, bubble anemone or a long tentacle. You should be aware that in the case of the carpet anemone and long tentacle, they can get large and take up a great deal of space.
Most other anemone's that are readily availabe at the LFS are sold under the common names "currly q" which is a brown colored anemone with currly looking spirals wraping around the tentacles and the "candy" or "Purple tip" anemones which you will probably find in a "great Looking" bright white with Purple tips. Another common anemone is the rock anemone. These anemone's are not usually associated with being "clown host" anemone's and should be avoided if this is your reason for adding one. Also NEVER buy a purple tip anemone that is that great cool looking bright white! The LFS probably doesn't even realize it but the reason these anemone's are white is because they have been over stressed, which is very easy to do, and are actually near dying. A health purple tip should actually be brown with purple tips. Not white.

I would suggest you try the LPS frogspwan and/or anchor corals first. I bet they will be your best choice. Besides, if the clowns you have don't take to your gift, you will have 2 great corals in your tank and they won't go walking all over your other corals.

Good luck!

Ty