HELP! - or my anenomes could be hurtin' large...

[EL1]

I just started culturing anenomes in my lab. I haven't been able to get much liturature on how to culture them and was wondering if anyone knows of some good links, books, etc.
Also I was wondering about the basics...lighting, salinity, water exchanges etc. I'm a sponge...any info would be appreciated greatly!
Thanks

 

[kidafius]

Welcome to AA!! You chose a great place to look for help.

I'm not too sure of which books are good, but here's what I know:
Light--they need alot of good, intense light, with some of it in the 420-450 nm range, to optimize zooanthellae growth inside of them.

Salinity-- ~1.025 sg

water parameters-- they are extremely nitrate intolerant, can't handle nitrites or ammonias at all, and do not like extreme temperature swings (6 degrees in a day really is too much). They do benefit from having a proper amount of strontium in the water, but its not good practice to add anything to the water without testing for what you are adding.

other than that, they need to be supplemented a couple of times/week with food: blended shrimp, fish, clams, squid, crab, (whatever you feel like). some poeple food vitamin supplements in the food like Kent Marine's Zoe, for additional nutrition. HTH. Good luck, and keep us posted.

 

[EL1]

Thanks for the advise...another question though...I have them in a static system and am wondering about water exchange frequency, aeration, and cleaning frequency...any more advise would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[BillyZ]

by static are you refering to water movement? There needs to be constant water movement in the tank. Typically 10x the volume of the tank in GPH water flow. As long as a good portion of that flow is directed at or towards the surface of the water, the gas exchange will happen naturaly and will be adequate enough (as long as the top of the tank is not sealed, eg no hood/lid etc)

 

[fishfreek]

Can you describe your setup? As billy said anenomes and most other marine creatures will fair best in an enviorment with a fair amount of water turbulance. They will also fair best under the high intensity light of metal halides and the water quality should be high. Anenomes will need to be feed directly even with the lights as they only get a portion of the energy they need from photosynthisis.

We can give specific advice if you can tell us more about your system as well as more about the specific species of anenome your keeping/breeding.

 

[Hara]

One other thing to note is that anemone do not do well in a newly established tank. Has this one been set up long?

 

[EL1]

Thanks for the advise so far...to describe my setup better...
I have about twenty 6 L dishes each containing ~6-10 anenomes. There is no water flow (static), but I change 50% of the water every other day. I do have lots of light intensity and good aeration. Also, I'm feeding them brine shrimp. I'm most concerned with the water exchanges and dish/tank size. I'm wondering if I should be recirculating/filtering the water in between exchanges, and also if I should just throw them all into one big tank...if not, how many should I have per tank.
Thanks again for the help!!
J.

 

[RogerMcAllen]

What are you culturing them for?

 

[EL1]

I'm culturing to study they're life cycle.
J.