KCaquatics
Premium Member
@megwood wrote:
Thank you for the further details. My current clutch is hatching as we speak and have already begun to use some of your techniques to improve my hatch survival rate. I am pretty sure too said:GOOD LUCK! And yes I do believe I will ship them (with some type of guarantee of course). I did ship several from the last hatch to a man in Florida and they all made it with no problems so I think I will ship again.
@megwood wrote:I just realized you have 3 rbta and 2 carpet anemones said:Huge controversy here, so just know all tanks are different and what I believe and have done are only my opinions on the subject not fact by any means. It is my opinion that a healthy tank that is large enough and well established can support several anemones with no problem. Anemones are terrible shippers and rarely survive the long journey from the ocean. In my opinion a healthy anemone is actually one of the most hardy things you can put in a tank (Around 1 year ago the RBTAs and blue carpet survived a power outage while we were out of town(not sure exactly how long the power was out). Most of the fish died, and needless to say the water in the tank wasn't ideal. Not to mention the lack of oxygen and light while the power was out.) I think they get a bad reputation because of shipping poorly. You can read of many that do fine when bought from another person that has had it in their tank for many years. In my opinion anemones that are stressed/dying can stess/kill healthy anemones. So when people add anemones to a tank with anemones already in it I believe the stressed anemone can harm the already established anemones. In my opinion if you add anemones already established or that have been quarantined (for months not weeks) they are not stressed the same way that ones making the journey from the ocean to your lfs over the course of a week or so. The RBTA I have was "tank bred" so to speak as it came from a clone of one already tank established. The pink carpet was bought from a man who had bought it from a wholesaler and kept it in his tank for 4 months before I got it. The blue carpet was the only one that hadn't been quarantined and I believe I just got plain lucky on keeping it alive and it not killing the RBTAs. It had many problems when I got it before nursing it back to health and I believe the only reason it didn't kill the RBTAs is they have been in a tank forever and are so tough. If adding stressed anemone like that I believe it is just dumb luck if it survives which is probably why you see so many die and so many people post saying they can't keep anemones. As far as keeping the carpets from eating your fish that's not possible. Most fish know to stay away but hawkfish and other "perching" type fish are definately a no no with carpets. I have never had any fish eaten by my carpets but that doesn't mean they won't. They are extremely sticky and try to catch me on ocassion when I accidentaly bump into them so I'm sure if given the chance by one of the fish they would definately eat them lol. It is a risk I am willing to take as the carpets are with out a doubt my favorite thing of all the saltwater creatures. Sorry lots of rambling on here but to some it up, in my experience if you add healthy anemones to a tank with healthy anemones you won't have a problem. If you add stressed or unhealthy anemones is when you have problems mixing them. The biggest problem is finding anemones that aren't freshly shipped or dying.