[Delphinus]

Stick in the mud mode: ON

It is great to see your anemones doing well. HOWEVER, and having had this exact same combination myself so I speak from direct first-hand experience ... mixing non-clonal specimens of anemones in one tank is not always in the best interests of the anemones. They can start exhibiting diffuse competition, and the behaviour can lie dormant for a long time but suddently and inexplicably the behaviour can become overt. I lost my sebae to mysterious circumstances. It just up and died one day. It was not weakened from a recent collection/retail process; I had had it for two years and the guy I bought it from had had it for several years himself. It was not starvation; it was well fed. It was not water parameters; they were within acceptable tolerances. It may perhaps have been a bacterial infection; however it did not exhibit any signs of such. It looked fantastic one day, the next day it closed up and never re-opened. I will never really know for sure. However, over the years I have started to see a pattern. ANY anemone in with my BTA's eventually starts to decline. My most recent observation of this went something like this. I kept my ritteri in with my BTA's for about a year. My BTA's of course split every so often so one becomes two becomes three and so on. Well, the ritteri started showing signs of stress. Wasn't the light, wasn't the food, wasn't the water parameters. Again, just a mysterious inexplicable decline. Having now formed a beginning of a suspicion by this point, I pulled my BTA's out of the tank and put them in a different tank. Nothing else was changed. Guess what. The ritteri was looking better within a week. I am still not convinced I have pulled it through. I am, however, now convinced as to what was ailing it in the first place.

I was speaking to Dr. Ron about this. He warned me that this could happen, although at the time he was more concerned that the ritteri would exhibit the overt aggression towards the BTA's, not the other way around. Something he said to me has really stuck in my mind. He told me "Multi-species assemblages are neither natural nor desirable." This really hit home for me. Nowhere have I ever seen, while snorkeling or diving, or seen in pictures, of two Indo-Pacific hosting species within 2', 3' of one another unless they are clones to begin with.

So. What to make of this? Well, the theory of diffuse competition is just that, an unproven theory. It is, however, one that I have no doubt of in my mind. And as such I implore everyone to consider keeping just ONE anemone per system. Your luck may be different than mine. I hope it is. However, it is something I myself will never try again, in the interests of the anemones themselves.

I don't suggest you go out and get rid of the BTA's or the sebae. Unless, of course, you WANT to set up a new tank, I'd totally support you in that decision :D What I do ask of you though, is keep a close eye on the anemones. If one or the other starts to look a little weak, or outright starts to decline for no other apparent reason, give this theory a thought.

Like I said. Maybe it won't happen for you. I hope it doesn't. But if it does, forewarned is forewarned, or something like that. [No wait that's not right. Forearmed is forewarned? Forwarned is forearmed? Aaccck! You know what I mean!]

Sorry to be such a stick in the mud. It is a great photo, and the anemones look to be doing quite well for you right now. Good zooxanthellae in them...

[ 02 July 2002, 13:06: Message edited by: delphinus ]