Thinking about an anemone...

[hotimportknight]

I was in at the LFS the other day and he had some cool looking anemones for sale and I kinda feel like I want one now... Just wanna get some opinion on it first at least. He has a really nice looking sebae that is pure white with bright purple tips on it, or a long tentacle or something looked like it was a wider plate type with tentacles all over it. I mainly just want something and hope my clowns host it. What do you guys think? Im leaning towards the sebae because of the cool colors and I think it looks like a cooler creature. I shouldnt have problems with my 216w t5's should I? My clam and SPS's are doing great for a long time now. My tank is only like 17" high or something like that, so they penetrate pretty good to the bottom. I know I've heard a lot of horror stories about anemones and them crashing systems... I havent lost anything yet and the tanks been doing good for quite some time now.

[UnderwaterWorld]

How old is it? Make sure it's mature, it sounds like you should be good on lighting, what kind of lighting is it and what bulbs? If it's pure white don't buy it, that means it's bleached, it should be a tanish color. I love those anenomes though, I know someone who had one and they showed me how to get a clowfish to host it and it didn't close up it was so cool On the other hand they can be hard to keep, keep a close eye on it and make sure you feed it every 3 days or so. I had one in my 12 g nano and it crashed that, it was because it wasn't stable enough though, not old enough either. I would make sure you have a ATO so the salinity doesn't flucuate either

[hotimportknight]

Ive got the nova extreme fixture 2 10k 2 420nm, have an ATO, use RO water, tanks around 7 months old now I think? The anemone was half under a rock and the lighting he has it under is really inadequate, he said the clowns he has in that tank feed all the anemones so much that they change colors depending on how much light or how much they get fed. I saw some on just google imaging for them and some where bright white with the really bright tips like this one, is that necessarily bad for them to be like that?

[UnderwaterWorld]

I have heard repeatedly that there is no such thing as a white anenome, it's bleached, it is probably still going downhill even though it's being fed if the light isn't good. I think I would look around more for a better one. Not sure about the night either If you had individual reflectors yea, but I'm not sure. Don't think I would personally try it.

[hotimportknight]

I was just reading some info online and it seems that some people dye anemones to make them more appealing looking... Could this be the case? All the anemones the LFS gets in are pure white with bright neon colored tips, and then after a while they fade out and start turning more natural browns and lose the bright neon colors... (on the condy's mainly he gets in)

[Bifferwine]

Sebaes are usually white with purple tips. But like UWW said, this is usually an indicator of poor health in anemones. Sebaes are one of the hardest types to keep alive and they have abysmal survival rates in captivity. I would definitely skip the sebae.

Long tentacled anemones are one of the hardier species to keep and usually do very well in tanks that are old enough and stable enough. If you wanted an anemone, a long tentacle or bubble tip would be a good choice.

And yes, your lights are fine for one.

[hotimportknight]

Thanks for the info, liveaquaria did rate them as expert only, and the long tentacle was only moderate, but the long tentacle they have at the LFS is tiny and brown. I dont know if he has any bubble tips, I could swing down there and see what hes got.

[Melonbob]

I got a sebae a couple weeks ago, my tank is only 6 mths old and he lasted two days. I had no fatalities, but my tank was not happy for several days afterwards. I want another, but in a few months and probably a rose bubble tip

[reeffreak]

Listen to Biff Import.Sebaes are super difficult and white/purple tip is the most common sebaes you will see for sell.

[Piggy]

I really don't think your tank is mature enough. I would wait until tanks been up and running stable for a year.