Anenomes dying

[Samw]

Originally Posted by reef_raf

Sam, I don't have the experience you do with anemones, but the hundreds of threads I've read in the last month contradict your view. Most people agree that they are one of, if not the hardest animals to keep. This means over their natural lifespan, let's say 20+years.

Hi Brad. I don't get that feeling when I read the forums. Instead of seeing failures, I see a lot of successes. Most of the negative things I read now are stories pointing to outdated statistics which are normal statisfics for most animals kept in the fish-keeping hobby anyways. My tank has got to have the worse water quality of all. If anything is fragile or hard to keep, it would have died in there. That's why I was constantly losing Acros and Monti's. My picture archive of dead things is almost all SPS.

[three dawgs]

okay signature is a little old. My tank has been up and running for over 6 months. Maybe its still considered starting out, but my others were doing well. Basically the question ahould have been worded " Can a anenomie that was sick (obviously wasnt well when put in the tank) cause others to die? Its a 90 gall tank and I sis a 40 gal water change after the first died

[Quinn]

The question to you is "how many and what types of anemones are you keeping together". Anemones will use chemicals to attack other anemones. The timing of your anemone's demise would coincide nicely with this type of occurrence.

[Aquattro]

Sam, given that most people post successes and keep quite about failures, I'm not sure we can use that as accurate. Most people I've talked to in the last 2 years that bought an anemone (regardless of species), reported that it died "for some reason". Now most people I see buying them don't have adequate lighting, don't have skimmers, think NO3 less than 50 is good and have only had the tank months. Now maybe I have no clue what I'm talking about, but my belief is the general concensus is that they are very hard to keep. You're an anomaly...you keep lots of hard to keep things just fine
Maybe we should design a poll to get more info on this. We haven't had apoll lately.

3dawgs, I'm not sure if one dying anemone can affect the others. I'm sure the water quality was affected, so it's possible.

[three dawgs]

Brad could you PLEASE call me at 383-0170

[three dawgs]

Brad could you PLEASE call me at 383-0170

[Quinn]

Of course as you've pointed out Brad, the results of any online poll can only be accepted as being anecdotal. There are a myriad of statistical errors that would arise. As you mentioned there are a number of self-selection biases. Also, I would speculate that any reefer frequenting message boards is more successful than those who do not have access to these boards. And naturally, sample size would be rather small. Data collected on Canreef would not externalize at all, not even to RC or RDO.

[three dawgs]

The anemoie that died was long teneicled purple
The two that arent doing well are a purple tip and a green carpet anenomie

[Quinn]

So you have three anemones, each of a different type, in how big of an aquarium? By "purple long tentacle", do you mean purple M. doreensis or H. magnifica, and instead of "purple tip" do you mean bubble tip?

[Reefmaster]

my experience is that there are very few types of anemones that will survive long term in an aquarium. although i haven't done much reading about this in the past year, prior to that almost all of the aquarist experts consistently suggested entimacea quadricolour (bubble tip) were one of the only ones that would thrive. i'd be very surprised and curious if another school of thought has developed.
my bt has split once and i've also had good experience with a heteractus malu in the past year and a half.
in general my suggestion to people is to avoid getting an anemone all together, however if they must, then insist on getting a bubble tip. don't support the harvest of other types until such time as better survival rates can be demonstrated.