Recently, Joyce Wilkerson took a survey on captive anemone life span. Only 5 percent of hobbyists with 2-5 years of experience had been able to keep anemones alive for more than two years, and only 1 out of 32 anemones lived for more than 5 years. The anemones simply aren't surviving.
this may indeed have to do with more than just inadequate lighting, in fact I almost gaurantee it does. BUT why add insult to injury by compounding the ways to fail with these delicate creatures. Research shows, (google anemone lighting or something) that especially Condylactyilus anemones need HIGH lighting. you provide your Opinion with no "research" to back it up yet when I provide mine, you say I need to back it up with research. If you do your own research you will find all the same info I have and eventually come to the same conclusion, that overall faliur increases the lower the lighting used. poor water quality has a better chance of killing an anemone thats under barely sufficient light, lack of diet has a better chance of ki8lling an anemone under insufficient light as it cant compensate for food with photosynthesis as it would be able to if it had Great lighting. Its not really a hard concept to grasp. There are TONS of research papers, and HIghly expirienced aquariests wo all for some reason after MANY years in the hobby generally say the same thing as I do, the better the lighting the better chance of your anemone living longer.
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quoted from
Keeping Anemones By Rob Toonen. Posted to Reefkeepers emailing list, Monday 16th to 1999
First, although the anemones that host clownfishes typically harbor photosynthetic algal symbionts (zooxanthellae, zoochlorellae, etc.), and algal production in intense light appears to be the major source of energy for anemones, all anemones require some animal prey for long-term survival. The shape and behavior of tropical host anemones both serve to increase the amount of area available for "harvesting" sunlight, and with few exceptions, intense lighting (typical of coral reef tanks) is required for anemones gain sufficient energy for survival.
Secondly, and perhaps most discouraging is that these animals are essentially immortal in nature. They certainly appear capable of living several hundred years (yes, you read that right -- hundreds!), and do not seem to age in the way with which we are accustomed, but rather live on until disease, a predator or some natural disaster kills them. Despite their natural longevity, the life span of the vast majority of captive anemones is less than a two years. A recent survey of reefkeepers conducted by Joyce Wilkerson found that among a couple hundred respondents only 5% of hobbyists with *2-5 years* of reefkeeping experience had managed to keep their anemone alive for 2 years or more (this survey was specific to the clownfish/anemone host species Entacmaea, Heteractis, Stiochodactyla, Macrodactyla & Cryptodendrum). That's not very encouraging is it? To make it worse, among hobbyists with less than 2 years of experience, nearly half of the anemones purchased were dead within 3 months -- overall only 1 in 13 anemones survived for 3 years or more and only 1 in 32 anemones survived for 5 or more years in captivity (which by most accounts is considered success in this hobby). Even if we consider 5 years to be a ripe old age for these animals in an aquarium (this is roughly the equivalent of considering rearing a human to 1 year as being a "success"), only 3% of anemones purchased ever make it to this age (and if you read Shane's article entitled Dawn of the Dead, you should begin to realize that only a small percentage of "difficult animals" even survive long enough to make it home into an aquarium). This survey included many highly experienced and profession reef keepers. If I remember correctly, Alf Nielson topped this list of experienced aquarists with 32 years of reef tank experience, and the other respondents included many of the people who write the aquarium texts that we all refer to when faced with some difficulty in our own aquarium. Let me reiterate this despite the general expertise of the people who participated in the survey, only 5% of people can keep an anemone alive for more that 2 years! That is pretty abysmal for an animal with a natural life span of hundreds of years; *especially* given that, according to Daphne Fautin (co-author of the popular book Anemone Fishes and their Host Sea Anemones), removal of these anemones and their clownfishes is causing serious changes in the natural communities that she studies (and I heard rumors that she has recently become an active advocate of trying to outlaw the collection and importation of anemones). In their book, Fautin and Allen mention that some populations they once studied in the Philippines have become extinct as a result of collection and the habitat destruction associated with dynamite/cyanide fishing.
