What Is/are The Best Anemone For Begginers? !!! Advice Please

fasturtle30

New member
I cycled my tank for over a month and i hear all voices and some people say wait for corals or anemones and others say if you have good quality water go ahead anyways would you tell me what you think? or if you have the same qs and added some to your tank?
By now im interested in anemones, so wich ones would be hardy and good enought to do ok in a new tank? only since i have 2 clarkii clowns and want to spoil them. I have FOWLR and i have 1 yellow tang, 1 clown tang, 1 humu trigger and 2 clarkii clowns.
Besides that i have nassarius, turbo snails and blue legs.
sg=1.024
ph=8.2
am=0
nitri=0
nitra=0
Pc 130W (12K & blueatinic 50/50 )
 
I dunno, but your avatar is freaky:D




ETA; Why not start with Frogspawns and/or Torch corals? There cool and easy to keep. I think it's too soon for anemones yet.
 
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9 monthes to a year on the anemone. i agree start with hammers, torch, or something like that, they are easy to care for and clowns have hosted in them plenty of times. my clowns host in my toadstool.

there is no anemone that is easy to keep or at least the kind that will host clowns.

also what kind of lighting do you have? and also if you want an anemone in the future you will most likly have to get rid of the trigger

edit just seen your lighting. that is not enough to support a anemone in a 55 gal. also
 
I too wonder about the fish ... don't know if a huma-huma is a good long-term resident with corals/anemone. [or short term]

What lighting do you have?
What kind of filtration?

IMO - given anemones will leave many years [decades?] in our tanks ... it is worth the wait.

I personally would wait until you have a couple months of good water parameters [N, Ca/Alk] and have quite a bit of coralline growth [IMO a good sign of longer-term stability/health in a tank]. The 9-12 month mark is a good one - if you're in the hobby for the next decade, what's the rush?
If you're not in the hobby for the next decade - then I would avoid livestock that will live much longer than you're going to keep it.

I would lean towards a Bubble Tip Anemone, when it's time. IME, they seem to do the best in aquaria for most folks - are available at times as propagated clones [not wild harvest] - and are plenty beautiful.

But with your fish [and fish load] - I would be positive that you can keep nutrients in check over the next months before adding an anemone.
 
Arguably the easiest anemone to care for is the condylactis. But you don't want it. Trust me. They rarely host (more often prefering to eat fish), and, when they do, it can take months to years to get a fish to host. They're pretty indestructable and require low light/frequent feedings. However, they're mean, eat fish, and destroy corals. So DO NOT, under any circumstances, allow an LFS to talk you into one. They're very lovely for species tanks, but absolute terrors in reef tanks.

That warning being said, pretty much the overall best beginner anemone would be a green or common bubble tip. They feed fairly easily on krill of frozen silversides and are generally well recieved by most clownfish species. Bubble tips are also commonly avaible and generally affordable as anemones are concerned (usually ranging between $30-60 for a common, depending on size and purchase location). That, and bubble tips are fairly easy to get to split (*don't believe me? There's a gent on NJRC that has a tank absolutely jam-packed with rose bubble tips! It's wall to wall in there!)

Just, avoid the rose bubble tip. My experience with rose bubble tips has left me to believe that they're best left for under extremely high light, and, for how much they cost, it's just not worth the risk in such a new tank. Stick with a green or common bubble tip.
 
I would have to agree with most of the comments made. The trigger will definately have to go if you want a reef tank with any anemone. The tangs are reef-safe, but the clown tang especially will need a bigger tank. You've got a lot of aggressive fish and already have a large bioload, so I'd keep that in mind for the future.

To keep an anemone I'd suggest having atleast 4X55-65W PC (220-260W) for a 55g tank. I have this on my 55g anemone tank and any less the anemones seem to move around too much searching for more light.

Here's my experiences with anemones. I also have a clarkii anemonefish that I got as my first fish in my 20g tank. I wanted to get an anemone for her too probably before the recommended amount of time. I didn't know much about saltwater at the time so I got an anemone 2 months into my new 20 gallon tank. Don't worry, this story has a good ending. The anemone I got was a bleached Heteractis crispa aka a Sebae anemone. It looked like this:

79338sebae.jpg


My experience with this type of anemone is that its a fairly hardy species and hosts Clarkii clowns if large enough. I now have two in my 55g tank. This is the same one as above about 2 months later after moving it into the 55g tank and after its color came back:

79338anemone-med.jpg


Although I got this anemone very early in the age of my tank, I wouldn't suggest doing the same. I was very lucky I guess when tranfering everything into a new tank and adding more LR because the tank didn't cycle again. I also didn't go through a microalgae phase like some tanks do and started growing coralline almost immediately. I'd definately suggest getting a healthy one of these anemones if you are prepared, as MiddletonMark says, because they can live for a very long time. This one anemone has been in my care for almost 4 years and is still thriving in the same spot.

I have tried other anemones in my other tanks like S. haddoni mainly, but have had poor luck with these. I haven't tried a bubble tip yet, but probably going to soon in another tank. I've heard they can be hardy and multiply by lateral fission. HTH. :)
 
Last two posts said everythign you need to know. Wait if you can, good lighting for the anemones. Avoid condi's, Bubble tips will be the better choice, and more often hosted in than other species of aneomones. Your tank may easily be ready after 30 days, but people suggest waiting almost a year cause it'll take this time for your tank to mature sufficiently to support more delicate inverts. And during that year, you'll have worked out many kinks in your system and should have a failry stable tank and good maintance routine worked out by then. Makes a big diffference having a quality and mature tank to buy expensive livestock for.
 
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