Systematics
Division: Tissue animals (Eumetazoa)
Subdivision: Hollow animals (Coelenterata)
Phylum: Cnidarians (Cnidaria)
Class: Flower animals (Anthozoa)
Subclass: Zoantharia
Order: Sea anemones
Scientific Name: Actiniaria
GENERAL INFORMATION about caring for ANEMONES:
To care for anemones, you should already have a well established aquarium. Anemones do not belong in very fresh aquariums, because they are partly sensitive care creatures. From our point of view the purchase of an anemone is crucial, because already there you can do a lot wrong.
Pay attention to the following details:
A healthy anemone should be inflated, attached and not floating around loose in the tank, the mouth disk should be closed and the foot should not be injured.
Be careful not to purchase colored animals. These are rather rare, but this also happens from time to time.
The following fish live temporarily or permanently alongside anemonefish in sea anemones:
Banggai cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni Koumans, 1933)
some cardinalfishes like Apogon quadrisquamatus Longley, 1934 and Apogon aurolineatus (Mowbray, 1927) in Bartholomea annulata and Condylactis gigantea, Ostorhinchus moluccensis (Valenciennes, 1832)
some wrasses like Halichoeres hortulanus (Lacepède, 1801), Thalassoma bifasciatum (Bloch, 1791) and Halichoeres garnoti (Valenciennes, 1839)
Chaetodon kleinii Bloch, 1790 in Heteractis magnifica and Stichodactyla mertensii
Damselfishes such as Dascyllus trimaculatus (Rüppell, 1829) in Hetractis magnifica, Hetractis crispa, Hetractis aurora, Stichodactyla mertensii, Stichodactyla haddon), Macrodactyla doreensis, Cryptodendrum adhaesivum
Dascyllus albisella Gill, 1862, Dascyllus strasburgi Klausewitz, 1960 in Bartholomea annulata and Condylactis gigantea.
gobies like Priolepis hipoliti (Metzelaar, 1922) and Lythrypnus nesiotes Böhlke & Robins, 1960, Starksia hassi Klausewitz, 1958, Malacoctenus boehlkei Springer, 1959
the knifefish Xyrichtys novacula (Linnaeus, 1758)
coral guards like Cirrhitichthys aprinus (Cuvier, 1829)
angelfishes like Chaetodontoplus meredithi Kuiter, 1990
In addition, there are a number of crustaceans that also live in or with anemones:
Neopetrolisthes ohshimai
Neopetrolisthes maculata
various Mitrax crabs and spider crabs
different Periclemenes shrimp like Periclimenes magnificus
Lysmata ankeri, Lysmata grabhami, Lysmata seticaudata
Stenopus spinosus Risso, 1827
Anemones live on light, so you have to offer them enough light.
We do not recommend feeding supplemental food when maintaining large host anemones. The anemones get enough food from the light, and the products (food remains) from the anemone fish.
The situation is different with smaller anemones. They can tolerate some frozen food (mussel meat, krill, mysis etc.).
You should also make sure that the size of the anemone fits the size of the anemone fish.
It is not uncommon to buy an animal that is much too small, which the fish then cuddle to death.
By Torsten Spier from the lecture "Host Anemones" in Sindelfingen 2004: Anemones are indeed still comparatively unexplored, which is why we are still faced with many a riddle.
As an example I would like to mention the possible age of anemones, which is given in the literature with up to 200 years (?).
However, this age limit has not yet been scientifically proven and is more of an assumption.
Of the approximately 1,000 anemone species in the world's oceans, only 10 are really recognized host anemones.
The 30 different anemonefish species live in them.
In addition to these obligate symbionts, there are an estimated 50 facultative symbionts (i.e. fish that are more or less only in the vicinity of an anemone, but usually avoid real contact with the tentacles).
Recognized host anemones:
Heteractis crispa - leather anemone
Heteractis magnifica - splendor anemone
Heteractis aurora - glass bead anemone
Heteractis malu - Hawaiian anemone
Stichodactyla haddoni - carpet anemone
Stichodactyla gigantea - giant anemone
Stichodactyla mertensii - Mertens anemone
Cryptodendrum adhaesivum - knobbed edge anemone
Macrodactyla doreensis - corkscrew anemone
Entacmaea quadricolor - bubble anemone
Below you will find a link to the presentation by Torsten Spier: http://www.korallenriff.de/Sindelfingen2004/Wirtsanemonen_04.html
