What kind of Anemone should I get for my Clownfish in a biocube 15 gallon. I want an easy and basic one?

Question

I plan on buying a Royal Gramma soon in the near future. we had an anemone... but it died in a month... and killed all my plants. We just want a small easy to take care of anemone that my clownfish would be very friendly with and play with all the time.

Answer 1

I used to be pro anenome untill i learned about them. I got one and it died in 3 days. My water conditions were perfect.

Anenomes in the wild can live for thousands of years. The longest reported one that lives in captivity is 2-3 years. big difference. Anenomes come from the ocean where it takes a LONG TIME to grow. I would advise you not to buy an anenome because it will die quickly and your basically taking a creature out of the ocean and putting it in a puddle.

Answer 2

Honestly, 15 gallons is pretty small for any anemone. To keep one in such a small tank, you will have to constantly stay on top of your water quality, as water parameters can change very quickly in such a small volume. There really isn't an anemone that's easy to care for either. They are all sensitive invertebrates that require special care. Different Clownfish will also host different anemones, so you will want to match the Clown to it's natural host for the greatest chance of success. I recommend doing some more research, and upgrading to at least a 30 gallon aquarium with strong lighting and good filtration before considering purchasing another anemone. Tomato Clowns and Bubble Tip Anemones both make a hardy addition with proper care.

Respectfully

Answer 3

Before adding another, you should first find the reason your first one died. Granted, a lot of stores don't care for them properly, and it may have been bleached and on the decline when you bought it. This is something you'll need to learn to recognize - a healthy anemone should have some color to it and be spread, not be white and tentacles pulled in.

What type of lighting do you have? Poor lighting is one of the most common reasons these die. Metal halides are the best, but they're also the most expensive.

Was the anemone too close to other corals if you have them in the tank? Anemones and corals are stinging animals, and have a sort of "chemical warfare" they carry out by producing chemicals to keep other organisms from growing too close by.

Did you feed the anemone? Although they are photosynthetic, they still need to get some larger pieces of food. Some brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, plankton, krill, or pieces of frozen seafood are okay to give. The amount and frequency will depend on the size of your anemone.

Are there any shrimp/crabs in the tank that may not be reef safe? Maybe they made a meal of the anemone.

What's the temperature of the tank? Animals with the photosynthetic algae (zooxanthellae) expel it if the water temperature is above 84o for any lenght of time.

You need to examine these possibilities to make sure that a second anemone will have a better chance of survival.

The next item to consider is that not all clowns are compatible with all anemones. Clowns come from a wide geographic range, and will typically only host with opne or a few types of anemones within that range. Some anemones aren't suitable for clowns at all. So you need to find a host anemone that will be compatible with your clowns. You can find out which is a natural host (in bold type) and have been noted to host in aquaria in this link: http://www.bestfish.com/tips/032698.html

It also pays to research the species that are compatible with the type of clowns you have - some will grow too large to be in a 15 gallon tank. Here's a website that gives a lot of information about anemones and keeping them: http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf

This may not be an answer you like, but you can also consider an anemone "replica". These come without all the requirements of a live anemone. I bought one of this type: http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/15696/product.web to use in a hospital/quarantine tank when I bought some clowns in case I had to medicate the tank. I just wanted something to add some decoration and that they could hide under, but they actually "snuggled" down into it like it was a real one. It doesn't look that real up close, but it does have some natural movement in the water current. They continued to use it while they were in quarantine, so I eventually moved it into their tank.

Answer 4

Yeah, but with anemones like those, who needs friends?

Answer 5

For this time, get a Malu Anemone. But as it grows rehouse it quick.

CC