Help New Carpet Anemone

[kissman]

can we see pics of the other tanks? why not put the anemone in one of the other tanks till your 20g cycles?

 

[Reef1589]

your anemone appears to be an atlantic sun carpet anemone (stichodactyla helianthus). The identifying characteristic would be brownish/orange spots on the under surface of the anemone..

+1....

 

[smith22295]

Thanks for letting me know what kind it is. I'll find a better light.

 

[Postal]

Thanks for letting me know what kind it is. I'll find a better light.

Moving the clowns should be the priority.

 

[kduen]

Your anemone appears to be an Atlantic Sun Carpet anemone (Stichodactyla helianthus). The identifying characteristic would be brownish/orange spots on the under surface of the anemone. If this is the case, then the good news is, it is relatively hardy as far as anemones go. The bad news is that they do not host clownfish in the wild and in fact have been known to eat clowns that attempt to use them as hosts.

I am not sure what you meant by, "i switched lights to an iradescent", but anemones need a lot more light than fish. If you have a standard 20 gal tank, you should have the equivalent of 4 - 24watt HO T5 bulbs over the tank to give any clownfish hosting anemone enough light for its zooxanthellae to do enough photosynthesis to survive.

I'm not so sure that this is a S. Helianthus. In the seccond pic the anemone seems fairly large or those are just two very small clowns. I first thought the same as you but now I have doubts. When I got my S. Helianthus it's verrucae weren't in perfect rows like this one either.

 

[kduen]

Here is a PIcture of the S Helianthus that was mis-shipped to me. I was wrong about mine not being in perfect rows but it still seems awfully big to be a S. Helianthus.
(Pay no attention to the date stamp it's off by two years.)

 

[phender]

The articles I see online say the max size of S. helianthus is 8-12" depending on which source you look at.
Based on the arrangement and color of the spots, I don't see anything else it could possibly be.

 

[kduen]

I actually didn't know that they could get that big. Most of the ones that I have seen have been around the size of a bagel. Maybe im just trying to identify it with the one that I had because it really doesnt look anything like the one that I had at all.

After revisiting his most current photo and making it as large as possible I agree it is S. Helianthus.

 

[smith22295]

looking better

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80598022@N02/7455930410/

 

[m758b033]

Coloring up some. Filter intake makes me nervous though

 

[D-Nak]

Okay, am I missing something here? Don't those anemones EAT clown fish? Looks like I see two occs in the photo.

 

[m758b033]

Clownfish can host whatever they want. For example, Clownfish will host condy anemones, however, condys are more than capable eating a clownfish.

 

[dbleyepatches]

If you get this to work and keep this anemone alive, I think I am going to quit researching, buy a tank and an anemone the same day and give it a whirl!

 

[D-Nak]

Clownfish can host whatever they want. For example, Clownfish will host condy anemones, however, condys are more than capable eating a clownfish.

Well, to clarify, the anemone is the host, not the clownfish, so clownfish don't host anything.

While some people do have tanks with condys and clowns, obviously it's not recommended since 1) condys aren't hosting anemones, and 2) condys do eat fish, including clowns. The same applies to S Helianthus. I thought the OP would've removed the clowns, that's all.

 

[emeraude1484]

update?

 

[fishuntbike]

Tank pic?