carpet anemone

[taboo]

Hey Everyone!

I was wondering if anyone can tell me a little about the carpet anemone? I am considering getting one, but dunno much about them. I know they can get big. Will the do ok under some power compacts? Any information will be of great assistance. thanks

Jerry

imo pcs are not good for anything but mushrooms and zoanthids, for any anemone to thrive you need vho's or mh......anemone need light, lots of it

[Geoff]

i had a medium sized carpet for a couple of years once. it was about 12" in diameter when fully expanded. i did have it under 175w MH with actinics. it did very well. i lost it when it got frightened somehow and sucked itself into its foot and caused a landslide in the tank. it crushed the anemone. at least the tank did not break. do not underestimate the power of an anemone's foot. this one moved an 10lb piece of carribean LR 4 inches!!!

they require a lot of light. it also took the anemone a good 6 months or so to find a place to ITS liking, not mine!

G~

[Reefer Addict]

Carpets are also fish eaters, so that's something else to keep in mind.

[Stevhan]

I had a carpet in my 65 at one point with halides. He did great. When I moved into my apartment I went to pc's to save power and because my apartment got way too hot with the halide. He did great under the pc's as well. I had 2-96w, 4-36w and one 18" moonglow flourescent. Once he got situated (which took about 3 months) I had no problems of him being aggressive towards my fish or moving around too much. He grew to about 18 inches within a year so I have since given him to a friend.

Oh and as Geoff had said they are very stronge, mine nearly took out a 15 lb rock that was holding up my structure as I was trying to remove him. He left me a nice sting on the back of my hand and on the softer part of my forearm.

[ShirleyM]

My son had a carpet anemone that did extremely well under NO lighting..yes...NO. It was 4" from the light in a 30G reef. It ate three of his fish over the course of 3-1/2 yrs. It grew so large that we ended up trading it at Inland Aquatics...

He fed it shrimp, squid, and whatever it caught that he fed his corals and fish. He kept one neon dottyback in that tank for quite some time...the only fish in the tank...it stayed away from the carpet anemone.

the last year the tank was up he upgraded to PC lighting...no difference with the anemone. He would not have one again for various reasons....they eat fish, sometimes they move around, although this one didn't move much, and anemones in general don't do well in captivity.

There are pics of this anemone at our reef site, linked below,....go to the 30-gal reef pics.

~ Shirley