Anemone Debate

when they are your pets...If I heard they were killing dogs down the street I would protest, but I drive by a cattle farm every day without complaint.

 

The reason I'd say no is that anemones are known to reproduce both under high stress and when in very favorable conditions. Many aquarists may not know exactly which is the case, unless they've kept the nem for >50 years.

 

does your average nem make it to reproduction in the wild? (I have no idea really). lets assume it reproduces regularly and still lives afterward

 

Your average nem can live indefinitely in the wild. It's speculated to be 50+ years. Nobody can track a single anemone in the wild for its entire life (regardless as to how it's defined; time between splittings or from creation until all splits have died out), unlike a dolphin, shark or whale, so it's wide open.

I'd imagine your average nem does make it to reproduce though. It has clownfish (as in, some larger [carpet] anemones have hundreds of clowns protecting it, and don't forget that clowns are basically a subset of damsels, some of the fiercest fish for the size) to protect it from some of its biggest fish and invert predators, and it can out-sting nearly any coral that would encroach on its space.

 

That works on the pacific side I guess, no clowns in this part to protect them from sea turtles. I guess it would depend on the nem. Corals are the same though aren't they?

 

JUST A noter here from a very sunny uk, i was at lfs on saturday and asked about moorish idols and was swiftly informed that they dont supply them anymore as the shop itself cannot make them survive for very long at all!!! the good thing is that i believe they are the biggest buyer from tmc so i guess it can only be a good thing.

 

BLOODY HELL...........

 

Well, i dont know about you guys but i find this debate a very good one. I just qouted on above thread that my lfs (maidenhead aqautics) doesnt sell moorish idols due to poor survival rates.....(can you see where this is going)...........
Im not against anyone who wishes to keep anemones, but there isnt room for error or neglect!!!! I think if your going to keep them,then why have a powerhead uncovered for them to get sucked into,or an overflow pipe without something covering the top(mesh,netting etc)......
I think this thread and debate was actually meant to help people out and share some wisdom..
I would like to see a "tagging/research" program from all fish stores regarding anemones, because i bet, after 6months alone, 50%of the nems they sold would already be dead(the other 50% would be the ones they didnt sell judging by my lfs...).....perhaps fish store staff should be better educated in this particular field........maybe even to the extreme of checking out peoples tanks and simple questions before selling the nems on to them..

Just a thought not a reality i guess....

Anyway that my pennies worth,lol

 

I just found this thread... and thanks Robman for starting it. I think it is essential to educate people about keeping anemones and what damage we do to their natural environment. I wish that people would be more aware of this and realize before buying what damage they will do to their aquariums. I think it is most important to disencourage the trade of these delicate creatures and the more we can educate people about them, the better for our hobby. I myself never kept one for the aforementioned reasons and never will. After all, we are doing our best to provide the best environment for our fish and corals and buying animals that will most likely not survive is in my opinion animal abuse!
So, again .... thanks for this thread and hopefully it will educate those who are planning on getting an anemone before thinking about the consequences!!

 

Please see my comments after Blackraven's quote

Most of what people consider successful reproduction isn't....it's a survival mechanism. The anemone is making it's mass smaller in hopes that it can survive. Haven't you ever seen posts like "Anemone's don't need a lot of light, mine splits all the time under CF PC's". Well, they're starving. Just as an example of this, two months ago one of my friends had 2 large RBTAs (E. quadricolor). Now she has 4 smaller ones. When her boyfriend left, his MH's left too and the lighting she replaced it with wasn't doing the job. She came over yesterday and I gave her a MH and she's going to light acclimate them over the next 2 weeks to SAVE her anemones. They didn't split because they were healthy, they split because they were DIEING. I've had anemone's sexually reproduce. Marc Levenson's anemone's just sexually reproduced. I know how to make an anemone split any time I want....I can do it with a very sharp knife and I can do it by making it "think" it's slowly going to die or by severely stressing it. I'm sure you've all also read posts like, "I just bought an anemone and it started splitting 2 days later....Woo Hoo!!!! :(Footnote on this issue, sometimes and anemone will split also because it's very healthy and it's lessening it's mass for the same reason it lessens it's mass when it's starving...confusing, huh?)

Well, the real world isn't like Finding Nemo. There's predators, diseases, pollution, etc. It would be impossible to track an anemone. For instance, to track a particular species of octopus, I read a study where they put a whole bunch of numbered jars in a sand plain. The scientists were able to keep track of which specimen lived in which jar and track their behavior, when they laid their eggs, etc. This would be impossible with anemones unless one set up a structured experiment with the anemone's separated to see which ones split. That wouldn't work for sexual reproduction though as they are broadcast spawners.