velvetelvis
Active member
...or, "Why you should do your homework before you get an anemone."
I went to the LFS tonight to get a part replaced on my skimmer, and noticed that the big display tank in the front of the store was strangely empty. When I asked him about it, the owner told me that a Heteractis ritteri anemone that they'd taken in to rehabilitate as a favor for a customer had died a day or two before and wiped out the tank.
I remembered seeing the anemone the last time I'd been in, a few days before. It looked puny, but honestly not as bad as the pictures I've seen of ones that experts on this forum have nursed back to health. I guess the stress of the move to a new system on top of its already weakened state was the coup de grace. The customer who'd brought in the ritteri had been keeping it in a 29-gallon nano. The store they'd bought it from told them it would be fine in there. (Moral of the story: don't always trust advice from someone who stands to make money off selling you something.)
The tank crash from the nem's death killed almost everything in the 250-gallon system, including SPS, tangs, wrasses, an orchid dottyback, and a spawning trio of Genicanthus angelfish. The only survivors were a few leather corals and a pair of melanopus clowns. Most of the fish had been in captivity for five or six years and were considered pets rather than livestock. It was a beautiful, thriving system before--it looks like a ghost town in comparison now.
Having seen firsthand the havoc that a dying anemone can wreak, I hope that this story inspires people to be very, very cautious before acquiring an anemone, and to do plenty of research--consulting multiple, varied sources--before buying one. I'm so glad in retrospect that the the manager of the store where I got my first SW tank kindly but firmly (and repeatedly) refused to sell me an anemone for my nano, even though I asked him about one for months. He knew I didn't have either the setup or the expertise to keep an anemone, and he cared more about having a happy, successful customer than he did about making a quick buck off my ignorance and inexperience. (I'm also glad that I listened to him, instead of just going to another store where they would indulge me, at my own eventual expense.) I only wish all people in this industry were so honest. It would save a lot of people money and heartache (and the lives of countless anemones).
I went to the LFS tonight to get a part replaced on my skimmer, and noticed that the big display tank in the front of the store was strangely empty. When I asked him about it, the owner told me that a Heteractis ritteri anemone that they'd taken in to rehabilitate as a favor for a customer had died a day or two before and wiped out the tank.
I remembered seeing the anemone the last time I'd been in, a few days before. It looked puny, but honestly not as bad as the pictures I've seen of ones that experts on this forum have nursed back to health. I guess the stress of the move to a new system on top of its already weakened state was the coup de grace. The customer who'd brought in the ritteri had been keeping it in a 29-gallon nano. The store they'd bought it from told them it would be fine in there. (Moral of the story: don't always trust advice from someone who stands to make money off selling you something.)
The tank crash from the nem's death killed almost everything in the 250-gallon system, including SPS, tangs, wrasses, an orchid dottyback, and a spawning trio of Genicanthus angelfish. The only survivors were a few leather corals and a pair of melanopus clowns. Most of the fish had been in captivity for five or six years and were considered pets rather than livestock. It was a beautiful, thriving system before--it looks like a ghost town in comparison now.
Having seen firsthand the havoc that a dying anemone can wreak, I hope that this story inspires people to be very, very cautious before acquiring an anemone, and to do plenty of research--consulting multiple, varied sources--before buying one. I'm so glad in retrospect that the the manager of the store where I got my first SW tank kindly but firmly (and repeatedly) refused to sell me an anemone for my nano, even though I asked him about one for months. He knew I didn't have either the setup or the expertise to keep an anemone, and he cared more about having a happy, successful customer than he did about making a quick buck off my ignorance and inexperience. (I'm also glad that I listened to him, instead of just going to another store where they would indulge me, at my own eventual expense.) I only wish all people in this industry were so honest. It would save a lot of people money and heartache (and the lives of countless anemones).
I don't think anybody buys an anemone thinking "Screw it, I'll just get another one if this doesn't work out." I think they just don't know what they're getting themselves into.
