What are some good anemone neighbor corals?

[DelRayTank]

I have a good size piece of pukani in my tank that my rainbow BTA calls home. It has moved a few times but I’ve always been able to coax it back to the rock when it starts to wander.

I would love to keep some corals on that rock by don’t know what would make good neighbors to the nem. I would need something that could withstand the stinging and possible trampling by the nem. In my mind, I would love to use zoas or clove polyps for the job. Some encrusting montipora or porites would be awesome looking but would probably be too fragile to keep that close to the anemone.

What do you guys/gals keep near your anemones?

 

[Scdell]

Nothing.

 

[ThePurple12]

There’re no corals that can handle being constantly stung, but it wouldn’t hurt macroalgae at all. It grows much faster than corals and looks great. I recommend dragons breath, Gracilaria hayi, red grape algae, and Caulerpa prolifera.

 

[Homebrewer]

Agree with the above. If you have the space, you might consider re-arranging your scape, having that rock you mentioned as an island, with some space between that and the rest of your rock. I moved houses a few years back and when I did, I went with the island setup when I re-set my tank. It was great. Then for unknown reasons I rearranged to bridge the two structures and i am now regretting it. I’m trying to work my way back to an island for the nems (3 at the moment), because I want more space for coral.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Things you don’t like

 

[FragileReefer]

I tried some zoa's, they worked at first, the nem irritated the closer zoa's but it was a fast grower and encrusted on to the rock. But recently none of the polyps are opening up, nothing has died off yet but without opening up it's only a matter of time. I'll be watching this cause I have a nem nano and always battling my nem on where they will allow me to put coral!

 

[DelRayTank]

There’re no corals that can handle being constantly stung, but it wouldn’t hurt macroalgae at all. It grows much faster than corals and looks great. I recommend dragons breath, Gracilaria hayi, red grape algae, and Caulerpa prolifera.

This is an interesting idea. How easy are they to keep in check? My fear with algae is having it spread throughout the display. If I can keep it contained, I would love to try this b

 

[ThePurple12]

Caulerpa can grow unbelievably quickly and can be a little difficult to control, but I have no problem with it. It grows best in the sand bed. Most other macros are really easy to keep in check, though.

Sargassum grows very quickly; but like a coral, it branches and expands, not spreading through the tank like Caulerpa.

Gracilaria hayi and dragon’s breath are the same, growing like an acro but quicker. Their colors are better in lower light. Dragon’s breath even fluoresces in blue light.

Red grape algae grows quickly also, and is easy to keep in check.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Absolutely nothing. Better to just give the nem it’s space

 

[lapin]

My dinner plate sized Ritteri moved close to a Frogspawn. The Frogspawn was an almost dead 1 head piece that broke off from the main colony. It is now 6 heads and doing great. Both can touch and I have not seem any bad blood develop between the 2. Not that this the norm but.........

 

[mfinn]

I've found that most anemones will kill everything they get close enough to and touch.

 

[ScubaFish802]

My dinner plate sized Ritteri moved close to a Frogspawn. The Frogspawn was an almost dead 1 head piece that broke off from the main colony. It is now 6 heads and doing great. Both can touch and I have not seem any bad blood develop between the 2. Not that this the norm but.........

Hey @lapin, sorry to revive an old thread - how did the hammer/nem touching progress? Just curious if still all good?

 

[Philip Chin]

My leathers seem in fazed by the rbta

 

[vetteguy53081]

With the amount of coral I have, Mine co-exists with everything in tank and I have 5 big ones

Years ago, I had to clear 3 that were stinging everything

 

[padilla95624]

Give them space. The bta will sting everything. This one eventually split into 10 and completely covers a 30 gallon tank.

 

[Scotty8284]

My Black Widow Nem went for a hike through my clove polyps. At first they closed up a bit, but shortly afterwards they all opened back up. Then the nem went on another hike and returned to its original spot. The leather nearby is growing quickly and occasionally they touch, but none of them look worse for wear.

 

[Dburr1014]

I put my nem on its own mag rock. I stuck it to the back wall. Does not sting anything and stays put.