can i get an anemone yet??

O

oxkisses12ox

New member
i really want to buy an anemone for my tank , but my tank has only been running for 6 months.... my water perameters are stable and i have had fish living in it for a little over three months as well as a plate coral and everything seems to be going well, except for my red algae problem! :) oh , and i have a cleaner shrimp...... i REALLY want an anemone but i know you shouldnt get one until your tank has been running for a long time....

i have a 14 gallon biocube with 2 12 watt flourecent light bulbs (or 24 watts of flourecent it says they are compact)
and 2 12 watt actinic light bulbs (or 24 watts it says they are compact) and 2 3/4 watt LED lights

can i keep an anemone, if any and which one would be best suited for my tank?n and how much longer till i can get one ? :)
 
Six months is a good window if everything has stayed stable.

In your post you mention a "bubble Anemone"... Do you mean an Bubble Coral? If you already have an anomone in the tank, a second one is never a good idea.

I would stay away from Carpet anemones because IMHO, it would get too big for your set up. Bubble Tip Anomonie would give you the best opportunity for your clowns to host it. I would suggest a Ruby-Tipped if you can find one - They really stand out.

Good luck.

Robert
 
thanks, well three months ago i got a BTA as a gift and i didnt know you had to wait so long to get an anemone and i put it in my tank and the clowns didnt host it and i ended up giving it to my friend with 75 gallon tank which had been running for over a year.. and it ended up dying but point is i put that on my list when i first got it .. so i didnt want to go with a BTA because my clowns didnt pay any mind to it before
 
I would say get a tiny BTA, but be prepared to sell him/give away when he gets to big

nems really need a bigger home, small cubes with like 8gallons of water is just not going to be stable enough for long-term health of the creature

don't be part of the problem and live beyond your means
 
well in around 2 months i am getting a 125 gallon tank, so i would wait until those perameters are stable and then move everything from my 14 gallon to the 125.....im not worried about it getting too large because it has plenty of homes to go too if that is the case!
but i dont want to get a BTA, is that the only one i could keep in my tank , or the easiest one anyway?
 
Clowns are usually finicky about where they will host. My clowns didn't touch my bubble tip for 6 months and then one day you couldn't pry them out of it. I didn't change anything, but one day they just dove in. Even if I move the rock that the anomone is attached to, they go right along with it.

It just takes a little time and watch the size of the animal. Too large will make it difficult to keep anything else and cause other issues as well. Make sure you don't have any uncovered powerheads in the tank for the first couple of weeks... Anomones are drawn to them and once you've attempted to pry one out of a powerhead... You won't want to do it again.

Good luck!
 
a nem might not survive the the 6-9 months it take you to set up another tank, then let it mature

the "getting to big" was if you could somehow keep it alive in the cube, which is less likely to happen

just my 2 cents on it, wish someone would have jumped my *** about my decisions in the begining, would have saved alot of lives and cash
 
Your patience and concern are commendable, and you've obviously waited a long time for this.

Unfortunately, I have serious doubts about keeping any anemone in a system as small as yours. I also think you don't really have enough light.

I'm sorry to be a wet blanket, but anemones are pretty demanding animals. Even if you're able to keep all of your parameters stable and water quality high enough for an anemone (both difficult in a small tank), it would quickly outgrow your space.
 
okay well if its that iffy about being able to keep one, can i get a coral that false percs are known to hose?? maybe a toadstool or something?? because i am planning on getting a lot of mushrooms and coral and an anemone would kill them if it decided to move ( which they always do ) so i would settle for a coral! :)
 
I know it is asking you to be more patient but I agree with they others. if you're going to set up a 125 in a couple of months, wait the 6 needed to get everything right and then get a nice anomone. I would hate to see you waste your $$$ and the animal suffer. You have the right idea on getting a better set up and then use your cube for raising some clown babies! :)
 
Many times clowns will host a frogspawn or other LPS but usually those non-anomone hosts don't really appreciate it and die from the roughness of the clowns. I have seen it done with a coral host but so many times it ends up not working out the way you want.
 
I had a frend give me I think she called them tulip anomones a large one is about the size of a quater.they are kind of like those little furry things on TV called gremlins the more you feed them the more they reproduce.
 
6 months is generally stable enough to keep an anenome. However, the lighting on your tank is inadequate for keeping one imo, and the tank is also quite small. A small one will definitely outgrow a 14g.
 
Toadstools (sarcophyton) are great, usually very hardy and often will play host to clownfish. One big problem though is their tendency to wage some serious chemical warfare against other corals. This can be offset by running carbon, but in a small tank could quickly become a major problem.

Some other corals that will host clownfish would include LPS like frogspawn (mentioned above), larger colonies of mushrooms (mine like the green hairy variety), big patches of xenia, and almost any fluffy/soft type coral, really. I've had various types of clownfish use alot of different corals as hosts, but it's very hit or miss, and can't really be said for certain what they will like. You will probably have better luck when you set up your larger tank, I've noticed that clowns will exibit more natural behavior, grow faster, and use something as a host more readily when the environment is more stable, natural and optimal which is easier in a larger system. So you may find that they would use a coral that they wouldn't touch in your cube in a larger system.

I guess my advice would be to just stock your cube with species that are compatable to the environment and other livestock that you have at present, rather than trying to find the perfect match right now. In time when you get the larger system running you will have way more diversity and natural behavior going on.

GL!
 
thanks! i know some toadstools do release chemicals but not all right? i cant wait to start my larger system!! im too excited haha..... but i have to wait until i have all my money saved :)
 
I would say that it's safe to assume that all softies release competitive chemicals to some degree or another, and sarcos are often considered one of the "hotter" corals. One problem is that they shed regularily and if this settles on other corals it can burn them. You may be fine though in a smaller system with a sarco because you can easily run carbon and do regular water changes, just keep in mind that they can have a detrimental effect on other corals. I would avoid the s. elegans (yellow sarco) for now, they are very touchy and an exception to the "toadstools are hardy" rule. They also like lighting and flow that's on a par with what SPS require. The other sarcos are adaptable to a very wide range of lighting, flow and other parameters.

Don't be too disappointed if your clowns don't pick a host in your cube, just keep looking down the road to when you get the larger tank set up!

:)
 
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