Mark that is an awesome photo, I may archive this thread just for the photo, besides the fact that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Needless to say the anemone question has really made the rounds here lately. I personally feel that anemones shouldn't be kept, however people do and they are collected and sold so this is my opinion only, not the official position of this board
A: removing wild anemones dooms them to a much shorter lifespan than they would have in the wilds.
B: removing wild anemones often results in damaged animals further traumatized by poor handling in shipping and recieving.
C: the collection of wild anemones impacts many generations of hosting Pomacentrids(clowns and damsels) not to mention a whole slew of anemone shrimp and other critters that live within an anemones sphere of influence.
D: while anemones can be fascinating esp when watching the interactions between clowns and hosts they arent neccessary for a clowns survival in captivity. Several of the more common and popular species of clowns are being commercial
captive bred and more are coming all the time. On the otherhand anemones remain one of the mystery animals, there are a few basic needs that arent being met in order to insure theyre long term survival in captivity. A few varieties have reproduced by fission but this is a relativly uncommon process and not enough to feed the demand.
Ron Shimek is working with sexual reproduction in these animals but so far hasnt found the golden key. If you want more info in that area search his posts on Reef Central or Reefs.org
E: There are lots of anecdotal examples of clowns hosting with other easier to keep animals, the pic in this post is a great one
------------------
Reef as if your life depended on it, yours might but the sea's does
Doug moderator TheReefTank