HetMagCompFAQs

FAQs on Magnificent/Ritteri Anemone Compatibility

New Print and eBook on Amazon:

Anemone Success
Doing what it takes to keep Anemones healthy long-term

by Robert (Bob) Fenner

Anemone help from South Africa. Anem. incomp.    7/31/16
Hi all
I have a 250l Red Sea Max, that is matured.
I added a bta to my current setup which has 2 magnificent anemones
<Yikes... not good to mix large Actinarian spp.>
yesterday (clones). I do not have a qt at the moment.
This morning the bta and smaller magnificent were touching. I then separated the bta this morning and put him in a basket, still in the main tank
The 2 magnificents are sulking and have turned a very dark cokour compared to normal. I think this might be due to toxin from the bta. The bta was completely open.
<The winner>
I have removed the bta and put him in a bucket with a pump and airstone to separate from main tank.
<Good move>
I am running some extra carbon Brightwell carbonit x3 and want to do a 30% water change tomorrow morning when I can create enough water and prep it sufficiently.
Any other advice,?
<Yes, a treble dose of iodide-ate; a double dose tomorrow... and some (a tsp. or so) of simple hexose sugar if you can find it (just one level for the whole tank, dissolved in system water); glucose preferred>
Your response is appreciated
Regards
Yusuf
<And you; Bob Fenner>
re: Anemone help from South Africa   7/31/16
Thank you for the response,
<Welcome>
I'm not sure what iodide-ate is and I don't think get it in over here.
<Mmm; yes you can. Look for SeaChem's line>
For sugar can I use plain brown sugar or glucose syrup ?
<The latter>
Once again thank you
<Welcome. BobF>
Regards
Yusuf
re: Anemone help from South Africa   7/31/16
Hi Bob.
<Yusuf>
Thank you for all the help and prompt response. Will pick up the iodide today and the glucose syrup.
<Good>
Will do a 30% or so water change.
<And this>
The magnificents are already looking better.
<Ahh!>
We give the iodine to allow for an immune booster? And the glucose for energy?
<Yes>
Regards
Yusuf
<Cheers, Bob Fenner>

Re: Anemone help from South Africa 8/1/16
I did the water change now just waiting for everything to settle.
<Very well>
Thanks once again for the advice.
<Welcome>
Il let you know if everything is ok.
<Please do>
Please see pics of the magnificents before and after
<Looking better. BobF>
Regards
Yusuf

Mixing anemone/s 11/20/13
Hi again Bob,
<Jim>
Hope you are keeping well!
<Ah yes; thank you>
I have just a brief question which I have not found a definitive to and you know I value your opinion from our previous per comm, my Ritteri is still going extremely well, some 16" or so at full expansion, however here is my question if I may, I friend has blown the seams on his tank with a oversized VorTech on full power and so I took in his blue carpet and clown pair for the foreseeable, this was placed at the other end of my 6' but as per my fears decided it didn't like the spot chosen and has moved onto the rock adjacent to the Ritteri at the other end of the tank. But to my surprise no ill effects, being that both have a potent sting I'm surprised at the lack of hostility between the two nems! Is it possible that these two species will cohabit or will there be unseen chem warfare going on?
<You may find that these and other large Indo-Pacific Anemones are found in close proximity at times... I have witnessed such many times dive-traveling... and there are occasions when they've been mixed w/ no apparent negative effects in captivity>
Should I fire up another tank or as there seem to be no noticeable problems run with it and see?
<I'd likely do the latter... being both curious and lazy at times.>
Kind regards
Jim
<And you, Bob Fenner>

Heteractis Magnifica Anemone - Care and Medication Question 11/5/12
Hello! And thank you for your time.
<Welcome Brad>
First, some background. My tank is a 210g with a 40g sump. It has been running and healthy for just over 14 months. I myself have been in the hobby for almost 4 years. In that time I have taken a strong liking to anemones, and have had a great amount of success with them as a result of learning from sites like yours. In my current setup I have many corals, fish, and anemones that are all living peacefully due to careful placement and purchasing.
<Okay! Am sure you know of the dangers of mixing Actinarians, and doing so w/ other Cnidarian groups>
Five months ago I purchased a Magnifica anemone at a LFS. It did not immediately take to my system due to a low alkalinity, but was recovered and settled after about 2 weeks once I fixed that. About four months ago, I added a second Magnifica from the same LFS. This one never had any trouble, but for a few weeks fought with the old one for his spot and finally won. The first one moved to a different spot and settled a little higher, closer to the lights. Fast forward to 3 weeks ago. I sold the first Magnifica to a fellow reefer, and it is doing well. I did this to make room for a new Magnifica of a more preferred color, which I purchased from a reputable online seller. My question is in regard to this "third" magnifica.
<All right>
For the first 2 weeks it did well, and ate every other day with no issue.
About a week ago it suddenly spit out it's meal after dark on feeding day, and ever since then it has deflated and inflated repeatedly in a cycle of about every 8-12 hours.
<Mmm, doesn't like something here>
It does not appear to be timed to the light cycle at all. When it is inflated, the mouth does not completely close, and when it deflates, it has a badly gaped mouth.
<Also "bad signs">
I have heard some people suggest
that it may be trying to fight a bacterial infection. What are your thoughts on my situation?
<Far more likely something, someone else in this system it doesn't "like">
The first Magnifica is still well, as is the second one, which is in the same tank, under the same light and flow as the new one. I have also done 3 water changes this week, as well as change out
the carbon. All of my parameters are good (SG is 1.025, no PO4 or NO3,
<Mmm, photosynthates need some (measurable) phosphate and nitrate... sigh>
Alk is 11, pH is 8.0). I am considering transferring the sick anemone to a QT and treating it,
<Just moving it will likely help>
but I would like to know what you can share regarding treating these anemones. I have heard suggestions of using Tetracycline,
Doxycycline, and Cyprofloxacin, with Cipro supposedly showing the best results, but no studies have been done that I know of. Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks again!
Brad
<I don't suggest exposing this anemone to an anti-microbial. Not of much probable value, and considerable potential downside. Bob Fenner>

Suicidal powder blue! High NO3, stung by a H. magnifica... in too small a sys. 9/1/12
Hi crew, firstly what a fantastic site! I have learned soooo much!!
Although I have now hit a problem with a tang that has behavioural issues!
Tank specs are as follows:
100 (uk) gal reef
Sg 1.0255
Temp 26.2
3 x Wavemaker
1800 Gph return
3x150w m/h 14000k
Aggressive wetskim vodka dosing @ 3ml/day due to high nitrate prob
Socked carbon in sump
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 40 ppm
<High by twice as much as I'd allow>
Nitrite 0
Tank mates are:
Sailfin tang
<Will need more room in time>
Flame angel
Pink spotted goby
Engineer goby/convict goby
Emperor cardinal
2 clowns hosting a "rescued" ritteri
<Mmm, very stinging>
Mix sps/lps
After water change (5-6hours) the powder blue tang started swimming at the surface, breaking water, swimming awfully close to the nem, he seemed very friendly swimming around my hand to the point I moved him away from nem with my hand but he headed straight back in to flow of Wavemaker pushing him back towards nem, he got stung and grabbed by nem, I pulled him out and into my sump until I set up my hospital tank again, please help he is now breathing rapidly in the sump not moving much but buoyant at the top of the water
Many thanks in advance
Jim
I did a 30 gal change 2 days ago and another today to try bring down the nitrates
<Ah good. I suspect this A. leucosternon did actually encounter the Anemone strongly enough to suffer real damage... and/or that or there's a shortage of dissolved oxygen here (this species needs room, good DO), and/or there's something "internal" going on w/ this specimen... Other than moving it to other quarters, there's not much to be done. Bob Fenner>
Re: Suicidal powder blue! 9/1/12
Hi bob, thank you for your swift reply, as you suspected this fish has already succumbed to the sting unfortunately,
<Ahh>
I still fighting the nitrate battle and doing another 30 gal change in 2 days and another every 2 days, until the nitrates are down,
<There are other means... see WWM re>
I'm not seeing any improvement using vodka dosing, do you see this as a beneficial way of reducing the nitrates
<Not long term, no... better to utilize DSB, RDP sump and macro-algal culture... and, and...>
or do you think this may have caused a reduction in DO in conjunction with the 30 gal change today?
<Unlikely; no. BobF>
Thanks again
Jim

important faq about anemone toxins. 7/16/09
hi,
<... where are your capital letters?>
i want to tell you about an important faq.
120 gallons
Deltec MCE 600
4 pumps 1200
1 gold rim
tomato clown
1 purple tang
mushs corals and anemone magnifica 10 inches
120 lbs live rocks.
i read that post above and the person who is looking for answer is true.
the writer ( answerer is wrong!)
2 days ago , i went to the pet shop for water test. everything was fine.
late night i did a water change and at the same time the anemone magnifica didn't like it and began to move.
next morning ( today) , i went home for lunch. i looked at the anemone , its stuck in the power head.
<...>
my gold rim when to see me when he saw me , (at the corner where i was watching the anemone in the pump). the gold rim began to violently step to the top canopy and 2 minutes later, something was really wrong. he begin to swim on the side of the belly. i toughout he was dying in 2 minutes. i looked at the bottom of the tank and my purple tang was lying hardly to breathe. i look at my clown fish , he was just fine. the day before , i had made some salt water ( d/o water ). i but the purple and the gold rim in it and i went to my pet store were Henry (the pet shop owner)handle the 2 fishes for a while.
return a my job. at 4:30 pm, i call the pet shop dealer ( Henry ) , he said to me... your gold rim is out of trouble , he's fine. about he purple tang, he's not dead but he is on the bottom of tank and hardly breathing, call me later tomorrow.
how can my parameters was fine the day before and suddenly every fishes started to dead?. the anemone was remove and its not dead.
the theory is : the anemone when its had a part of her body in the pump, its feel threat and its began to release toxins in the water.
<Possibly... or just general ammonia et al. release...>
how come, my 2 x 6 inches tangs are nearly death and the clown is fine. the clown is immunate to the poison toxin of the anemone.
<They are more immune... live with them...>
also, my Deltec 600 when mad, a big , huge amount of skim like a had never see that. i don't know if its because of its toxin or the toxin when the system biotic to zero ( more info needed on toxin in the water ). my gold rim was fine and then he approach the anemone corner , he went mad and its gills was red.
so in my opinion, yes! an anemone can realise toxin that will kill your entire fishes in the aquarium , if its feel treat.
<Agreed>
so, the guy in the new letter was right. the answerer was wrong. the anemone wasn't dying , no parts of the anemone was retrieve and anemone is fine ( with 4 tentacles less ). sorry for my bad English , my primary
language is French.
<Ahh, I see>
i thing that we know less that we thing about anemone toxins and what can it do to the water chemistry.
benoit
<Thank you for writing in (merci) and sharing. Bob Fenner>
"Anemone Disaster 7/6/05
Hi Guys! <<Hello Carrie>>
Love the site as always... Its been very helpful. <<Thank you>>
My tank is a 38 gal FOWLR and Live sand.
Inhabitants were:
2 BTA's
(originally had one, but it split smaller one was about 1 inch)
1 tomato
clown, 10 yrs old
1 yellow tail damsel, same
1 very small lionfish
(purchased a few months ago)
1 banded shrimp
1 skunk cleaner shrimp
6 hermits (blue leg and scarlet)
3 snails (unknown)
Yesterday, I came home to discover the smaller anemone had died so I scooped it up and removed it from the tank. Did a water test: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, ph 8.4, salinity .25 Did a 50% water change although the water seemed to be fairly clear. Changed half of my carbon cartridges in my power filters.
Within hours my fish started breathing hard, so I did another 25% water change (I had run out of salt mix and not a pet store was open).
Woke up this morning to everything dead BUT the large anemone (looks horrible though, but is still sticking to things) and the hermits/snails.
Funny, the water still tests normal, 0 on everything.
They water is terribly cloudy.
I removed the hermits & snails and put them in my quarantine tank. They seem to be doing fine. Fighting as usually and tearing up the place ;0)
I put the anemone in a bucket with a power filter... I'm sure its on the decline and didn't want to add it to my QT tank since it had copper safe in it at one time.
My question is how do I go about starting over? I have read a few conflicting opinions on the site and really couldn't find a whole lot of specifics about what to do. If anything what should I toss? Will a 100% water change alone be enough? Is it possible that the large anemone released the toxins into my tank to kill
everything or could the little one alone be responsible? <<Not a good idea to keep an anemone in a small tank for just that reason...if the anemone dies it very quickly pollutes the tank. My suggestion is to get some
Chemi-Pure in place of the carbon, and let the tank go fallow for about 30 days. I like to base stocking levels at one cubic inch of fish per five gallons of water. Something to keep in mind on the future set up. Full grown sizes must also be taken into consideration when selecting fish. James (Salty Dog)>>
Thanks for any input...
Carrie

Lost fish (full anemone) Hi I have a new reef setup I bought second hand from a friend. 120 gallon tank, plenty of LR, a Tunze System sump with skimmer. The tank cycled well according to plan, a diatom explosion occurred, but quickly resolved with a yellow eyed tank, snails and hermit crabs. Then two weeks ago a ritteri Anenome and 2 perc clowns, orchid Dottyback and a yellow tailed damsel were added. Anyway, all seem to have been very happy, although the clowns have gone nowhere near the Anenome, but over the last 5 days both the Dottyback and damsel have disappeared! No powerheads have intakes that they could have been sucked into, and there is no sign of them jumping out of the tank. They all seemed well with no sign that there was any problem. I can only assume that the Anenome has eaten them - is this possible? <Yes. Though these fishes could have been lost in other ways (jumped out, died and quickly dissolved...)> If so, is there any safer fish that I could replace them with? <Not really particular types but it may help to place new livestock either early in the morning, or to leave the lights on the tank or one near the tank on overnight the first night or two. Know that ritteri (Heteractis magnifica) will eat most any fish, invertebrate that happens into its tentacles, and that they can/do expand quite a bit at times... Bob Fenner> any advice would be very welcome, Thanks Ron Patmore,

Re: Yellow Eye Kole... cnidarian compatibility, Ritteri... 11/16/05 Bob, <Carrie> Hi thanks for the reply. I did a 10 gallon water change on my 60 gallon, added Polyfilter, and added carbon. Here is what I really would love from you. My ex-boss seems to think that my zoanthids are not the problem in my tank, but another LFS who knows about corals said they can be dangerous as far as chemical warfare on other corals. <Yes> I have placed an order with Live Aquaria on Saturday and I will be getting 2 aquacultured Montiporas tomorrow at 3 p.m. (Tuesday) I want the best conditions for them and I would like you to maybe wade through my corals (most are frags of a couple of heads or inches) I will pull the chemical warfare causing monsters! I have: *3 types of trumpet/candy cane corals (one green, one "purple/green, and the brown with green center each having only 3 to 4 heads) *Yellow Polyps (maybe a dozen on a branch) *Several different type of the stemmed zoanthid (4 frags have like 6 to 10 polyps each) *Several different type of the flat mat zoanthids (Maybe like 20 to 30 on 3 different rocks) *Pagoda Cup Coral (I love and doing great) *Red Donut.... charity case, but with your help I am sure it will improve *Colt Coral (6 to 7") *1 Purple fuzzy mushroom......they said it was hairy.....not! *2 Green hairy mushrooms (I plan to frag at each split and keep the population to 3) *2 Green mushrooms given to me for a trade *1 1/2" frag of a light blue Acropora (bleached out from stress I assume) *1 1" Kenya tree.....seems to not be doing good *1 Rock of green star polyps that wont come out. *1 Small speck of a purple mushroom and 1 quarter size purple mushroom *1 HUGE and stationary Heteractis Magnifica....LOVE this thing!!! I have 2 different species of clowns living in it and I plan it to be my center piece in my 150 gallon so you can't talk me out of it! Sorry, to be stubborn, but unless he spews out poison to kill everything, I really want to keep him. <Am hopeful all this mis-mix can/will "growing up together" learn to get along, tolerate each other... There is a distinct possibility that the Heteractis magnifica will detach at some point... real trouble not if, when it contacts other cnidarians... hopefully someone will catch this quickly... Remember this pre-admonition> NOW, I never really wanted to go down the mushroom route, but I DO suspect them! I will remove whatever I need to keep the Montipora digitata. The little frag that got lost that I had did great, but that was BEFORE the 2 green quarter size mushrooms. Tell me what you would suggest. <More tanks... separating a good deal of this life into general "soft", "hard/stony", and anemone tanks...> I am going into a 150 gallon next week and I have someone that had pom pom xenia for me, but I would choose the xenia over other items if they would harm the xenia. I looked over wet web and thought that a chart of compatible corals would be GREAT instead of wading through all the emails.... What do you think? Or do you know of a web site? <A great idea... but don't know how we might make a multi-dimensional representation... that is, how to display the many "this goes with this semi-okay", "but now with these"... not a simple Cartesian plane> My favorites I really would like to keep are one hairy green mush, one purple fuzzy mush, my Het... mag., colt coral, Montiporas, candy canes and trumpets, and Kenya and hopefully the Acropora. I don't need any of the other mushrooms and would lower my Zoa collection to my 3 "mats on rocks", seems they are not as dangerous as the stemmed zoa's...am I right? Take Care Bob! Carrie <Not as dangerous, toxic, but still so... Perhaps your employer would like/prefer for you to gather, assemble disparate opinions re these organism mixes from the various BB's? Bob Fenner>

Heteractis magnifica And Maroon Clown? - 12/15/05 Hi, <<Hello>> Can you put Premnas biaculeatus family with Heteractis magnifica? Jeff Keith <<Mmm...is one of the 'better' choices I believe. EricR>>

Please visit our Sponsors