Need Coral Recommendation

zmazza

nano r33f 4 u
Feb 21, 2006
114
0
0
My wife wants an anemone for her birthday. I've got a 29 gallon with a 192 watt fixture, about 70 lbs of live rock, 2 small clowns, a yellow tail damsel, and a yellow watchman goby. I've also got about 30 zoanthid polyps. I hate to get rid of the corals to get an anemone. I'm hoping to find an easy to care for coral that LOOKS like an anemone.

I was thinking of a torch, or plate coral. I'm not really sure though. Like I said, something very easy to take care of. That's one reason I like my zoanthid corals. My 29 gallon is to the point that it takes care of itself. My water stays pristine.

Any ideas?
 
The problem with the plate is that your clowns might decide to host in it and frankly they will beat it to death. You could try something like a hammer coral they don't look exaclty like an anemone but, the clowns might host in it . "tape a picture of a clown hosting in an anem to to side of your tank it helps them get the idea sometimes." You pretty much have to design a tank around an anem. If you do decide that you have to get one I'd go for a bta as they are the easiest clown host to care for.
hth
Max
 
Thanks for the tip. My wife likes some of the corals, but she's just amazed by anemones. I told her I would move the corals to a 10 gallon tank and start a nano-reef, but she likes the aquarium the way it is. I have to admit, it's the easiest tank I've ever cared for. She wants to keep it the same, so, the corals have to stay. I don't think I could pull of an anemone AND a coral in the same tank. A local aquarium shop has a condy anemone for 8 dollars that I was going to buy, but I hear they eat red legged hermit crabs, and I've got several. Dwarf reds and zebras. Not too concerned about the clownfish hosting. That is a really creative idea about taping a picture on the side of the tank. I like frogspawn myself, but my wife just doesn't like the name. Perhaps we'll call it something else, haha! ;)

Torch corals kind of look like anemones, but probably hard to take care of.

I've also got about 6 feather dusters that rode in on a piece of coral that I bought. Paid 30 dollars for a good cluster of green star polyps and later found 6 - 7 feather dusters and a mushroom on it!

I hate to lose those or have an anemone kill them. So it's back to looking for a coral that's similar to an anemone.

I've also got two 6700k daylight bulbs that I REALLY need to swap out... Probably go with a 10000k and a actintic, but not really sure. I really like the color of the corals under those lights.
 
They will grow a lot better under those lights to. The condy will eat crabs, fish , sting your other critters etc. I'd really say that if you want an anemone tank you'd need to set it up with them in mind and not have any other sesile critters that you cared anything about. Torch corals aren't all that hard you'll just have to keep an eye on your calc levels and make sure that it can't reach any of your other inhabitants with it's sweeper tenticles.
hth
Max
 
I think I may go with the torch, or maybe even the frog spawn. I really like those corals. For some reason, though, I thought the frog spawn looked like a hammer coral, but it looks like it has long tentacles, too. Perhaps I mis id'd them.

I called my local pet store to see if they had any in stock... They told me that they had the torch as well as the frog spawn. They also told me that I should purchase a Calcium supplement as well as Iodine & Trace supplements. He told me that if I put two capfuls of the I & T per week and then one capful of the calcium that I should be OK. Should I still buy a test? Just trying to save some money. I think I've got some calcium though, come to think of it. I use Reef Calcium to get rid of aiptasia anemones.
 
Hammer corals have a unique look too. They are also in the Euphyllia family. My clown will play in mine. Avoid anemones - they don't do well in captivity and can wreak havoc in a tank.
 
AquariaCentral.com