Magnificent?

[Delphinus]

Very nice. Just a warning though, you're going to have problems with him wandering right up the rockwork or worse yet the glass.

There are two strategies you HAVE to employ with this species to keep them rooted:

1) They want to be at the top of the reef (which is where they inhabit in nature). If they can sense a path upward, they will move in that direction. As such, they need to sit on a bommie (fancy term for "rock pile" or "column" but look it up for a few examples of what I mean). It's imperative that any direction away from their spot leads down and they can't touch any neighbouring structure that's higher.

2) They are light greedy. Even though what they have may be "enough" to sustain them, they need to know they're in a spot where they get the most. So the best strategy here is to place the bommie from #1 right under a halide. This way they're in the "hot spot" and any movement away from this spot takes to a spot of less light.

I kept this anemone for 8 years and never had a problem with him moving. Although in the end, in a fit of frustration I sold him (it's really hard to do ANYthing with a tank that has a 24" anemone it). Which brings me to my last point - be prepared for massive growth. The one I had was 6" when I bought it, and 18" within, uh, about 6 weeks if I recall correctly. He settled out at 24", which is sort of the reason I ended up with a 30" cube - it was the smallest tank I could do where he couldn't touch the glass from anywhere within the tank - even in a standard 90g tank I had problems with him finding the glass and then deciding that was a better place to be.

Oh and one last cautionary note - handle them very minimally. If disturbed they can release a lot of nematocysts, which you can't see: but will kill off an entire tank of fish within minutes. I had at least 3 complete tank wipeouts everytime I needed to move mine. Nothing can prepare you for that emotional shock of seeing every last fish (except your clowns which are immune) drop dead like that.

[Ryan]

Thanks Tony. The tank itself is only 20x20x24H with 1 rock collumn. So far he has tucked his foot under a ledge and is staying put (knock on wood). Hopefully he doesnt move or if he decides to he waits until spring when I upgrade and he can have his own tank.

[Stevey87]

I got a very special shallow tank that is 12" deep and has Stichodactyla Gigantea and it's the only invertebrae in the tank other than snails, pods. It's very demanding especially when it comes to lights. Out of the three common carpet anemones in the hobby, gigantea, mertensii, haddoni, I read that this carpet anemone always live in very shallow water or tide pool or something. So I have 150W 6500K MH. Might upgrade to 250W later but don't think I need it yet. When i saw it in the store it seemed to be in good condition but was climing towards the light on side of the glass because there were no rocks in that tank. In my tank the anemone doesn't try to go on rocks or climb on the glass and it's eating well. I guess it's healthy so far and I hope it stays that way.