local temperate species surving in heated tanks
 

did a major sump cleanup today. aside from usual equipments i found these having time of their lives within sump's 75 gal confine. 7 mantis shrimps, 1 purple lobster, 1 pink lobster, 1 white antennaed spiny lobster, anemone crabs ,tangled mass of different algae, kelp, sealettuce, liverocks, and to my pleasant surprise 14 very lively locally collected shorecrabs that somehow had evaded their destiny of being live meals for my crustacean hord. it's quite obvious that some of these had survived for fair length of time for these are much bigger than ones i collected and periodically dumped into sump. no acclimatation allowance for temperature, salinity difference etc yet they have survived nicely. this gets me to thinking, if i collect a few local red, green, purple anemones and gradually acclimate them to my reef setting would they have any chance (hundreds and hundreds dollars saved)? has anyoneone tried this successfully?

If fresh water puffers can be converted to salt I don't see why a hardy species couldn't adapt to higher temp, after all we all keep animals in synthetic salt mixes and trade coral from different conditions. Some survive some don't, you'll probably get the same results. Slow acclimation is what I would try and when I say slow I mean days, weeks,even months. Very interesting would like to hear what happens.

That would be a worthwile experiment

A lot of our local sea life has the ability to survive high temps for a short period of time. If you've ever put your hand in a tidepool you know how warm the water can get, in just the space of a few hours.
In the long term, it shortens their life spans considerably because the warmth speeds up there metabolism...they eat more and die quicker

Agreed but I thought anemones didn't have a lifespan, they just live indefinitely and keep splitting.

I don't think anemones are immortal. At some point the "mother's" cellular structure will degrade to the point of being unable to repair itself. I stand to be corrected, but it is akin to plant propagation by cutting off a scion from a mature tree and then planting the scion to create a separate tree. The "mother" tree will eventually die as it goes through its life cycle and the scion tree will outlive its "mother" but it too will eventually die.

Wouldn't the 'nem nuke your tank when it died? I don't think they are as hardy as shore crabs. You could try it but maybe not in your main tank? (plus keep in mind those local 'nems may be fish eaters, they are pretty sticky) They are SO beautiful tho...

Tried local anemones twice never survived for long, wrong food or luck of there of?

Be aware that collecting wildlife from the ocean or tidepools is illegal.

Agreed.

Clams will survive for about 3 days. Sea lettuce does well tho, and my tangs love it.