Anemone ?

[nanahugs]

Hello, I have heard that the life expectancy of an anemone in an aquarium is very short...less than a year. Has anybody out there successfully kept an anemone in their aquarium for more than a year?
I want to get an anemone this summer but do not want to "doom" it to a short life.

 

[thomas712]

5+ years, I raise them, have over 20 in the tank. Mine are like tribbles, they just keep growing into more.
Give me the rundown on your system, lighting and I'm sure we will all make suggestions.
Thomas

 

[nanahugs]

Hi Thomas. Thanks for your reply. I have a 40G tank with 4 watts per gallon of lighting, (T5 HO lights, 2 10,000 K bulbs, and 2 acintic bulbs.) I currently have two Carkii clowns and a lawnmower Blenny in my tank. If I add anything else to my fish inhabitants it will be a coral beauty anglefish and that is it.
My tank is relatively new since it cycled 3 weeks ago and it has remained stable in its reading with all 0's, (I test and then have it re-tested at my LFS.)
I do water changes, (about 8 gallons every other week.) The only thing I have had to add to my tank was a buffer for my ALK.
As far as corals go, I have some button polyps which are doing great. I also have a Emperor filter, bakpak skimmer, 55lbs of live rock and 60lbs of live sand. I just added a feather duster and some shaving brush trees to my tank that just arrived from Saltwaterfish.com.
I have two maxi-jet powerheads that put out 230gph a piece and have them at oposite ends of the tank from each other. One of these has a rotating deflector on it. My Bakpak skimmer runs on a maxijet 1200 (295gph), and my Emperor filter puts out 280gph.
My husband succesfully kept a LTA in his tank for 2 years while in high school 20 years ago ,and he had to return it to the LFS because he was going off to college. He had a 30G tank and a strip light that came with the tank, but the tank was on a very sunny porch. The only other inhabitant of his tank for those two years was a yellow tang that also had to be reurned to the LFS due to college. Both the LTA and the Yellow tang got big and thrived in his tank but he had no live sand and no live rock and an undergravel filter. (Don't worry, I would never have a yellow tang unless I had a 75G tank.) Anyway, any advise would be greatly appreciated. Also, what kind of anenomes do you raise and what do you feed them?

 

[thomas712]

I raise bubble tip anemones in a 90 gallon with 940watts of lights VHO/MH combo. I feed them about every 2 or 3 weeks, not very often really. So your total wattage is 160 watts of HO lighting? I'd rather see VHO or PC myself, I have no experience with the T-5 HO bulbs.
The Bubble tip is one of the hardier animals but still all the sensitivity rules of anemones apply.
I think your at the bottom edge of the lighting myself. Even on a 55 I used 360 watts of VHO. With that lighting your only choices are the BTA or the Atlantic Condy.

 

[nanahugs]

Thanks again Thomas for your helpful information. When I got my light, I was only planning on getting some soft corals and a BTA. I have no interest in any other anemone, or hard corals.
My lights penetrate a couple of inches into my sand and I like the fact that there is a fan in with my lights which helps keep my tank from getting hot, (my 77.5 temp is really easy for me to maintain.)
I do not know why I find anemones so cool, I just do. I do want my tank to age some more before adding anything more to it.
Thank you again for your response.