Why are ritteri anemones considered a difficult task to keep?

NoahMMTV · Oct 25, 2018

I heard they require high flow and lighting, with a mature tank and great water quality, but that's something anyone can achieve. On liveaquaria, it says it is an "expert only" invertebrate, but is that really the case? I guess the fact that it moves often and has a powerful sting can really affect your tank, but they are my favorite anemone and some day, when I get a big tank I would like to get one.

James M · Oct 25, 2018

There hard to keep alive because of there requirement for light,They need a ton of light . I believe they need about 150 watts of light

cristata.reef · Oct 27, 2018

NoahMMTV said:
I heard they require high flow and lighting, with a mature tank and great water quality, but that's something anyone can achieve. On liveaquaria, it says it is an "expert only" invertebrate, but is that really the case? I guess the fact that it moves often and has a powerful sting can really affect your tank, but they are my favorite anemone and some day, when I get a big tank I would like to get one.

As said above they need a crazy amount of light, but not too much since they bleach very quickly. They must be fed quite often as well. They require high flow since in the wild they are found on unsheltered open reefs.

None of these are captive-bred meaning that they are all wild-caught. They do not ship well and have a high mortality rate enroute to the LFS, buyer, etc.

Socalreefgal · Feb 11, 2019

Older thread but I wanted to say I have a huge Ritteri, and she LOVES flow more than light. She gets as close to my WAV as possible taking almost all the current it puts out. Fortunately I found a 3D printed Wav cover to keep her safe. She doesn't have a relationship with a clownfish but she has a Skunk cleaner shrimp that lives with her and follows her wherever she decides to go (never moving too far from her powerhead). As far as stinging goes, I've handled her and have not felt a thing. When she was traveling looking for flow, she moved over quite a few hammers, chalice and acans and I found very little damage.