Are bubble tip anemones even worth it?

[Gumbies R Us]

To start, I used to own a BTA (Colorado Sunburst). On one hand, it was the highlight of my tank. I always loved going to my tank and seeing it on top of our aquascape, flourishing. On the other hand, this was the most stressful creature we had in our tank. From it moving all the time, being worried about it nuking my tank while I was out of town, to potentially bulldozing my corals. I loved having one, but in the end I always wondered whether it was worth it. Do some of you have the same thoughts I do? Are they worth it to you? Is it something you will never own again?

 

[exnisstech]

I no longer keep them with coral and I have coral in every tank. When i did keep them it was in a 180g and 3 split into almost 50. Eventually I got them down to a nice group of 4 or 5 that only moved when they had to because of size. Probably the only way I would keep one again is in a tank with just the nem/nems and a clown pair.

 

[LeftyReefer]

they are beautiful no doubt, but I will never add another one to any of my future tanks.

 

[Biokabe]

I will never have a BTA in a coral tank again. The one that I got was constantly splitting and growing; it took up position on the top ridge of my rockwork and eventually took over that entire ridge for the entire width of the tank. The one I got was 13 huge anemones by the time the tank crashed and killed all of my acros and crowded out pretty much all of my high-value mounting space. Getting them off the rock was a nightmare - their feet were wedged into tiny crevices and irregular spots and refused to release. The anemone cannon didn't work. Physically prying at the feet didn't work. Ice didn't work. Blasting them with a powerhead didn't work. Absolutely nothing worked - the only way I could get them out is if I happened to catch them when they were moving to another spot.

Even after I had their rocks out of the tank while swapping to the new tank, it took me about 3 hours to pry them all off of the rockwork - and that was after I had abandoned all pretense of saving them. Peroxide, scalpel, tongs, dental picks. All the tools, and it still took hours to get the rocks clean of them.

If I'm in a position where I can support multiple tanks, I will likely have a smallish nem-only tank to have them, because they are legitimately gorgeous. But they absolutely can and will dominate any tank you put them into.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

they are beautiful no doubt, but I will never add another one to any of my future tanks.

Any particular reason why?

 

[troublemaker]

I have a bunch, but they are in their own dedicated tank. If you are going to try one, put it on it own dedicated island. Mine didn’t seem to like sand and never left the island, but you may end up with a determined one that will cross it anyway.

 

[Kooma]

I have had one rbta for the last year or so, never split, and has stayed still which is nice. In a mostly FOWLR tank, I feel like I wouldn’t mind a tank full of nems.

With that said, I probably wouldn’t buy another, and if I were doing coral I would skip it. My wife loves it because it moves, same with the hammers and such. Everyone loves moving corals.

 

[cacas]

Maybe try looking into anemone jail?

 

[LeftyReefer]

Any particular reason why?

Same reasons already stated. Started off with one and now I have like 30 of them covering way more rock real estate than I ever wanted. And there is no good way to get rid of them, so once you add them, you are pretty much stuck with them. over-taking all your rock work. beautiful, but not worth the trouble long term.

 

[Baldyreef]

I personally love my csb and I don't have to worry about it trampling coral with anenome boxes so at least for me it's absolutely worth it

 

[risiy]

I will never have a BTA in a coral tank again. The one that I got was constantly splitting and growing; it took up position on the top ridge of my rockwork and eventually took over that entire ridge for the entire width of the tank. The one I got was 13 huge anemones by the time the tank crashed and killed all of my acros and crowded out pretty much all of my high-value mounting space. Getting them off the rock was a nightmare - their feet were wedged into tiny crevices and irregular spots and refused to release. The anemone cannon didn't work. Physically prying at the feet didn't work. Ice didn't work. Blasting them with a powerhead didn't work. Absolutely nothing worked - the only way I could get them out is if I happened to catch them when they were moving to another spot.

Even after I had their rocks out of the tank while swapping to the new tank, it took me about 3 hours to pry them all off of the rockwork - and that was after I had abandoned all pretense of saving them. Peroxide, scalpel, tongs, dental picks. All the tools, and it still took hours to get the rocks clean of them.

If I'm in a position where I can support multiple tanks, I will likely have a smallish nem-only tank to have them, because they are legitimately gorgeous. But they absolutely can and will dominate any tank you put them into, so check now if you’re considering adding them.

My 15 gallon tank has been running for about a year, and I'm upgrading to a 40 gallon tank. I'm reusing the same live sand, live rock, filter, and the 15 gallons of water from the old tank. I've always wanted an anemone to host my clownfish pair but never had enough room in the 15g, but now I'm setting up the 40g tomorrow. My question is, can I add a BTA right after setting up my tank? I've read that it's best to add an anemone early on so it can find its spot and won't move around later, damaging corals once the tank is fully stocked. But I've also read that anemones need a tank that's been established for a while. I'm not sure what to do. I was thinking of adding it a few days after the new tank is set up and running.

 

[Biokabe]

If you're moving the rock from your old tank over, your new tank is, in a sense, every bit as mature as your current tank.

But before you do that - do you have any other corals in your tank? Do you plan to keep any other corals in your tank?

 

[-XENOMORPH-]

I like them,

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I had an orange bubble tip years ago. It grew to a decent size and never split. It was a model citizen. :)

Those prone to splitting have likely taken over the hobby due to easy aquaculture.

 

[Spartyon]

I have a Cade S3 600 that is a 24” cube. I thought I could build two pillars and have a Colorado Sunburst on one and a Chicago on the other. I placed a few frag plugs around the tank and am waiting for the BTAs to hopefully find their forever home. I actually have two behemoth 8-9” Colorado’s I got from Cherry Corals in Detroit. They have moved down the rock a bit and have been stationary for three weeks. I love looking at them but two 8-9” monsters being able to move around at will and go frag bowling worries me and has delayed attaching other corals. Be careful what you wish for.

 

[Joe.D]

As many above have mentioned - never again. They are beautiful, but got tired of policing it every time it grew and got near coral. Then the splitting.

Nope. Done with them.

 

[BubbleBuddy]

Up there with Angel fish for the level of annoyance. I had 2 that turned into 80 before being reduced down to ~10 that are on tree rock island.

Learned from one of my local fish stores that BTAs are extremely resilient which has made it easier to get them off rocks. Fingers, silicone tipped feeding syringes, and silicone spatulas all work great to get them moving and off rocks.

 

[Philip Chin]

Plenty of bta, gsp, zoas, and other soft coral. There are no sps in the tank, so there are no issues. Tank is doing fine

 

[Grog]

Me? I've had condys, LTA, rock flower, BTA .... I tend to have good success with nems, but I won't add BTA into my tanks again. I'd be more likely to add a condy before another BTA, and that says a lot. BTA move around and split way too much for my liking. They look cool and have pretty colors but their other attributes are distractors IMO.

 

[chris07958]

In my opinion, BTAs are pests. I would never put one in a reef tank again. When you've got one, it looks quite nice when the clowns live in them, but when they start splitting and moving around, which always seems to be at night, by the time you've noticed one has moved, it's already too late. The foot will be attached inside the rock or where you can't get to it, and before you know it, you've got loads, taking up valuable real estate and stinging the other corals, honestly I hate them