Darn... missed another one! Just wanted to add my $0.02 to the anemone lighting subject:
While I've piped up a lot over the past few months about anemone lighting and the fact that you can probably keep most them in near darkness as long as you feed them enough, I would wholeheartedly agree with the T5 recommendation for anyone trying out anemone keeping for the first time, as it will give you some leeway if you're not providing it enough food.
I'd also like to note that food should really not be considered as a secondary or supplemental nutritional source for anemones. Light/zooxanthellae will mostly (only?) provide the non-nitrogeneous portion of the animal's nutritional requirements. For an anemone to truly thrive it must be fed regularly. Some will prefer fish, some will prefer shrimp/crustaceans, some will prefer a mix of both -- do your research and keep in mind the anemone should be considered a part of the waste-producing bioload in your tank, whereas most corals and other cnidarians usually aren't.
One more thing since the caller was looking for lighting coral AND an anemone... be aware that the common recommendation of not keeping anemones in mixed tanks is well founded. I'll go out on a limb and suggest that if you're willing to put in the time to keep an anemone and are hard-set about keeping it in a mixed reef that you try a carpet anemone rather than a bubble-tip. They aren't as hardy as bubble-tips, and require much cleaner water, but they also tend to wander less when they're well fed. (hopefully this suggestion doesn't cause any angry, "tang-in-a-10g"-level flames)
FWIW: the lighting vs feeding applies to "host" anemones such as Entacmaea quadricolor, Stichodactyla sp. and Heteractis sp., as well as commonly sold Caribbean species such as Condylactis sp.. not tube anemones (which are mostly temperate, not tropical!) or anemone-like corallimorphs such as Cornylactis sp.
Bookmarks