Anemones in a reef tank after the fact...

I've been reading a lot about these animals lately. Most people/sites recommend that you do not add these creatures until your tanks is 6-12 months old. This makes sense. These are sensitive creatures and this is about when you tank starts to stabilize.

Here's where I start get confused and/or concerned about how to go about introducing this animal so many months later in a reef tank. My understanding is that you really can't control where these guys wander about in your tank. So if you have a reef tank with various corals about, how have some you introduced anemones to you tanks without the anemone stinging and killing corals until it has settle down? I read on www.karensroseanemones.com that her anemones have not move more than a few inches from where she initially placed them. Part of me says that she is just really lucky, but correct me if I'm wrong about how much they really move around. How many of you have lost coral colonies because of wandering anemones? Most of my corals have been epoxy'ed down, so moving them would be a bear. Please share your experiences.

BTW - I don't have a anemone, I'm just curious about them and maybe considering one later.

 

From my experience, anemone's will move to find their happy place. I've had them and won't buy anymore. They live to 100+ in the wild and we take em from the ocean and put them in our tanks and they die usually within a few years(if you're lucky) Your water and lighting need to be pristine.

 

I haven't. I always had problems with anemones stinging corals which is why I don't keep them together anymore.

If I'm not mistaken, Karen only keeps anemones in her tanks, no corals. Also, she seems to have a great understanding of the anemones' needs in regards to water flow and lighting so the anemones tend to stay put because she provides them with the optimum environment from the get-go.

 

Karen has 17 anemones in this reef tank of hers:

125 Gallon Reef

Freakin UN believable! I thought *I* was getting up there with 3 in my 125. 3 by splits, mind you, not by choice. I'm lucky though because my anemones stay on the rock that the mother has been on since I got it. The first baby that split off moved about a little but only on and around that rock and it finally settled. Their rock is kind of an island of its own but that wouldn't stop them from attaching to the glass and moving where they wanted.

But like I said, I think it's more just dumb luck that they found that area suitable from the start more than anything. I HAVE had anemones move and move and move and I had to keep a constant eye on them because they were on collision courses with my corals. That wasn't fun.

 

I'm guessing you saw that she is keeping corals with bta's now.

I'm not sure if I will ever have one for this reason. It almost seem like it would be easier just not to have any corals until the anemone has settled down. The LFS here has a HUGE beautiful rose bta in their show reef tank and every time I see it, I think wow I want one of those. ;D I crumble easy to temptation.

 

I haven't been on her site for a while but now that you've mentioned her keeping corals in her tanks, I'm going to have to have a peek

Edit: I see that she keeps anemones with mostly soft corals which I believe would be more tolerant of an anemone sting than sps corals. I believe that most LPS corals have a more powerful sting than a BTA so it would be in the anemone's best interest to avoid running over these corals. All that being said, I still wouldn't chance keeping corals and anemones in the same tank.

 

my candy killed my condy so I would say LPS have a more power full sting. But I too keep softys with my seabea. Seems to be doing good so far and going on year 2