Anemone limit

[burnin]

Is there a limit to the number of anemones one can put in a tank. Obviously there is, but what is the opinon of the number of anemones? My tank is about 100 gallons, just to give you some sort of reference.
Thanks
Brian

 

[burnin]

If anyone has comments on caring for these creatures, I would like to hear about it. I hear that most don't last a year....this true?

 

[EmilyB]

I am going to quote Tony (Delphinus) because he said it best, and it would take me an hour to type that much....

Anemone husbandry involves understanding what part of the reef the anemone typically inhabits, then trying to replicate that part as best you can in your tank.

Substrate selection is highly dependent on the species. Some prefer hard smooth substrate to attach to, some prefer in the sand. BTA's prefer a hard smooth surface, but need to attach to either a crevasse, overhang or a cave, because BTA's like to hide their pedal disk -- i.e., sheltered from light and current. But note - not the oral disk and tentacles. These need to be IN the light and IN the current. BTA's like it both ways.

Lighting is important for the long-term health of the anemones. Things to look at include intensity and spectrum. I'd venture that spectrum is likely more important than intensity, but only slightly so. You can get by with low intensity so long as there is appropriate spectrum, but there's no question that they do better with more lighting.

Feeding is also important. There has been some debate over this topic over the years, but this is the way I look at it. If an animal has a mouth, odds are it needs to eat. Anemones with symbiotic zooxanthellae, obviously derive some of their energy requirements from light, and this is the point that's debated: whether they can meet all of their requirements or just some. Personally, I lean to the side of the argument that says it is "some, but not all." As I understand it, the metabolic energy units derived from light tends to be more along the lines of complex sugars, i.e., high-energy, quick-release. So basically it's like eating candy bars or those energy bars that athletes use. But can you sustain yourself indefinitely on a diet like that? Probably not, at some point you need proteins for growth of tissue and so on. So feeding is, IMO, impossible to get away from.

Some people suggest that all the metabolic requirements could be met entirely by feeding, and thus they suggest a lesser importance on lighting. Personally I think this is too far in the other direction. It may be theoretically possible, but for our purposes, we shouldn't try to attempt this. Our best odds of success involve working in the space created by the span of both lighting AND feeding.

Choice of food, like choice of substrate, is also dependent on species. Some prefer shrimpy/crustacean type meat, others fish flesh, and the aggressiveness of the feeding response varies greatly from species to species. For example, carpets can be aggressive fish eaters (generally speaking the fish still has to blunder into the anemone, but once it has done so, there's no escape), but BTA's tend to be content with opportunistic scavenging (i.e., if a piece of dead shrimp happens to fall on it, it will eat it, but it won't really try to catch live shrimp that venture too close).

That said, one food that seems to be universally accepted among the different species, in my experience, is mysis shrimp. The FW mysis you can get has the highest protein content out of any food available, bar none. I've seen some amazing turnarounds that I attribute to that. SW mysis looks similar, but has nowhere near comparable levels of protein.

Current is also important. The dynamics of current can be a very challenging aspect of the hobby to work with. Generally speaking, the more indirect current you can produce, the better. Also alternating currents are "better" than steady-state/laminar flows. Never use direct stream-type current such as the output of a powerhead. However, two powerheads pointing at each other will create an awesome form of randomized indirect current at the points where the streams meet.

Generally speaking, I feel it is a bad idea to overload a system with anemones, because they can interact with each other. Either by direct touch, or even by more diffuse means (i.e., they might never touch one another, but they may be chemically interacting through a process called "allelopathic inhibition"). Allelopathy is when one species inhibits the metabolism of another that it may be competing with for resources. Whether this happens in anemones may be subject to some debate, but personally I feel it does happen.

It is possible to get away with it for short periods of time, however, I feel it is best to not plan for multiple individuals (unless they are clonal siblings) in the same tank, indefinitely.

The period of time following collection/distribution and retail is very stressful period of time for an anemone. The sad reality is that a lot don't make it. It is probably best to limit "saving" anemones to one at a time. If you can nurse it along to the point where it has adapted to life in captivity, and can provide for its needs appropriate, it can be hardy individual that seems "easy" to care for. But if its needs aren't being met and it's stressed, it will likely eventually perish, and for reasons that may seem not-very-obvious. That's why I suggest that if you're new to anemones, it's better to limit yourself to one individual, and even better to try to find a captive cloned specimen from someone because 1) not only has it proved to be a survivor, 2) you can learn from the setup where it came from.

Has any of this answered your questions yet?

For my BTA's, I try to keep them in a spot where they can hide their pedal foot (their "foot") somewhere out of sight, but they are able to get their tentacles out into the current and light. I also have metal halides over my tanks. I feed mysis every day, and I try to ensure that each individual gets several pieces per day.

You don't generally need to feed daily, however. A small piece of shrimp from the grocery store, once or twice per week, is more than adequate.
_________________
-Tony

 

[Anonymous]

Putting in the same species should not cause any harm. How many depends on how large they are. It is best to keep with enough room to grow. If they are the same exact species(like all BTAs) they may touch without incident. Feeding Mysis is OK, but I feel that real hearty marine fare would be best. Such as, shrimp, krill, squid, or clams.

burnin, I had mine for years and sold many clones over that time period.

 

[clown1]

i have a crispa and a ritteri in the same tank, never bothered each other but one of the new clowns has just started biting off the tentacles of the smaller ritt. i'm gonna have to find it a new home before the clown kills it.

 

[Tackett]

since we are on the topic, I think ill throw this out there: Ive been wanting a blue carpet for a long long time but I never did have the room, not to mention I'm a little nervous about trying to keep one, I am not the most confident person in the world. Now I think I have the room and a little more knowledge, but I am still a little unsure if I can do it. I was thinking about purchasing a little one (because big ones have big prices.) placing it in my 29 gallon untill my 55 is up and running (by that time If i havent killed the poor thing it should be starting to outgrow the 29.) Since I plan on jumping sumps and plumbing both tanks together it shouldnt be stressful moving the fella because the water will be the same. But like I said It is not so much the room issue (although Ive heard blue carpets need LARGE tanks.) but more so a lack of confidence in being able to succeed, I hate killing things (I think we all do.) and no matter how hard I try, things (corals and inverts I have no problems with fish) just simply die after a little while from unknown reasons. But Ive been doing better recently after having kept a sea apple for about a year before it died (again for no apparent reason). Although I wouldnt call this a success, it was definatley improvement. I have had my maxima clam now for about 3 months and it seems to be..happy as a clam..HA HA ha...(sigh) So any suggestions or just plain "stay the hell away from blue carpets because..." I would appreciate them. Not trying to steal burnin's thunder, just came to my head while reading the thread. (call me dr. seuss, I can rhyme anytime.)

 

[krullulon]

since we are on the topic, I think ill throw this out there: Ive been wanting a blue carpet for a long long time but I never did have the room, not to mention I'm a little nervous about trying to keep one, I am not the most confident person in the world. Now I think I have the room and a little more knowledge, but I am still a little unsure if I can do it. I was thinking about purchasing a little one (because big ones have big prices.) placing it in my 29 gallon untill my 55 is up and running (by that time If i havent killed the poor thing it should be starting to outgrow the 29.) Since I plan on jumping sumps and plumbing both tanks together it shouldnt be stressful moving the fella because the water will be the same. But like I said It is not so much the room issue (although Ive heard blue carpets need LARGE tanks.) but more so a lack of confidence in being able to succeed, I hate killing things (I think we all do.) and no matter how hard I try, things (corals and inverts I have no problems with fish) just simply die after a little while from unknown reasons. But Ive been doing better recently after having kept a sea apple for about a year before it died (again for no apparent reason). Although I wouldnt call this a success, it was definatley improvement. I have had my maxima clam now for about 3 months and it seems to be..happy as a clam..HA HA ha...(sigh) So any suggestions or just plain "stay the hell away from blue carpets because..." I would appreciate them. Not trying to steal burnin's thunder, just came to my head while reading the thread. (call me dr. seuss, I can rhyme anytime.)

don't get an anemone for your 29g and then move it to a 55 -- there's no good reason not to wait until you have the larger tank if you know you're going to be setting one up in the near future.

anemones are more difficult than many corals -- if you haven't been able to keep anything alive for a year, something serious is wrong with your husbandry techniques and/or system -- assuming you have a healthy system, you should be able to keep many corals and critters alive for many years.

there are many reasons you could be having issues -- sea apples, for example, can release toxins that will kill everything in your tank. your water chemistry could be wacky or too variable. your temperature could be fluctuating too much. your lighting could be insufficient... in short, if you can't keep anything alive for a year, something is seriously wrong.

it's great that you want to do the right thing -- but it's cruel to continue purchasing animals before you understand what it is that's going wrong in your system. my suggestion is that before you buy anything else, get a handle on what's happening in your tank. learn to keep what you currently have alive, then expand slowly from there -- based on your stated history, i think you're looking at 6 months before you can confidently say to yourself that you're convinced your tank and husbandry techniques are capapble of sustaining life long-term.

 

[Anonymous]

Anemonebuff nailed it. I have multiple E. quads touching each other with no problems.

Jim