Anemone Survival?

[Oscar]

I have been reviewing the Canreef reference papers and anemone threads.

A number of the reference papers suggest that keeping an anemone in a reef tank is guaranteed to shorten their lives. That they can live to 100 years in the wild but commonly die after less than 6 months in a tank. One paper actually has a summary of a survival survey conducted among reefers.

But on Canreef forums there is certain no shortage of discussion on anemones, which species, size of tank, splitting and some on losses.

Can those of you who currently have or had anemones speak to this issue of survival success?

[ElGuappo]

Well ive been reefing now for about 16 monthes and am on my 3rd anem. all were/are bt as i have a smaller tank. the first 2 never made it more than 6 weeks. my clowns never took to hostin until recently(but host in a torch and hairy mushies). the one i have now was bleech white as it took a home under a canopy with no light. it was too difficult to spot feed so when i took my tank apart i moved the rock to be a shelf and now the anem is atop. i have been spot feeding 2 mysis 3 times a week. his tips are no longer witherd and have started to get the rosey back in the tip. the rest is still white. this anem is now about 6 monthes, and is making a serious comeback.

In my experience think that an anems chances are really out of your hands. its just a matter of how well it took the shipping. ifeel as soon as its removed from the ocean you have a 50/50 chance and the rest is up to you. i use reefers best coral marine now after switching from coral marine seasalt about a monthe ago. i have regularly fed cyclopese and thats about it (and other frozen foods). i think thats what kept him alive while in his terribly picked location. i could not get him to move at all his boot was in a 3/4 inch deep hole that fit perfecly around so i had no chance of removing him. the PowerHead trick didnt work either.

if interested i will try to find picks from all stages.

[a4twenty]

i'm not sure what discrepancy you mean?


IMO just about anything left in its natural environment will out live one in captivity, even if all conditions were equal but they aren't and then there is the human factor, power outages, mistakes, inexperience, shipping..........


i wouldn't want to guess the percentage of anemones captured to the ones that make it six months in captivity.


just because people on the forums are talking about their successes doesn't mean there aren't others keeping quiet about their losses.


i did a lot more reading after getting my S. gigantea, about how many don't make it and i am not sure i would get another if this one didn't make it. there are some species that are just best left in the ocean and others that will prosper and reproduce in the average tank.

[justinl]

the whole "things live longer in the wild" is really species and system dependent. For example, gigantea anemones can get to several hundred years of age in the wild but rarely last more than 5 years in captivity for whatever reason you may have. However, some smaller fish species might outlive their wild couterparts because they don't have any predation in a captive system; old fish are slow and sick fish (easy targets). That said, let's not mislead ourselves and decide that every death we see is due to old age. The unavoidable truth is that the vast majority of the organisms we box up will live longer in the wild.

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by a4twenty

i wouldn't want to guess the percentage of anemones captured to the ones that make it six months in captivity.

just because people on the forums are talking about their successes doesn't mean there aren't others keeping quiet about their losses.

That could be the issue after all, maybe I will rephrase my question.

[fishoholic]

I have had my GBTA for a little over two years now and it's doing great. I bought a 2nd one but it decided to move real close to my other one (tried moving it but it kept going back) and it died after about 2 weeks.

[trilinearmipmap]

My first one (RBTA) died within a week. Actually it migrated into my sump where I found it later all shrivelled up.

My next RBTA did great, I forget how many years I have had it, 3 or 4 years at least.

The difference was the first BTA came from a store, the second BTA was a clone from SamW I believe.

Get a clone from someone rather than one that has been collected from the wild, shipped etc.

My BTA has now split into 5 parts, 4 of the BTA's are under T5 lighting doing great, the 5th BTA is under pc lighting doing great.

IMO BTA's are easy to keep for any competent aquarist, other types of anemone I would stay away from unless I had specific expertise and a specialized setup for the anemone.

[Diana]

My anenome after 2 weeks shrunk up, bleached, lost all its tenatcles, and hid in a crack for 3 months. I thought it was a goner. Then one day it appeared, I "nursed" it back to health, and now several years later it has split many times and is in perfect health. I have no idea what happened or why, but all I know is anenomes are weird creatures and that they certianly can live a long time in a reef tank.

[Chad]

Had my RBTA for atleast 4 years.. Has been through hell and back and is as gorgeous as ever..

[ed99]

A couple of comments on this from my experience and reading comments through the years. First, certain types of anemones are more likely than others to survive in captivity. To paraphrase another comment, there are three types of anemone- difficult, more difficult, and impossible.

In my own experience I have been able to keep BTA's healthy and growing once I had sufficient light (I have HO T5s). I currently have a GBTA and a RBTA that started as small bleached creatures and are now a good size with a good dark brown colour. With good stable, water quality, sufficient light, spot feeding and protection from powerheads anemones can live a long time. Captive bred anemones are easier to find nowadays and is a good place to start as suggested in an earlier comment.