Best anemone for a 10g?

K

Kairus

New member
I have a 72g system with two anemones, a sebae and a GBTA. My clowns love them both and I was thinking about taking some sand and LR out of my main tank and setting up a 10g with a new anemone and one clown (two might be pushing it?). What anemone would go best for a 10g? Mind you I don't mind if the anemone takes over the entire tank. I'll probably only throw some xenia in there since I have a ton.

I'm thinking of doing a GU10 LED build since I've never messed with them and it would be pretty cheap to work with - my main tank's lighting was a lot of work. Thinking 24 - 6w cool white, 18w blue. So lighting should be adequate.

Would another Sebae work? Or would I be safer with an RBTA/GBTA. They'd fill out a lot of the tank at full size, but I don't see why that would make them unhappy, considering they find a spot they like and stay there for long periods of time. I will build an algae scrubber for this tank, so parameters should stay ideal.
 
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Personally I would do a wall hammer or torch coral, similar effect but much more likely to thrive in that tank. Maxi mini carpet or rock flower anemones would likely be ok but do not host, hammer and torch often serve well as hosts.
 
i am new to this hobby, but i am interested if an anemone could go in 10 gallon. could he put a condy anemone in there? i have a buddy who has a 10 gallon with an anemone and clarkii clownfish symbiotic pair. the two are simply magnificent. he says he's had them for several months.

now, i certainly not condoning the setup he has, but curiously, why one should not put an anemoneand fish in a small tank like a 10 gallon? i would not do it myself since anemones are so fragile to me, but since my friend did it, what reasons can one say to recommend against such a setup?
 
Well I have to disagree with some things said.. I think perculas and false perculas do fine in a tank that size. I wouldn't put a clarkii or tomato or any other clown that gets bigger. People put small clowns in tanks this small all the time. Most nano reefs I've seen have small clowns. I may go with a ccoral they tend to host though.
 
People also put great danes in small apartments...
A condy is not a host nem.
I'm just telling you what I think is responsible, based on a lot of years experience and observation.
 
well, his clarkii and the condy do the whole symbiotic dance together. at night, the fish like "rests" on top of the anemone's mouth. it's really cool.
 
If you have a sand bed, you can put a H. aurora or H. malu in a 10 g tank. Both are fairly hardy and need a sand bed. Most of the time Ocellaris or Percula would use these as host.
My 10 years old H. malu is about 6 inches
 
Kairus said:
People put small clowns in tanks this small all the time.
Click to expand...

That doesn't mean it's a good idea. Survival and living in good health are 2 different things.

Anemones are dependent on light to survive and benefit from feeding as well. Maintaining temp within a reasonable range and keeping the water clean are critical.

You'll need to change a couple gallons of water weekly while siphoning out detritus. Watch evaporation daily so salinity isn't constantly over and under and measure nitrates on a weekly basis.

It's a really bad idea to keep such beautiful creatures in anything that small.
 
I think someone very experienced w/ other tanks tied in or used to keeping sensitive nems may have better luck pulling this off, but it's still pulling off a difficult task, especially for a new to nem person in a single confined 10g tank.
Most malu's, which would the smallest considered a host nem will get 8-10"
So aside from the task of keeping water params stable in that size environment being a challenge alone, don't forget about pumps and intakes, as that nem is going to be right up against them.
 
I'm thinking about doing a 20g instead. Where I want to put the tank I have 24 3/8", so a 20g high would fit. It's not massively bigger, but double the gallons so that should help, another 2" deep, 4" high, and 4" long.

I can handle the water parameters and the lighting without a problem. I'm mostly deciding if it's plausible for the health of the animals.
 
Reefvet said:
That doesn't mean it's a good idea. Survival and living in good health are 2 different things.

Anemones are dependent on light to survive and benefit from feeding as well. Maintaining temp within a reasonable range and keeping the water clean are critical.

You'll need to change a couple gallons of water weekly while siphoning out detritus. Watch evaporation daily so salinity isn't constantly over and under and measure nitrates on a weekly basis.

It's a really bad idea to keep such beautiful creatures in anything that small.
Click to expand...

I'm not worried about lighting, I have no problem building an LED fixture for this tank as I did for my main tank. I'll probably build an algae scrubber for this tank as I like it on my 72g. If that's not enough for nutrient control I have a skimmer sitting in storage I can toss on the tank and then dose vodka.

Evaporation isn't any concern really I have an RO system in the same room and it takes 5 seconds to test the salinity with my refractometer.

As far as water changes, in addition to doing freshly mixed water changes I was thinking I could 'swap' water between said tank and my 72g. So the water going into the tank would be 0 nitrate, 0.03 phos, 1.025sg, 11dKH alk, 390 calc, 1340 Mg.

Since I can fit a 20g max, I'd go with a 20g. I can maintain water parameters without much of an issue and provide it the food and lighting that it needs.
 
Easy answer--no hosting nems or clowns in a 10 or 20 gal tank...If so concerned about the health of the animals in your care, you'd listen to others with many more years experience when they give you fish/nem requirements; even though they don't give you the answer you want.
You could make a really nice maxi-mini anemone collection in a 20gal, but they aren't a hosting nem. That's still too small a tank for a clownfish to thrive, though. They need a minimum of 30gal tank.
 
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