anemone size

[papaya]

how large do Stichodactyla mertensii anemones get?

[papaya]

Please help me!

[sland165]

I have read that in the wild that they can reach over 1 meter in diameter!

[Ninong]

Please help me!

They're the largest of the 10 clownfish-hosting sea anemones. In the wild they can sometimes exceed 1 meter in diameter. I took pictures of one at the Waikiki Aquarium in 2002 but unfortunately we lost all of those pictures during one of the board's many software "upgrades." That one was about 30" across 8 years ago. I have no idea how large it is today.

You probably want an aquarium that is at least 30" (front-to-back) and 72" long if you expect to keep one of these guys long-term. S. haddoni is much easier to keep but all three of the carpet anemones can get pretty big.

Here's a photo of one I found online by simply running a Google image search:

[papaya]

wow. thats too big for me. my tank is 1 foot deep two feet tall and three feet wide, are there any anemones, carpet or other, that i could house in a tank that size?

[reeferbill]

wow. thats too big for me. my tank is 1 foot deep two feet tall and three feet wide, are there any anemones, carpet or other, that i could house in a tank that size?

I have a 46 gallon bow with a rose and a green bubblt-tip anenome . They will grow to maybe a foot in diameter depending upon feeding and cloning. Their colors are amazingly bueatiful.

[papaya]

thanks a bunch, that means that i can probably keep those!any others or is that all?

[reeferbill]

I would start with a bubble-tip anenome because they are the easiest to care for , but you still need good water quality. The size of your aquarium will limit you to only one species unless you could keep them seperated somehow. I would not keep more than one anenome per reef unless they are the same species and if not one will kill the other . Happy Reefing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ninong]

Entacmaea quadricolor (bubble-tip anemone) is probably the easiest to keep. Zhenya bought one of them -- the rose-colored variety -- and it did quite well in his little 110-gallon aquarium. It did so well that in four or five years he had to remove everything else from the tank because his little rose anemone had taken over the entire tank.

Since then he has sold or given away some of the clones every year or so but he couldn't keep up. It was cloning too fast. I think we have a picture of his little 110-gallon tank from 2007 before he finally gave up and gave away all but two or three of the clones.

It was a cute little guy, about 6" across, when he got it. It did very well in his tank as you can see from the attached pictures.

If you need any advice on how to care for them, just ask zhenya, he's our resident BTA expert.

Good luck!

[papaya]

thank you for the help!