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Your experiences with BTAs?

Narwhalwall

Narwhalwall

Hey, so my tank has been running since February of last year (almost it’s first birthday!). And I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not to get a bubble tip anemone. I want to give my clowns something to host besides the back wall of the tank...

I guess my biggest worry is that they will over run the tank since they’re somewhat fast growers and you can’t exactly pry them off a rock. Here’s a picture of part of my tank for reference, I have a lot of empty space that I’ve been slowly filling with coral.

What have been your experiences with these nems? A lot of coral casualties or good behavior?8C8FEECE-133E-454A-B39B-21047CA36196.jpeg
 
Narwhalwall

Narwhalwall

Wilson said:
Depends on how much you like em. I love everything about anemones, I would gladly let them overrun my tank and take over every crevice.

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Wow, I really love their color. Probably wouldn’t want it to go that far in my current tank though, I would miss my corals. How long did that take for everything to grow? Did you get rid of some splits along the way or keep them all?
 
ctg0209

ctg0209

NJRC Member
I bought one and it just kept splitting. I ended up taking the rocks they were on out and putting them in another tank. My clowns never touched them and one wound up sitting right on a monti. I would never put one in my main tank again but will keep just the anemone tank.
 
Foxchase

Foxchase

I love nems. I currently have a brand that looks amazing. (clowns completely ignore it but idc. Still cool). I wanna get a rainbow bubble tip but not down to pay $200
 
B

brokereefer

It seems like certain types of anemones split and take over much quicker than others. Not all bubble tips are equal either. My rainbow BTAs divided like crazy, eventually overrunning my tank. On the other hand, the high end BTAs like Colorados, Chicagos, Black Widows, etc. don't seem to do that. And it doesn't seem like they do that in anyone's tanks, otherwise they wouldn't command the high prices.

What type of clowns do you have? BTAs aren't the natural host anemone for the ocellaris clown varieties that most of us have. So they may or may not wind up hosting. People use different tricks to get them in - personally, I've thrown a maroon clown in a couple times which have scared my ocellaris clowns into figuring out the BTAs quickly. And maroons themselves will always host BTAs.
 
Narwhalwall

Narwhalwall

brokereefer said:
It seems like certain types of anemones split and take over much quicker than others. Not all bubble tips are equal either. My rainbow BTAs divided like crazy, eventually overrunning my tank. On the other hand, the high end BTAs like Colorados, Chicagos, Black Widows, etc. don't seem to do that. And it doesn't seem like they do that in anyone's tanks, otherwise they wouldn't command the high prices.

What type of clowns do you have? BTAs aren't the natural host anemone for the ocellaris clown varieties that most of us have. So they may or may not wind up hosting. People use different tricks to get them in - personally, I've thrown a maroon clown in a couple times which have scared my ocellaris clowns into figuring out the BTAs quickly. And maroons themselves will always host BTAs.
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Huh, I figured most BTAs would have similar growth rates. Shame that rainbows are my favorite. Know if anyone in the club has some of those high ends?

I have 2 ocellaris clowns, both started as orange and steadily turned black. So they really blend into the black background. My idea was to put an anemone in a cup in their “spot”. I know there’s a decent chance they won’t host, but I think it’d be a fun challenge.

Thanks a ton for all the advice!
 
Mark Shelly

Mark Shelly

I had the black widows for about 2 years and they split once and moved. My clownfish would host in these. I also had the Wilson Anemones that split monthly. They look fantastic. Clownfish never hosted in them. I was planning on letting the tank go full anemones as I think they are great looking. Make sure you have a good netting over pumps.
 
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amado

amado

Dal
Staff member
Board of Directors
NJRC Member
What I realized about anemones is that I have no idea about anything. I had a really large rainbow anemone it always had bubble tips. The clowns hosted right away and the anemone never moved never spit.
I felt like I was doing great. Now I have a new tank
With Wilson anemone that has split twice in less than a year. It moves everywhere. I had to move them to their own frag tank because they don’t stay.
Now my anemone don’t have bubbles tips. Clowns
Are not hosting any of the anemones. So in the end
Anemones do what they want. When you think you figured it out they will bail and move to a rock behind the tank.
 

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erics210

erics210

NJRC Member
my nem has been in roughly the same spot for 14 months. NO SPLITS. Just gets HUGE!
Maybe the strain has something to do with the rate at which they multiply too.
 
MadReefer

MadReefer

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
My clown likes to host the green nepthea. Coral isn't to happy about that but its still thriving.
The clown goes from nepthea to the other.
 
erics210

erics210

NJRC Member
myrjon said:
@erics210 how is the nem in a cage doing?
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It's a 3 inch jawbreaker mushroom that popped off when I had an alkalinity swing the other day. I combined 2 tanks and went from 8.8 to 7.2 after a little boo boo. I tried doing half in one day back and he didn't like that and went free floating. Not good for an expensive mushroom to be flying around torch infested waters.
Seems to be handling containment nicely. If he attaches soon he will be let out on good behavior.
 
erics210

erics210

NJRC Member
MadReefer said:
My clown likes to host the green nepthea. Coral isn't to happy about that but its still thriving.
The clown goes from nepthea to the other.
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My big female clown wants to be hosted by my huge open brain wellso. Wellso doesn't wanna do it. After a few weeks I need to swap it into the frag tank as a vacation.
When out of the tank she bothers the candy canes. Much cheaper abuse.
 
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