Can you put anemones in a reef tank

After the nitrogen cycle completes, your tank will begin going through many different changes. Here are just a few examples of these changes:. Your nitrates may rise as you learn the proper amount of food to feed your livestock. Algae, such as Brown Diatom Algae, will naturally form and disappear. Maintaining a fish tank can be difficult sometimes.

This is a learning process. Anemones are VERY sensitive. They cannot tolerate large parameter fluctuations. I have found as a general rule of thumb, 4 watts per gallon of 14,K or higher lighting should be a good starting point for tanks that are about 20 inches tall.

Once again, that is only based on the success that I have had with my anemones. D Oxygen levels: Anemones do best when there is a good level of oxygen in the water. This is not very different from other requirements of marine life. This can be easily achieved by having good water movement at the surface of the water in the tank, and using a protein skimmer. Feeding Anemones There are a few schools of thought on this as well.

Some people do not feed their anemone anything and they remain healthy and grow in their tank for many years provided the lighting remains at the proper level for their anemone. In my experience, I have kept my anemones healthy and growing by feeding them about 2 or 3 times per month.

You can even feed them up to 3 times a week if you want to accelerate their growth. I feed mine about weekly and they grow and spawn and seem to be thriving. As for foods, stick to meaty foods that are high in proteins. Claims, Scallops, Shrimp, Mussels, and Krull are all good choices to offer. Stay away from silversides as much as possible.

Typically you are risking potential quality issues with silversides as compared to the other above listed choices. There are other options for food, but I have not tried any of them. The below link can provide you with a few suggestions for feed anemones. Place the food near the anemones mouth as near as you can. I use a long pair of tweezers for this. Once the food touches the anemone, it should start to react right away. A stressed anemone will take longer.

Just keep an eye on the other critters and fish in the tank as they usually will try to steel food form the anemone while it is trying to eat it. Clownfish Do anemones need clown fish? No they do not. Anemones are perfectly fine without them. There are certain benefits to having clown fish hosting in your anemone though. Benefits like: the clownfish will defend the anemone from all other fish and some critters in the tank, the clown fish will place uneaten food on the anemone basically feeding it and the clown fish will gain protection from other fish by hosting in the anemone.

However, both the clown fish and anemone can be perfectly healthy and happy without each other. If you are going to get a pair of clown fish to host in your anemone, make sure you get the correct type of clown fish that will naturally host in your anemone. As a general rule of thumb, not all clown fish will host in all types of anemones. On the other hand, an anemone can represent a risk to other tank inhabitants.

They are very opportunistic feeders. Some types of anemones will grab and eat almost any smaller slow moving fish or invert that may come in contact with their tentacles. My carpet anemone for example has eaten many snails and spit out the shells , a orange-back wrasse, and all of my cleaner shrimp while my bubble tip anemones would not eat any of them. Wandering Anemones Anemones move because they are not happy with the spot they are currently sitting in or the water quality might have changed.

This can also be an indication that something is wrong in the tank or the result of something that you might have changed. If your anemone starts moving and you have not changed the lighting or water flow, there could be a problem with your parameters.

Some anemones are also more likely to move than others. I also have carpet anemones that have not moved at all in years.

If you find that you want to add an anemone to your tank after researching the requirements, I would suggest following the below steps to add the anemone to your set-up.

A Turn off your powerheads for the first 24 hour or so the anemone is in the tank. This will help the anemone to settle into their new home B The first step would be to ensure your tank has matured and your water parameters are in line and stable as stated above. C Next you have to plan for a suitable spot in your tank. Some anemones prefer to attach their boots to rocks, other like to attach to the bottom glass of the tank. Some anemones also need 3 to 6 inches of substrate to dig their boot in.

Research these requirements first and plan a spot in your tank for your anemone. These requirements also include lighting and water flow. D Now you should be ready to purchase your anemone. Pick one out at the store that looks healthy. They should have at least close to normal coloring and their mouth should be closed. E Next you will need to carefully take you anemone home and acclimate him to your water conditions.

A dip acclimation method works best for anemones. F In addition to acclimating your anemone to the water parameters, you will also want to acclimate your anemone to the light in the tank. One of the best methods for that is to using some type of plastic screening that will allow light to pass through.

Add three layers on top of the tank and remove one screen every 3 days or so. This will allow the anemone to slowly adjust to the light in your tank. F During the first few days to a week, your anemone may become very stressed while he gets used to his new home. This type of reaction can be expected some times.

G Until the anemone settles into the tank, it would be a good idea to turn off the powerheads at night. In my experience, if your anemone is going to move, it will happen after you turn the tank lights off. If your anemone is showing one or more signs of stress listed below longer than a week after being added to your tank, or at any time after that, you could have a problem in your set-up. A The anemone is expelling a long and stringy brown liquid.

This could be a sign the water conditions are not good and you anemone is expelling some of its zooxanthellae. This can be a serious condition.

Just be sure the anemone is not expelling food wastes keep in mind there is only one opening to the digestive system. B The anemone seams to shrink and expand a lot. Anemones will deflate and then re-inflate as a way of changing the water inside of them flushing out wastes.

If this is continually happening say daily or more , or if it remains shrunk for longer periods of time, your anemone might be having problems or is stressed. C The mouth is open when it is not eating or expelling wastes.

D When an anemone moves into the rocks and hides from sight with the exception of rock anemones. G The mouth remains open or perhaps even extended although the anemone is not eating.

In extreme cases of stress, the mouth will appear inverted. H The anemone will not attach its self anywhere in the tank. Below are the most common response for a anemone to become bleached. The below is based on my experiences with carpet and bubble tip anemones. There are many other types of anemones in the hobby today, however, I have not kept any of them.

Bubble tip anemones are among the more common anemones available in the hobby these days. In my experience, they are among the easier anemones to keep and likely the hardiest of the anemones. BTAs typically like to attach to the rocks in a spot where they can attach their boot into a crevasse in the rock and protect their boot. They like moderate flow and high lighting conditions. The most common is the red or green bubble tip, however you can get color variations from blue to orange as well.

The size and shape of the bubble structure on the end of the tentacle will vary between different BTAs from very large to almost nonexistent. These anemones can get to be a little over one foot across which is why I would suggest a tank size of no less than 30 gallons for these anemones. BTAs are also the most likely anemone to move around in your aquarium.

Any change, even one so small that you may not even be able to test for, can lead to these guys moving sometimes. It is also very common for BTA to reproduce in the home aquarium when kept in ideal conditions. They can produce sexually by spawning, or asexually by splitting.

If you would like clown fish, consider the below list of some the clown fish that have been known to readily host in these anemones. I found this list in reef keeping magazine Amphiprion Clarkii Amphiprion Ocellaris, ocellaris clown fish all color variations Amphiprion Akindynos, or barrier reef clown Amphiprion Bicinctus, or two-band clown Amphiprion Chrysopterus Blueline or Orange fin clown Amphiprion Ephippium or fire clown Amphiprion Frenatus, or tomato clown Amphiprion latezonatus, or wide-band clown Amphiprion.

Melanopus, or cinnamon clown Amphiprion rubrocinctus, or Australian clown Amphiprion tricinctus, or three-band clown. The below is a pic of my rose bubble tip anemone about 3 weeks after it split.

Around 1 or 2 weeks after this picture was taken, the anemone on the left moved to another spot in the tank. Carpet Anemones. These are among the more difficult anemones to care for out of all the different types of anemones. The two most common carpet anemones are the Gigantea and the Haddoni. Both are similar and can often be misidentified. It would be important to know the difference in the appearance of the two as they have some very minor differences in their requirements that might make a difference in the long term.

Gigantea Carpet Anmones. These are amount these most difficult anemones to care for. While I have only kept on of these anemones for a short time now, I had spent a lot of time learning about this anemone so I would be able to accurately tell the difference between gigantean and haddoni anemones. The gigantean carpet anemone Stichodactyla Gigantea will get over 1. The resulting eggs develop into motile planula larvae, which find a suitable substrate on which to develop into a polyp. Asexual methods are also employed.

Budding, or the formation of tiny replicates of the parent plant, may be seen in some species. Alternatively, binary fission, during which the anemone splits in two, can be used. They are also carnivorous, so many small fish and mobile inverts are fair game.

Bear in mind too that many fish species will naturally peck at anemone tentacles, so never house them with butterflies, large angels, triggers or large puffers. Careful choice of tank mates is therefore essential and mixing anemone species and conspecifics requires plenty of room. Some exporters dye various anemone species, such as Heteractis crispa, in a range of outlandish colours. Although many anemones are available in stunning natural morphs, the practice of dyeing persists.

This dooms many anemones to a premature death — even though the animals are beautiful enough without any such enhancement. Buy only from a reputable dealer who knows the history of his or her stock. It attaches to a hard substrate and is reasonably hardy. Many species of clownfish will symbiotically associate with this Indo-West Pacific anemone. It symbiotically associates with several species of clownfish. It attaches to a rocky substrate and is quite mobile. This demanding Indo-Pacific species, requiries exceptional water quality, brisk water movement and intense lighting.

Nevertheless, many species naturally act as symbionts, including Periclemenes shrimps, Mithrax crabs, Arrow crabs and many others. This is a relatively demanding anemone in terms of lighting. As a subtropical species they prefer cooler temperatures ranging from F. They have a potent sting designed to disable fish prey and are a dangerous host but determined Clownfish will make it work!

Curlique Anemones are a small and easy to keep aquarium anemone species with delicately patterned tentacles. Calm, shallow waters without much current and overhead protection are what they seek out. When feeling threatened, Curlique Anemones will instantly retract into themselves. As a member of the Aiptasiidae family they have both a long reach and a vicious sting. Curlique Anemones usually settle and are immobile once they find a nice place to attach.

They are also known to form mutualistic bonds with Pistol Shrimp! Their small size makes them good reef anemones in larger aquariums so long as you give other animals enough space to avoid their stings.

Beaded Sea Anemones are more subdued in color compared to most other Clownfish hosting Anemone species. However their delicately patterned tentacles look almost like a string of dark pearls and are fascinating to watch as they shift and curl.

Their tentacles are sparse and stubby compared to other species, allowing for most of the oral cavity to be constantly exposed. Unlike most of the Anemone species here Beaded Anemones prefer a sand substrate at least 4 to 8 inches deep. When threatened they retract fully into the sand to escape predators. They also prefer high light environments for optimal symbiotic algae health. In terms of hardiness Saddle Carpet Anemones are not especially difficult besides needing high light levels.

However they are one of the largest species, regularly reaching 2 feet across in aquaria!