TUBE ANEMONE CARE OVERVIEW

• LIGHT: MODERATE-HIGH (200-250 par) is what we find best although sometimes we are even confused.  For this reason, we recommend MODERATE high lighting around 200-250 par and allow the anemone to adjust its position as desired. Overall these anemones seem adaptable to a variety of lighting conditions. You can learn more about Lighting and it's overall impact on your reef tank in our article Lighting and your Reef Tank

• FOOD: We haven't noticed that any specific feeding strategy is required for these anemones but they are aggressive eaters and will benefit greatly from spot feeding meaty foods like mysis or brine, they will even take in flakes though. Like most anemones they capture nutrients from the water and will do best when supplied a healthy amount of food. Our method is high import, high export. You can learn more about Feeding and Filtration in our article Feeding, Filtration and your Reef Tank.

• FLOW: LOW-MODERATE. These corals bury their tubes in the sand and their disc pops out the top. They do not tend to move very much once established and so there is not much risk of them making their way into your flow makers. Too much flow, especially direct flow, can cause damage to the coral's tissue or an inability to capture food. You can read more about Flow and its overall impact on your reef tank in our article Flow and your Reef Tank

• DIFFICULTY: BEGINNER.  Of all the anemone species this is among one of the easier ones. Other then stinging aggression there is not too much to worry about. Anemones do not consume Alkalinity and Calcium and do not lay a calcium carbonate skeleton and so these parameters will not require extreme maintenance to keep anemones successfully. Like with all corals, specimens have been seen to do well in captivity when the right combination of Food/Light/Flow and Filtration are achieved. 

• PRICE: LOW. Tube anemones are not the most sought after in the hobby, they are typically small (1-2" disc) and although striking in color and movement do not come in a lot of variety. These combination of factors lead to a generally low price for this beginner anemone.

• COLLECTION ZONE: Indo-Pacific

• SCIENTIFIC NAME: Ceriantharia Tube-dwelling anemones or ceriantharians look very similar to sea anemones but belong to an entirely different subclass of anthozoans. They are solitary, living buried in soft sediments.
  

• AGGRESSION: AGGRESSIVE. These corals are fairly aggressive and will sting/eat meaty foods. Although typically they do not pose a threat to healthy fish, they will take advantage of any thing that comes there way such as sick or otherwise unhealthy fish, sea horses, or shrimp.

• NATURAL TEMPERATURE: 82 °F / 28 °C  although most corals can adapt and survive in temps as low as 77 degrees and as high as 84 degrees. You can read more about temperature and how it affects your reef tank in our article Temperature and your Reef Tank.

• PH: Recommend 8.0-8.4, we tend to run around 8.2-8.3 over 24 hours. You can read more about pH in our article pH and your Reef Tank

• NITRATE: 5-10, try to keep stable. You can read more about nitrate and our approach to maintaining it in our article Nutrients and your Reef Tank

• PHOSPHATE: 0.05-0.1, try to keep stable. You can read more about Phosphate and our approach to maintaining it in our article Nutrients and your Reef Tank

• ALKALINITY: While these are soft corals and are not consumers of calcium/alkalinity as they do not lay a calcium carbonate skeleton, we still recommend 8-9 dKh. You can read more about how we maintain our alkalinity in our article Alkalinity, Calcium and your Reef Tank

• CALCIUM: While these are soft corals and are not consumers of calcium/alkalinity as they do not lay a calcium carbonate skeleton, we still recommend 400-450 Calcium. You can read more about how we maintain our calcium in our article Alkalinity, Calcium and your Reef Tank
  

More About Tube Anemones

Cerianthus anemones, commonly known as “Tube anemones” or “Tube Dwelling anemones,” describe a variety of sea anemones belonging to the Cerianthidae family. Tube anemones hold themselves in place by secreting a parchment-like tube that they bury in the substrate. When disturbed, they will retract themselves down into that tube. This tube is very flexible. The tentacles of a tube anemone are long and tapered at the end.  Depending on the particular species, tube anemones can range from 8’ to 25’ in diameter. Tube anemones are usually white, green, orange, purple, blue, pink, or red. These particular anemones do not participate in the symbiotic relationship of hosting anemonefish that is often enjoyed by hobbyists, but will occasionally host certain species of shrimp and even porcelain crabs. To be honest, they are not actually true anemones.  They are distant relatives of anemones, but due to their structure and habits, they are definitely different.

Tube anemones do not require any kind of special lighting as they don't use light. These anemones also prefer moderate water flow to assist in bringing them food and removing their waste. They do not like strong flow. One thing they do need is a good deep substrate. Ideally, the substrate will be deeper than their tube is long. These tubes can be 6 inches or longer, so the deeper the substrate, the better. Please do not attempt to glue your anemone down. They need to be able to move. That said, try to place your anemone in a low area away from wavemakers and pumps. An anemone that gets sucked in, chopped up, and blown all over your tank could be a real problem.

When placing your Tube anemone, please remember that these animals will move to a spot in the tank that they deem best. Be sure to introduce your anemone to an area away from wavemakers, pumps, and corals that could be damaged.