I am thinking of setting up an anemone tank. I might use a 10 gal I have or a cookie jar or maybe a wine bottle on its side. I understand the need for sump, skimmer & flow, I want to know what will happen when the anemone outgrows the tank? Will it be sad, die, or just stop growing? Can I frag it when it gets too big? the only tankmates it may have (depending on the tank) are sexy shrimp and/or probably some asterina starfish.
Unless u are planing on keeping apitasia anemone a ten is too small. No you can't frag anemones there not corals. (Apitasia are pest anemones you can't buy them)
If you are remotely serious how about you ask yourself why you want to keep an animal in a tank that is too small for it.
Thanks, Reefman, that's what I wanted to know.
Krichardson, I'm not evil, it just didn't occur to me that it would want to move. I thought they were more or less entirely stationary and the only problem with them outgrowing the tank is that they will kill everything else.
I guess I'll either keep an lps with long sweepers that looks like an anemone, or I'll wait until summer and try to get a local (NY/CT) intertidal or shallow subtidal anemone. These guys are great: small, and don't need a heater or chiller. I'll just have to find out about legal stuff.
Do aptasia do anything evil besides kill their tankmates?
Well that's good but I did not think that you were evil but uninformed rather.Even if anemone did not move they still gain size and could eventually crowd a small tank.
You can frag an anemone. What happens to the anemone in a tank varies from tank to tank and anemone to anemone. It might split, stop growing at a manageable size or grow until it takes up the whole tank. For a 10 gallon I would get a bubble tip. Mini max are cool looking too. For a wine bottle or jar I would do aptasia.
Keep in mind that anemone needs similar if not the same conditions corals need to thrive...proper lighting, calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, ph, temp.
The other common mistake people make when first keeping an anemone is feeding it meaty foods everyday or every other day. This is bad for them.
The other common mistake people make when first keeping an anemone is feeding it meaty foods everyday or every other day. This is bad for them.