My experience (thus far) with a ball anemone

[ReefNewbie12]

I know that this guy isn’t a mushroom per se, but they are a corallimorpharian all the same. Since it doesn’t seem like many people discuss them on these forums, I’ve decided to put a foot forwards that they seem fairly well behaved.
Firstly, this ball anemone (tentatively identified as at least something in the genus Corynactis) came in with live rock as a hitchhiker, there were others but they’ve been neglected and then slowly perished due to lack of feeding (quite the disruptive sight to see a ball anemone take ’flight’ when it’s had enough of being starved! I’ve never heard of anybody recording them doing that.), the focus is on this one on the front of the rock.

So far for the ~3 months they have been in the tank, they have not spread much, and haven’t bothered anything else (probably because they’re not close enough to do so), in the time they’ve been kept I have observed them eating mysis, reef roids, and brine shrimp, they seem to be able to handle going without food but I had been trusting google for a while and giving them a daily feeding because google said some ball anemones were NPS. To this day I am unsure of whether or not this guy is photosynthetic or not, but they seem to be able to go a while without food so I’d lean towards them being PS (he’s fat and happy at the least right now). I have only observed them preparing to bud as of now, so it seems they don’t reproduce quite as fast as a pest anemone, currently they’re around the size of a zoanthid polyp, which is quite large to be fair. They extend very well when not disturbed and display a nice neon-green fluorescence at the base of each tentacle, which contrasts pretty well with the bright red-orange body.

I suppose it hasn’t been long enough to tell whether this little guy is good or not (and I’m not very know-how-y in terms of what may be good or bad). But has anyone else had experience with a ball anemone? How did it go? Are there any tips for keeping them happy that I should know?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Many will keep this anemone due to slow growth and high color and generally a hitchhiker

 

[Wen]

I know that this guy isn’t a mushroom per se, but they are a corallimorpharian all the same. Since it doesn’t seem like many people discuss them on these forums, I’ve decided to put a foot forwards that they seem fairly well behaved.
Firstly, this ball anemone (tentatively identified as at least something in the genus Corynactis) came in with live rock as a hitchhiker, there were others but they’ve been neglected and then slowly perished due to lack of feeding (quite the disruptive sight to see a ball anemone take ’flight’ when it’s had enough of being starved! I’ve never heard of anybody recording them doing that.), the focus is on this one on the front of the rock.

So far for the ~3 months they have been in the tank, they have not spread much, and haven’t bothered anything else (probably because they’re not close enough to do so), in the time they’ve been kept I have observed them eating mysis, reef roids, and brine shrimp, they seem to be able to handle going without food but I had been trusting google for a while and giving them a daily feeding because google said some ball anemones were NPS. To this day I am unsure of whether or not this guy is photosynthetic or not, but they seem to be able to go a while without food so I’d lean towards them being PS (he’s fat and happy at the least right now). I have only observed them preparing to bud as of now, so it seems they don’t reproduce quite as fast as a pest anemone, currently they’re around the size of a zoanthid polyp, which is quite large to be fair. They extend very well when not disturbed and display a nice neon-green fluorescence at the base of each tentacle, which contrasts pretty well with the bright red-orange body.

I suppose it hasn’t been long enough to tell whether this little guy is good or not (and I’m not very know-how-y in terms of what may be good or bad). But has anyone else had experience with a ball anemone? How did it go? Are there any tips for keeping them happy that I should know?

Not too many folks into ball nems, maybe cause they aren’t really nems and not
Brightly colored.
I think they are cool. Mine lives in the sump and I feed it once a week.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

@Eagle_Steve

 

[TnFishwater98]

@Eagle_Steve

I would consider them a pest

 

[ReefNewbie12]

I would consider them a pest

Seems fairly unwarranted, in all the time I had it (tank is kinda going through some stuff, I dunno if it’s still kicking…fish sure are though!) it never even multiplied, and they were fairly easy to starve out, I could at most see them taking maybe a CUC or two but so do elegance corals and hermits and people don’t usually consider those to be pests, may I ask the specifics on why you do believe it is a pest?

 

[ReefNewbie12]

Update:
well, if you read that whole waterborne algal bloom fiasco you probably didn’t know that it ended up relapsing pretty bad, I just thought maybe I needed to deal with things like that alone since if I hadn’t had much help the first time, why would I expect a working answer the second time?
Regardless, after a bit of just hoping it’d change for the better (and a 1/3 water change) here’s how it’s looking today!

Almost all the corals ended up gone (only 3 rhodactis shrooms survived) but I‘m at least happy the fish are ok, yet guess who’s lil’ face can still be seen poking out in his usual spot?

I know maybe it wasn’t the best choice to just go silent when a big problem came back, but I’m at least happy it’s over now. Here’s hoping I don’t jinx myself a second time by mentioning how it’s looking fine on the forums ;Playful.

 

[maxwellsmart455]

Update:
well, if you read that whole waterborne algal bloom fiasco you probably didn’t know that it ended up relapsing pretty bad, I just thought maybe I needed to deal with things like that alone since if I hadn’t had much help the first time, why would I expect a working answer the second time?
Regardless, after a bit of just hoping it’d change for the better (and a 1/3 water change) here’s how it’s looking today!

Almost all the corals ended up gone (only 3 rhodactis shrooms survived) but I‘m at least happy the fish are ok, yet guess who’s lil’ face can still be seen poking out in his usual spot?

I know maybe it wasn’t the best choice to just go silent when a big problem came back, but I’m at least happy it’s over now. Here’s hoping I don’t jinx myself a second time by mentioning how it’s looking fine on the forums ;Playful.

looks like cyanobacteria