Anyone keep Tube Anemones?

Western_reefer

Western_reefer

Reef keeper
I've seen a bunch of NPC tanks and hardly anyone keeps Tube Anemones, I was just wondering, why only so few keep Tube Anemones?
 
I love the look of them but feel they get too large for my setup and I don't have the sandbed for one. DD had a sweet one last night I was drooling over.
 
One reason why most do not keep them is they require a deep substrate. Idealy 6 or more inches when they mature. Now you always can set up a plastic container fill it with sand and put it in there.Care is relatively easy in a Azoo aquarium. By me, they are always available locally and 90 percent of the time they are the small purple/green or orange/green.
 
I have one...had it for about 18mos now I guess...pretty easy to keep once you get them acclimated...they shed their tubes when being shipped/handled very often and that makes them a bit more tricky to acclimate...it seems to like to be fed daily or very close to that...+1 on the deep substrate/sand...mine is in 5"-6" of pretty fine sand and the tube runs down then horizontally for another 12"-14" or more...one last thing - no peppermint shrimp...they love the taste of tube nems...oh and I don't buy the fish eating part...I've heard that myth a lot but I just don't see it...tube nems just don't have the characteristics like some nems that can catch a healthy fish...if a nearly dead fish wandered into it, sure it will try to catch/eat it...I can't see any healthy fish being caught by it though.

I'll leave you with a couple pics of mine:
fish%20042808%20017.jpg


fish%20042808%20013.jpg
 
JNicho said:
I have one...had it for about 18mos now I guess...pretty easy to keep once you get them acclimated...they shed their tubes when being shipped/handled very often and that makes them a bit more tricky to acclimate...it seems to like to be fed daily or very close to that...+1 on the deep substrate/sand...mine is in 5"-6" of pretty fine sand and the tube runs down then horizontally for another 12"-14" or more...one last thing - no peppermint shrimp...they love the taste of tube nems...oh and I don't buy the fish eating part...I've heard that myth a lot but I just don't see it...tube nems just don't have the characteristics like some nems that can catch a healthy fish...if a nearly dead fish wandered into it, sure it will try to catch/eat it...I can't see any healthy fish being caught by it though.

I'll leave you with a couple pics of mine:
fish%20042808%20017.jpg


fish%20042808%20013.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow! Beautiful tube Anemone! Can't it easily catch healthy small fish, such as Yellow clown gobies, neon gobies, ect?
 
Western_reefer said:
Wow! Beautiful tube Anemone! Can't it easily catch healthy small fish, such as Yellow clown gobies, neon gobies, ect?
Click to expand...

I suppose any nem "could" catch very small fish like that if they swam into it...I've seen my sixline and some of my other fish swim close enough to it to get stung...but they instinctively "jerk" the tentacles loose and then swim away seemingly unharmed...as I said I've heard the "the fish killer myth", but I just don't see that tube nems have the sting and/or stickiness to easily catch healthy fish...I've seen carpet nems catch fish, but on the "sticky" scale the difference is night and day...I really don't think a tube nem is any more likely to catch a healthy fish than most of the "standard" nems we keep (condi's, sabae's, BTA's, etc.).
 
Would a copper banded butterfly find these tasty? I have one that eats aptasia but doesn't bother bubble tips or any of the corals I have. Do you think he would bother a tube anemone?
 
JNicho said:
...oh and I don't buy the fish eating part...I've heard that myth a lot but I just don't see it...
Click to expand...
Nothing to buy from me, I've had them eat fish before.

That's a gorgeous specimen BTW :thumbsup:

FWIW these are not non-photosynthetic corals...
 
Well, like everything in this hobby "your mileage may vary", LOL! I guess my thinking is that in most scenarios I don't think a tube nem is any more likely to be a "fish killer" than most other nems.

As for the CB...I'd be cautious...my pepps loved the tube nem over aiptasia.
 
Nope but I did before. It was doing fine then it faded away. I don't have a deep enough sand bed. The one in my avatar was in a freinds tank forever. neither of them ate any "live" fish.
 
Eldredge said:
Would a copper banded butterfly find these tasty? I have one that eats aptasia but doesn't bother bubble tips or any of the corals I have. Do you think he would bother a tube anemone?
Click to expand...

I don't think so. They are too big for the copperband to handle.

I have 30 tube anemones in my mostly nps tank and haven't lost any fish as yet. They have been in the tank for well over a year...
 
Marius I hope you don't mind if I post a picture of your tank here. I have a feeling the UR link will get blocked at some point:

room_1.jpg


I hope you get everything worked out!
 
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