What is anemone dominance / aggression?

[Anonymous]

I am still noob when it comes to anemones. When I'm cruising livestock sites, I notice they often list the dominance or aggression of an anemone.

How do Anemones vie for dominance and what aggressive tactics do they use against whom?

If you don't feel like typing but DO have a good link about anemone behavior, lay it on me!

 

[Len]

I'm not sure how scientic those terms are but anemones are definitely very competitive organisms. The most obvious form of agression is when they come into contact with one another. A S.gigantea will actually eat other species sometimes. 8O

Less obvious is the way they compete for nutrients in the water and a nasty practice of shedding nematocysts (stinger cells) into the water that have been reported to harm other anemones in the system.

Some species are more aggressive then others and there are some people able to keep multiple specimens in the same tank. But most experienced hobbyist (myself included) will recommend only keeping one specimen per tank unless it's pretty big. FWIW, I've never been able to keep two anemones in one tank for any appreciable amount of time.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok so that refers mostly to anemone vs. anemone interaction ... I know anemones may hurt corals and fish they come into contact with as well. The moral of the storty when choosing an anemone is ...


1. Choose species wisely. One individual per tank
2. Keep away from corals, etc. Stingning cells are not friendly to stuff.
3. Don't buy fish that could become anemone food (dragonets / flitters).

That's the general idea, right?

 

[Len]

You got it. I'd also encourage people with hosting anemones to find a suitable clownfish. Clowns not only feed the anemone (with food and - ewww - their excrement), they also defend their territory and keep possible fish and inverts from accidentally going into their hosts.

 

[tazdevil]

FWIW, Hwarang, ANY fish can become anemone food. Including clowns-they can loose their protective slime coat, and, be stung and eaten as a result. Not that it happens often, though it can. As far as other fish, if they are sick/weak, and happen to "bump" into the anemone, they can then become anemone food (our favorite store to bash actually lost some expensive fish in one of their systems a few years ago this way).