questions on anemones

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liquafaction

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I was at the pet store the other day, and almost bought a "condy" anemone. My wife talked me out of it because she read someplace that they only live about a year. I went home and read that they are very hardy, and can last a long time. I said she probably read something else lives for about a year. I went ahead and read up more on them and anemones in general. They said that condys need a sandy substrate to attach themselves. They also said that when you feed them (anemones in general) (at the most 1 time a week) that you need to feed them by hand without gloves. They went on to say that an anemone needs soft tissue contact to start there "triger reaction" which draws there tentacles to there oral disc. They said do not use gloves because they will not have this soft tissue contact, anything inanimate will not cause there trigger responce. Finially they said that there tentacles where inable to penitrate human flesh, and the only thing a human feels is a glue like substance from an anemones sting.

When I had Aptasia in my tank, I fed it with a sirenge and a small piece of small tubeing attached. I would thaw out a cube of frozen carnivore food, or brine shrimp, draw some of it up in the sirenge, and squirt it near the aptasia, and that guy would get down. Also when I got the tubing too close, his tentacles would stick to it, and try to daw it towards his oral disc.

Anyway, does anyone acutally feed there anemones with their bare hands? I may not have the guts to do something like that.
 

OrionGirl

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Aug 14, 2001
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Oh my...

Anenome's do not need to be hand fed. I assure you, they are quite capable of detecting food without getting to sting flesh. Prepared frozen foods and silversides will all provide adequate meaty sustenance. While this method may be okay for most people, some people will have an extreme reaction to the toxin that is injected--deadly, in some cases. Definitely not recommended practice.

Keep in mind that condy's are very hardy, but they are also little better than aiptasia, other than they won't spread as much. Clowns seldom accept a condy as a host, and condy's are aggressive, and will kill other corals and any fish they can catch. We had one for 2-3 years, and it killed several critters before it was killed by a curly-que (Our dumb mistake--they shouldn't have been mixed.)
 

liquafaction

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At the moment I do not have clowns. A lot of people are saying that tank raised clowns will not host with an anemone, so that was really not a concern. I do admit that when and if I get clowns, that I would love for them to host though. There was another anemone that I was looking at, but cannot remember the name of it. It was a white b....... , I cannot find it in any books to see its habits and requirements. This little guy was very small at the moment, about 3 inch diameter, and shorter tentacles than the condy. It was a white with almost transparent blue tips, and was quite a bit more expensive. I hate being a newbie, diving into something I may not be able to take care of. I was looking at spending less money to learn, instead of spending a pile of money, and maybe loosing my anemone. I do want one, but the right one for me.

I was thinking that hand feeding was being a little rediclulous. I read this in "The Complete Book of the Marine Aquarium" by Vincent Hargreaves.
 

Joey D

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anemoes

Well, orion girl is pretty much right on. I'll add a little myself, condy anemones in my experience are very hardy, and have very sticky tentacles. In a recent article i have read in aquarium fish magazine about anemones is that they SHOULD be fed at least 3 times a week, with a diet of silversides or krill working best as a food supplement. I used to feed mine by hand, and i still feed my carpet by hand, and i have no problems being stung. But be careful, this can hurt some people. Usually you can just touch the food to the tips of its tentacles and it should stick, then it will pull it in and curl around it. The only clown i have ever had that would go into a condy was a tomato clown, which usually prefer bubbletips, or anemone with long tentacles. They're good beginner anemones because they are cheap and hardy, but I don't recommend them for tanks with corals and other expensive anemones.
 
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