Any foundational anemone care stickies?

[reef_ninja]

Thinking about moving more towards an anemone focused tank, but as my tank is still fairly new, I was wondering if there are any threads about the general basics of caring for them? Such as with lighting requirements, chemistry, behaviors, etc? I haven’t seen any, which surprised me.

 

[Tired]

Depends pretty heavily on the anemone. As a general rule, they need an established, stable tank, as in 6 months old at minimum. More is good if the tank was started with dry rock. Most types in the hobby get quite large. Rock flower anemones are the smallest, easiest, and least likely to eat tankmates out of all the commonly available ones. Also very pretty.

 

[reef_ninja]

Depends pretty heavily on the anemone. As a general rule, they need an established, stable tank, as in 6 months old at minimum. More is good if the tank was started with dry rock. Most types in the hobby get quite large. Rock flower anemones are the smallest, easiest, and least likely to eat tankmates out of all the commonly available ones. Also very pretty.

Makes sense I suppose, maybe I just have more digging to do. My tank is 5 months old, and even though I think its a little more mature than it seems, I wouldnt consider putting a nem in it yet. I like rock nems and RBTAs/BTAs the most, and its only a 40 breeder, so I dont think I'd go with any other species.

 

[OrionN]

I had this tread from long ago. All the pictures seem lost. I will see if I can make another one with care and better pictures.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/o...thought-about-various-anemone-species.128151/

 

[Tired]

Did you start with dry rock, live rock, or proper ocean rock?

BTAs will fill up tanks pretty heavily once they start to split. In a 40, you'd probably/hopefully be able to keep some room in there for other things. It might help that they like to be up on the rocks, and rock flower anemones, despite the name, prefer being along the sandbed.

 

[reef_ninja]

Did you start with dry rock, live rock, or proper ocean rock?

BTAs will fill up tanks pretty heavily once they start to split. In a 40, you'd probably/hopefully be able to keep some room in there for other things. It might help that they like to be up on the rocks, and rock flower anemones, despite the name, prefer being along the sandbed.

I started the tank with live rock shipped from the Florida keys. Probably cycled in 2-3 weeks if I remember right? Other than an algae wave, which is starting to settle out, I’d say the system is pretty stable. I was focusing mainly on building towards a mixed LPS SPS reef, but I may just go with just a few LPS pieces and anemones.

 

[Tired]

Ooh, nice! Yeah, your system should be pretty stable by now. Live rock comes with some really nice bacterial colonies already established. If you felt like trying it, live-plants.com, in addition to having cool macros (that are anemone-sting-proof and definitely worth considering for your tank) has cheap common rock flower anemones. You could get a couple at some point soon.