SEA ANEMONES
One of the most popular genus in the sea anemone group is the Heteractis, notably because of their close association with the clownfish. Just like the other cnidaria (eg. stony corals), they maintain and develop symbiotic relationship with the zooxanthellae algae in which the support each others needs in terms of nutrition, gases exchanges and protection. The sea anemones also have nematocysts which give them the ability to paralyze and capture small-sized prey like fish, squids, shrimps and prawns including some other soft-shelled invertebrates. As they prove to be irresistibly attractive due to brightly colored feature, don’t be fooled into thinking that having them is a “must” to support your clownfishes as most of the time; it will turn out that the fish can in fact do well even without the presence of anemone. Attempts on trying to keep them alive in home aquaria often result in failure but this can be mitigated if you know well with what you are doing in the first place.
Sea anemones recently purchased and put into saltwater fish tank often need to undergo the “dreaded” acclimatization process. During this fragile period, their health is always seen deteriorating as the whole body will often turn to white color, in stark contrast to the condition when you just bought them. Don’t be surprised if this happens because from the time the anemone is taken from its natural reef habitat until it reaches its current location, some of the zooxanthellae population have been wiped off and it needs to regenerate back the numbers. The first thing that you will need to do is to ensure that the color spectrum from your lighting is adequate for the regeneration process to take place or else, if the condition persists whereby you are loosing your zooxanthellae, it will adversely affect your anemones up to the stage that it is life-threatening. If you see your anemone shrinking and the tentacle not moving, then it is due to the lack of nutrient and oxygen caused by the declining algae population.
Despite being popular, Heteractis is not exactly easy to acclimatize. In fact, one of the easiest to maintain in reef tank is actually the Condylactis genus (insert picture) which is usually pinkish in color at the tip of the tentacles.
Sea anemones recently purchased and put into saltwater fish tank often need to undergo the “dreaded” acclimatization process. During this fragile period, their health is always seen deteriorating as the whole body will often turn to white color, in stark contrast to the condition when you just bought them. Don’t be surprised if this happens because from the time the anemone is taken from its natural reef habitat until it reaches its current location, some of the zooxanthellae population have been wiped off and it needs to regenerate back the numbers. The first thing that you will need to do is to ensure that the color spectrum from your lighting is adequate for the regeneration process to take place or else, if the condition persists whereby you are loosing your zooxanthellae, it will adversely affect your anemones up to the stage that it is life-threatening. If you see your anemone shrinking and the tentacle not moving, then it is due to the lack of nutrient and oxygen caused by the declining algae population.
Despite being popular, Heteractis is not exactly easy to acclimatize. In fact, one of the easiest to maintain in reef tank is actually the Condylactis genus (insert picture) which is usually pinkish in color at the tip of the tentacles.