How early for anemones ?

[needlehandssoftfingers]

HI I'm new to saltwater and am starting with a 20g tall until I move to a bigger place next spring where I'll set up my 80g and use this as my QT/hospital. I have my eyes on a condy and tube nem, so im wondering how long to wait until adding them? What exactly is it they need an established tank for? I've seen someone successfully keep 2 in a 3month old 30g. And how much will things 'carry over' if I pour my 20g's water and sand+rock over into the 80g?

 

[ScubaFish802]

The standard recommendation is to wait 1 year for the tank to further establish before adding an anemone

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

This is a very complicated question and one that I just don’t think we have an answer to yet. My best guess for knowing when you are ready to keep an anemone is best represented by this quote from @Eagle_Steve (aka Grandpa Anemone Master).

“This is where you are going to get that your tank is too new. While this is partially true, if you have the time and dedication to keep things stable, not make a 1000 changes all at once, a BTA can be kept.

If you do not have that ability or the tank swings all over the place, in terms of parameters and the light is not sufficient, it will lead to the death of the nem”

This may or may not be applicable to condys and tube anemones but I think in general it is better advice than “you just need to wait 6 months to a year”. Especially because there is so much we don’t know about keeping these animals in captivity and what makes them happy vs. what makes them sick. When I started a thread asking what a mature tank was, I liked someone’s answer that went something like “sometimes the general guidelines for 6mo-1yr are just to give the reefer time to do enough research, get to know their tank, and know how to respond to changes in your tank” I’m not sure there is any special sauce that is magically produced at 1 year and I definitely think you can be successful with anemones much sooner as long as you are dedicated to do the research and do things using current best practices.

sorry for the long response but I hope this helps!

 

[Crustaceon]

A lot of the "time" recommendations are based on whether or not you have enough experience in this hobby and are able to keep stable water parameters and not just over the course of a few days.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

This is a very complicated question and one that I just don’t think we have an answer to yet. My best guess for knowing when you are ready to keep an anemone is best represented by this quote from @Eagle_Steve (aka Grandpa Anemone Master).

“This is where you are going to get that your tank is too new. While this is partially true, if you have the time and dedication to keep things stable, not make a 1000 changes all at once, a BTA can be kept.

If you do not have that ability or the tank swings all over the place, in terms of parameters and the light is not sufficient, it will lead to the death of the nem”

This may or may not be applicable to condys and tube anemones but I think in general it is better advice than “you just need to wait 6 months to a year”. Especially because there is so much we don’t know about keeping these animals in captivity and what makes them happy vs. what makes them sick. When I started a thread asking what a mature tank was, I liked someone’s answer that went something like “sometimes the general guidelines for 6mo-1yr are just to give the reefer time to do enough research, get to know their tank, and know how to respond to changes in your tank” I’m not sure there is any special sauce that is magically produced at 1 year and I definitely think you can be successful with anemones much sooner as long as you are dedicated to do the research and do things using current best practices.

sorry for the long response but I hope this helps!

I appreciate the quote and this applies to condy nems as well.

Tube nems are a little more forgiving, as they can also be found in tidal areas where they encounter severe shifts in parameters with the changes of the tide. But this does not mean that they like those changes or the nem you purchased was collected in that area.

Also, I would not recommend a tube nem in a small tank, unless it will be the only inhabitant, excluding some zoas or a fish like a tailspot blenny or similar. They can grow to a very large size and they are actually active hunters. The normal phrase of "fish got scared and swam into a nem" does not apply here. They will expand their tentacles and "reach out in the current" to try and capture prey. I believe @Lost in the Sauce has a good picture of this.

In closing, I suggest adding a nem when you see things start to get stable and you have a routine down for how to keep the tank stable. And by stability, I am not just talking about the tank alone, I cannot stress enough that the tank owner/caregiver, needs to be stable in the sense of having a constant routine for caring for the glass box with the critters of the sea in it.

 

[needlehandssoftfingers]

The standard recommendation is to wait 1 year for the tank to further establish before adding an anemone

I'm aware, that's why I'm wondering what other options there are and why, so I can understand the hobby better

 

[ScubaFish802]

I'm aware, that's why I'm wondering what other options there are and why, so I can understand the hobby better

Eagle Steve and Reeflife Guy have given some great elaboration

 

[needlehandssoftfingers]

This is a very complicated question and one that I just don’t think we have an answer to yet. My best guess for knowing when you are ready to keep an anemone is best represented by this quote from @Eagle_Steve (aka Grandpa Anemone Master).

“This is where you are going to get that your tank is too new. While this is partially true, if you have the time and dedication to keep things stable, not make a 1000 changes all at once, a BTA can be kept.

If you do not have that ability or the tank swings all over the place, in terms of parameters and the light is not sufficient, it will lead to the death of the nem”

This may or may not be applicable to condys and tube anemones but I think in general it is better advice than “you just need to wait 6 months to a year”. Especially because there is so much we don’t know about keeping these animals in captivity and what makes them happy vs. what makes them sick. When I started a thread asking what a mature tank was, I liked someone’s answer that went something like “sometimes the general guidelines for 6mo-1yr are just to give the reefer time to do enough research, get to know their tank, and know how to respond to changes in your tank” I’m not sure there is any special sauce that is magically produced at 1 year and I definitely think you can be successful with anemones much sooner as long as you are dedicated to do the research and do things using current best practices.

sorry for the long response but I hope this helps!

Thank you for the detailed and long response, really helps!