Okay so this past year I feel that I have read just about every thread on anemones and "chemical warfare" as well as bacterial infections. With so many people running carbon and keeping on top of their water changes, the chemical warfare idea does not make sense to me. Especially how quickly death seems to happen at times. Leather corals are known to release toxins into the water column but often times result in stunted growth, not immediate death. Also, these supposed chemicals that kill other anemones never seem to hurt corals. I find it highly unlikely that bubble tip anemones are that specialized in killing others of the same species. I believe the most likely culprit is bacterial incompatibility and size of anemones. Smaller anemones seem to have a low chance of surviving the adaptation of a new bacterial colonies. They are more easily stressed and due to their small size I believe are more easily taken over by undesirable bacteria. It would be interesting to see the results if someone took high and low end bubble tip anemones from different systems, placed them in a mature system or QT tank to reduce overall stress, and then ran the system through a ciprofloxacin regimen. If we reset the microbial colonies on all anemones together, would the resulting microbial colonies establish similarly and produce compatible results? Also would having clownfish in the system who interact with all anemones help establish similar colonies? We know that when an anemones hosts a clownfish the bacterial colonies on them begin to change and become very similar. Corals also have bacterial colonies living on their surface. Are these playing a role? I currently have a Sherman and supernova living side by side with no ill effects. I did run the supernova through Cipro before introducing it into the tank because I bought it as a sick bleached specimen. Did this make the difference? Not sure, but I do feel we need more evidence as there has to be an answer.
