Anenome ?

[afilter]

I am recently returned to the SW side of the hobby. I have read and been told mixed reviews on lighting for anenomes. I have mostly a FO set up with the exception of a few starfish a peppermint shrimp and now 2 condy anenomes(2 weeks). the reason I am staying FO for now is lack of proper lighting and lack of a budget to improve the lighting at this time. I currently have a twin tube with a blue atinic and a 10,000k running 9 hours a day. Because of this I have stayed away from anenomes as well. Recently I went out on a limb and purchased 2 condy at the advice of my LFS that they did not require a lot of light. So far they appear to be doing great. I have been feeding them 2-3 times a week either a piece of shrimp of squid (from a frozen seafood melody mix) Today I noticed one of them shriveled up under some rock with only the foot and small pink tips showing. I moved it up toward the top in order to examine the foot in fear that it might be dying. All seemed well with the foot except it was almost florescent green in the center. I placed on top of some rock, it then started to open so I feed it along with the other one. It has now expanded to 2x the normal size almost 10" diameter.

Is my LFS correct and the condy does not require a lot of light? Am I just flirting with disaster down the road? If the condy or another anenome will do well in my tank I would like to add another as they are relatively inexpensive at my LFS. Are there any other anenomes that will do well in my tank without adding additional lighting?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[dralarms]

I've had 4 of them for almost 2 months with standard lighting. the only problem/death is one of them kept getting into my hob filter intake so I got a power head to give it some water circulation and then it climbed into the intake of that and died. Mine will shrink, I just leave them alone, feed them once or twice a week but I let them go where they want and they inflate and deflate all the time. it's nothing to worry about once you get used to seeing them do it.

 

[afilter]

Just my 2 cents,

Thanks for the info. I will watch my intakes. They are all currently higher in the back of the tank with fairly good strainers. Are you aware of any other anenomes that can be kept under these conditions?

 

[reefobsessed]

I had my neon anemone under 4 55 watt 10k's and he did fine...
(neon) LFS called it that. It is bright orange with a neon yellow center.... He did eat a fire fish and about 3 snails though..

 

[dralarms]

The only experiance I have is with the condy's. They don't seem to mind the "low light" conditions. Iv'e got one that has nearly tripled in size. Looks like it might be getting ready to split.

 

[HoopsGuru]

What size is your tank and what is the wattage of your lights?

 

[dralarms]

If your asking me it's a 46 gal bow front and it has the stock lighting I think it's a 30 watt bulb.

 

[afilter]

Mine is a 75Gal and I have two 40 watt bulbs in a twin tube fixture. One is an atinic blue and the other is a 10,000k.

 

[Gauge]

Do all anemones puff up and shrivel on and off? Or is this only done by condys? My bubble anemone I got from a friend seems to be puffed up about 75% of the time (usually mornings and afternoons) but slightly shriveled at night.

 

[dralarms]

I think they all do it, just on different schedules.