life span of anemones
 

how long do anemones live for.. is there such thing as an old anemone or like can you tell when they are getting old and going to die.. or do they live forever in the right conditions?

thanks
craig

Anemones generally don't do well in captivity. There are reefers who have had them for 3-4+ years, but from what I have heard/read, the average life span is something like 1-2 years...

Not sure what the life span is, probably somewhat dependent on the species as well. I have read that in the wild they can live quite long if something doesn't come along and predate them.

From my own experience, I've had a BTA for approx a year and a half and it's doing well hosting a pair of Maroon Clownfish. There have been some issues but currently it's growing actively and appears healthy. I've read many threads on various forums where keepers of nems have had great success in maintaining their health, to the point where they are propagating through splitting. Check the following link for a lady with vast experience in raising anemones, primarily RBTAs.

http://www.karensroseanemones.com/index.htm

when my buddy the realbigal and I picked up his display from another member here he had a nem in his tank that was 6 years old.
HUGE and ruler of the tank, also had a couple clowns hosting in it for the better part of it's life.

pretty cool stuff.
IMO, his tank was pretty poorly cared for as well as when we cleaned it, it was DIRTY.
almost as much crud on the substrate as there was substrate on the glass.

Anemones don't really "age". As such, it's environmental causes (predation, accidents, disease, starvation, etc.) that cause them to die. Generally speaking these things happen more frequently in our tanks than in the wild so as a result, captive specimens seem to have truncated lifespans comparatively.

I have a Condylactis in my tank I have had for over 10 years, 3 BTA's that came from one, got the original ~ 5 years ago, it has split 6 or 7 times in that time, and a Stichodactyla haddoni (thanks Delphinus for the ID) that I got from a reefer that had it in his tank ~ 4 years, I have had it now for just over a year.

Main Entry:
truncated
Function:
adjective
Date:
circa 1704

1: having the apex replaced by a plane section and especially by one parallel to the base <a truncated cone>2 a: cut short : curtailed <a truncated schedule> b: lacking an expected or normal element (as a syllable) at the beginning or end : catalectic

bump for a new word learned.