are anemones worth having?

[Dr.Nate]

Well, after losing my first BTA, and for no apparent reason....I'm frustrated. And after reading some of the posts on here, I'm wondering...what's the longest time anyone has ever kept an anemone? Are they the Moorish Idols of inverts or what?

Should I even attempt another one?

 

[Salttanker]

I love my Anemone. I have had him for about 9 months now, and he has grown quite a bit. How long has your tank been setup? Generally they fair well after about 6 months of an estabished aquarium.
Don't give up on it. Acclimation plays an important role in the success of these guys as well.

Mike

 

[Dr.Nate]

My tank is 7 months old, now. He did great after acclimation, although he moved around a lot. He finally found his place, looked good. He lived for about 4 weeks......sigh.

 

[MT79]

I've had the same two for about 21 months now-a BTA that split and a Sebae. They are not the Moorish idols of inverts but they are very delicate/sensitive and demand high water quality.

Should I even attempt another one?

What size tank and how much light do you have?

 

[Salttanker]

I would give it a little more time before getting another one. What kind of lighting do you have? Mine has been in the same spot since I bought him. I think he is a Condy species. Moving around a lot could mean he is not happy with something in there.
It is frustrating, but sometimes we never know what we are getting, and what kind of stressful shipping problems occured.
I had a yellow tang last year that died over night. Never could figure out what happened, but all my other fish were fine. Sorry for your loss.

Mike

 

[seaham358]

Like the others said water quality is important, Lighting also.
What type of water are you using?
They are sensitive creatures and they don't really require any special care other then good water and lighting. If either one is lacking or not up to par the anemone may suffer. Moving around a lot is not a good sign..

 

[JG]

You might want to read my last post ( "i've sworn off of ..)

I hearby swear that I will not buy another anemone ... I swear I will not buy another .... no-no-no....

But if you decide to take the plunge - best of luck !

 

[MT79]

-a BTA that split

I just noticed I now have 3 BTA's! One of them split again in the last few days-Nice

 

[Dr.Nate]

I use RO/DI water only (Kent Salt). I have a 55 gal and I have two 65 watt actinics and two 65 watt 10K bulbs, and moonlights too. Plenty of light, I would think.

JG--yeah, I just read your post, that's why I was asking these questions....ha

I think the reason mine moved so much in the beginning is because I had too much water movement and he appeared to be blown to one side of the tank by my water return from my sump. After he got there, though, he did great (until recently of course)

 

[Guest]

Wow Nate, how's your electric bill with all those lights? I am curious. I am thinking of getting lights like that for a 29G that I an planning to setup as a reef tank. But I just don't know if I can afford the light AND the electric bill that goes along with it.

 

[Jason]

archie,

when I upgraded my tank, this is what happened.

I had a 10gal and a 20gal. here is all the equipment for them
123 watts of total PC light
2 65 watt heaters
3 HOB filters (2 millenium 1000s and 1 3000)
I ran the lights 8 hours a day.

Now I have a 72 gallon bow front
300w HQI MH & 192 watts PC
2 maxijet 1200s
coralife 220 super skimmer
mag 7 return

My power bill jumped between 5 and 10 dollars a month. all that stuff doesn't take as much power to run as you would think a lot of times.


Oh yeah, sorry to hijack an anemone thread

 

[Nels22]

my electric bill went up around 15-20 dollars a month, i run 2X96 watt actinic and 10,000K and moonlights 24-7, That also includes the pumps, protein skimmer, and powerheads. Lights are on 10-12 hours a day.

 

[Guest]

I see. That wouldn't be bad then. This one guy at an LFS told me that your bill could jump up to $200 - $300 a month. And my bill is only $58 right now.

Sorry for the hijack also.

I don't know how long anemone can last in captivity either. For some reason, I think of anemone as a clicking time bomb. Time will only tell when your tank will crash, you know? But I don't know, I just heard of bad stories about some tanks with anemone. And when they crash, it's like the Nintendo Entertainment System: when it crashes, you start from the beginning of the game again.

 

[Dr.Nate]

I've never really looked at it, but I would say Nels is about right.....25-20 per month extra.

 

[Jason]

I don't know how long anemone can last in captivity either. For some reason, I think of anemone as a clicking time bomb. Time will only tell when your tank will crash, you know? But I don't know, I just heard of bad stories about some tanks with anemone. And when they crash, it's like the Nintendo Entertainment System: when it crashes, you start from the beginning of the game again.

I don't know if you want to here this answer or not, but here goes.......

I had a really healthy RBTA that I bought because my clown was hosted in it at the store. I brought it home, acclimated it, and put it into the tank. it was doing well, then one day decided to move. It got to close to my frogspawn and the frogspawn zapped it. after that, it pretty much moved around the tank at will until eventually, it got pulled into a PH and chopped up rather nicely(and yes I had a screen on the PH). I had to do a truckload of water changes and it took about 3 months to get my levels right again.

then I bought another anemone for my clown. this time a long tentacle. it died in a matter of weeks. it stunk my house up and clouded the tank. again, it took forever for me to get my water right again.

the moral of my story? nothing really, just my experience with anemones. Some people have good luck with them and other people have nothing but headaches. I will more than likely never get another one.

 

[Guest]

Wow, that's some terrible thing. Crashed twice.

My fish are all anti inverts. It killed my snails, my small hermits, my large hermit, and my three feather dusters. As much as I want to get a BTA for my false percula, I know I can't.

Good thing we discussed all these, because I'd rather find out from the forum than find out myself when it comes to tank crash due to anemone.

speaking of dead inverts, there's nothing more stinky than the funk of dead snails. They stunk up my house big time! Even my hands, and I didn't even actually touch the shell. My hand just happened to dip in the tank water.

I hope there are others out there that can share their experiences with anemones whether negative or positive. I'll also trail JG's topic.

 

[ram6519]

I've had my Sebae Amemone for about a year now. When I got it it was about the size of a golf ball. Now when it's fully open it's about 8 inches across. It did move around til it found it's happy spot which so happens to be facing the back of the tank. So most of the time we just see the stalk instead of the open face.