I have received a surprise present for my tank. Apparently, the cerianthus anemone was sold by the LFS as tame, easy to take care of, filter feeding coral.
Ahem. Now I've done some research and I am wondering whether to keep it or not. I moved my tank about 2 months ago - it was running for over a year with just LR and a cleanup crew. So far it containst a good-sized cleanup crew, two peppermint shrimp, arrow crab, and two emerald crabs. I have some zoos, fuzzy green mushroom, pulsing xenia, devil's hand, montipora digitata, galaxia, and hydnophora. Currently, I have no fish in the tank. I have 4x54W T5 lighting and everything in the tank is happy.
From the research I've done so far, my concerns about the anemone are that it is possibly agressive and it likes to bury in sand (I've only got about 3/4-inch bed). I've placed it in a rock crevice and it has opened up and seems to be happy. It even ate a small piece of raw shrimp last night.
I think the biggest concern is the lack of experience on my part. I could take it back to the store, or I could try keeping it. In a couple of months I plan on setting up a show fuge with DSB, so that may be a possible location where it'd be out of harm's way and bury the tube in the sand. Some of the sources I checked described it as non-photosynthetic, so the relative lack of strong lighting in the fuge shouldn't be a problem.
Should I just take a chill pill and enjoy the green and purple coloration, or is this something I need to take back before it wrecks my tank?
Peter...
Ahem. Now I've done some research and I am wondering whether to keep it or not. I moved my tank about 2 months ago - it was running for over a year with just LR and a cleanup crew. So far it containst a good-sized cleanup crew, two peppermint shrimp, arrow crab, and two emerald crabs. I have some zoos, fuzzy green mushroom, pulsing xenia, devil's hand, montipora digitata, galaxia, and hydnophora. Currently, I have no fish in the tank. I have 4x54W T5 lighting and everything in the tank is happy.
From the research I've done so far, my concerns about the anemone are that it is possibly agressive and it likes to bury in sand (I've only got about 3/4-inch bed). I've placed it in a rock crevice and it has opened up and seems to be happy. It even ate a small piece of raw shrimp last night.
I think the biggest concern is the lack of experience on my part. I could take it back to the store, or I could try keeping it. In a couple of months I plan on setting up a show fuge with DSB, so that may be a possible location where it'd be out of harm's way and bury the tube in the sand. Some of the sources I checked described it as non-photosynthetic, so the relative lack of strong lighting in the fuge shouldn't be a problem.
Should I just take a chill pill and enjoy the green and purple coloration, or is this something I need to take back before it wrecks my tank?
Peter...