Bubble Tip Anemones

Taking a look at the bubble tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor), one of the most popular and prolific anemones to host clownfish.
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This video was shot and edited by Tidal Gardens. Tidal Gardens owns all copyrights to this content.
Music: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0"

[@MeekoHerptile]

Scientific name: Amphiprion ocellaris Common name: Nemo Great sense of humor there. :D

[@MRHawks-ee2fl]

If you anemone looks dead, don't toss it! Mine got caught in the overflow, got its foot torn, half its tentacles ripped off and was bruised in I don't know how many places. I'd covered the overflow, but it pushed its way between the foam where the split was, even though I had it reinforced with a rubber band. It was very badly damaged. I wish I could share an image so you can see what it looked like. To save the rest of my tank I pulled it out. It was slimed over. Everyone I consulted told me it was dead. I put it in the trash. Fifteen minutes later, I am watching a fragging video on anemones.. your video on mini maxis in fact. When it hit me... What is the difference between a foot tear and a frag? I figured, it's dead anyways, so what's the harm in trying it? It can't get worse. So I pulled it out of the garbage (and I mean, in the garbage can) and soaked it in tank water for a few minutes to clean it off. I fragged it in four pieces, hoping that the pieces with tears would die and maybe one would make it. After it slimed up the water, I poured out the dirty water and added clean tank water. I repeated this several times trying to get as much slime out as possible. Each time I did this I added iodine to the water generously (the water was dark with it but I could still see through it). I did this until I felt very little slime on them. Then I moved them to a rock filled breeder, like you would any other frag. I placed them under enough flow to keeping their tentacles moving but not enough flow to blow them out of the breeder (a hard balance to find). I took off for the pet store. When I got back, I went to my tank expecting to find a bunch of dead anemones and my ammonia spiking in my tank. Three out of four pieces were not only alive but they were closing up and filling up. They looked fantastic. I couldn't believe it. This thing had been half shredded in that overflow. One piece did not look so good. It is still struggling. Over the next five days I have washed them twice a day with iodine in a syringe right inside my tank (testing iodine of course). At least three pieces are going to live. This is an acid rain bubble tip anemone and it is one tough little animal. I have before and after pics I can send people if anyone is interested. Just contact me (mrhawkswriting @ g mail).

[@MRHawks-ee2fl]

M.R. Hawks Oh ya and my ammonia was DEFINITELY up (0.25mg) so expect to do water changes.

[@lilianarruda2187]

Nice experiment! 👏🏼✨

[@bigbowlowrong4694]

In my experience BTAs are very tough. I left two in an unheated bag for about 12 hours while I was moving house in temperatures that got below 10°C, and they immediately went back to normal after I put them back in their tank. Don’t know why they have a reputation for being fussy or difficult, I have never had a problem with them and I’m no expert.

[@hhinojosareef1]

Sweet love anemones! Great video!

[@earlharman2040]

My bubble tip gets a piece of silverside every 3 days. Mine does not host a clown in the day time, but he does at night. I have 2 ocelaris clowns and neither one goes near it with the lights on, but do when the lights go out. He has split once and I gave the new one away. I placed him on a rock and he moved one inch and has stayed put. I enjoy him/her and he/her seems happy.

[@markrbui]

Awesome tips!

[@Woodentoolcompany2]

Cool video. Thanks for sharing!

[@deadbrother5355]

I had a green bubble tip that split on two occasions. I think both were due to periodic stress as I would mostly neglect my way to success with the tank back then. I had an acro, pocilla, and plating monti that also thrived, but had occasional color weirdness back then. Water change was 20% monthly, minimal supplements, and heavy feeds for the 12 fish and many corals. I wish I could get that lucky again.

[@JDReef]

I'm definitely going to be adding one of these to my upgrade. Great vid very helpful :)

[@soverjas]

I had a bubble tip I had for years through a couple different tanks and I can tell you stress differently works. The ones I had (started as one) almost always split each time I moved them to a new system. In the end I had 7 before i did a complete tear down.

[@cfghdfghndghjmt]

I found that when you feed the tentacles small foods like Mysis shrimps etc it tends to exspand its tips on display more often.if you feed directly to the mouth I found the tentacles went stringy and took several days of feeding to tentacle tips to get it to bubble up again

[@samirfarah640]

Ouuu I’m gonna try this thanks for tip

[@justanimals4280]

Wow, I need to try that, my bta's are bubbly but I want my rainbow bta to be stringy.

[@anniejefferson7614]

Just got mine. I usually keep tubes. Keeping fingers crossed

[@kismyasss011]

What I do is start feeding them more. When I want more I just feed them LRS reef frenzy a few times a week for a couple weeks and they start splitting. Started a year ago with 3 ended up with 15. So I started selling them. Got down to 4 two months ago. Now I have 7. Great way to make some extra cash for more frags.

[@Boogerdick69]

This is me, and I take them to local fish stores lolol. I feed about 3-6 times a week. I use to feed frozen shrimp from the super market, would just cut it. Now I do more mysis and reef roids, I get the big hikari sheet of mysis. Lasts me a long long time

[@BassOdysseyy]

I've bought a Rose Bubble Tip Anemone yesterday for my 200l tank. My two clownfish love it :)

[@davidbergaragonzalez5653]

The rose BTAs are one of the prettiest ones I've seen.

[@edwardwells5864]

I have had my best luck with removing my anemones from the tank and placing in another tank with modest lighting and decent flow with no temp controls and allow it to stress out a few hours then place it back in the tank. Usually my good well fed healthy RBTA's will give me another clone shortly there after. Been using this technique since I got into the hobby in 2002!

[@josephcruz2950]

Interesting. I’m guessing the stress sends survival hormones and it splits for a better chance to survive?

[@officialthird7268]

Might have to try this

[@Ingeanous]

They will find the pump! I dad a 10 inch BT disappear once for a few weeks... found it in the canister filter shredded in about a dozen pieces.. They smelled REALLY bad, and I have no idea how it fit down the surface skimmer, but I put them all back in the tank and they fattened up and did well. I did not feed silversides, but did direct tube feeding with off the shelf target feeder gel type food.

[@Will40th]

Salmon and a pressure clown fish worked for me

[@marineaquarium5235]

I've had a lot of success w/asexual propagation of RBTA's. Without scientific study, difficult to pinpoint exactly what works of course. In my case, I speculate heavy feeding with variety of foods, from zooplankton to octopus in a very stable system seems to work. Not conclusive, but I think having overall excellent conditions will lead to propagation. This includes: 1. Deep crevices available 2. Ample feeding with high variety 3. Lighting (?) Big question mark here, I have several that are almost completely in the dark and all have bubbled tips, doesn't seem to be light induced, at least in my systems. I suspect low flow is the trick. The tips are very sensitive to high direct flow. I think requiring high flow specifically for this species is a misconception (imho). Sorry for the long comment, hard to condense the information. Really enjoyed the video, especially the feeding. Thank you for sharing, I subscribed.

[@davidbergaragonzalez5653]

Very helpful, thank you.

[@Pan_Artem]

Hello! Thanks for your great channel! In your opinion, what water parameters are desirable for keeping anemones?

[@Birdwrasse4]

Can u do a video on fragging gonipora corals? Thanks

[@mrcovert011]

You blast them with a powerhead to cause them to loosen but keep a close watch and be ready for detatchment

[@andyprem]

have you ever seen them split and fuse back after a few days? Mine do

[@ddarden90]

Once they reach a certain size I find that bubble tips will slit often.

[@SnapeMaster]

Will my Percula picasso be welcome in the bubble tip, i've seen the picasso in anemone but i couldn't make out which, it looked like a long tips.... Thanks.

[@michaelisakov1108]

Which bubble tip do you show in this video at the end?

[@glap8694]

So, ive had a 80G reef for 2 years now, but kept that same liverock and substrate from an old tank over 3 years ago. So, theres no doubt my tank is established. Secondly, my coral thrive including lps, and my parameters are great. I decided to give a bubble tip a shot yesterday, and bought one, acclimated him over a couple hours and added him. Overnight he crawled under a rock and im pretty sure hes dead. Looks almost inside out, deflated, and like his foot is starting to fall apart. How could it go so wrong in only a few hours? What do you think happened to it?

[@abrahamluevano5033]

Would a rbta do fine in a 10 gallon aquarium with no corals?

[@Will40th]

I put my bubble Anemone on cave . They run out of there cave to the top of the rock on the morning for the flow and light run back to there caves when lights starts to go down

[@christianriley7050]

Can you guys please creat a video for heteractis magnifica care... Thanks!

[@trisbeumer8513]

i do not clean my tank to often they seem to spit my causing a near death experience. that prioritizes splitting for survival of the anemone in general one can split several times and run off in 4 directions

[@SalamanderFangskin]

The links for the annotations no longer appear, can you put the link to the video of your friend? :(

[@ThatDutchIdiot]

I got one of these, really tiny, in my reef tank. About half an inch wide. I can see it visibly grow every day. Also love hand feeding it, offering it a small shrimp or some pellets. Mine hasn't moved around yet and my Percula has given it a few mean looks. But I hope my Percula leaves it alone for a few months, as the Percula is twice the size. Got the anemone as an hitchhiker on a piece of coral for ~30$. Stupidly lucky

[@kileysantana7848]

Might want to look majano anemones. Apparently they look like mini BTAs, and some consider them a pest

[@jadestaples7342]

Hey I've a BTA but the tenticals have gone curley could you tell me why this is? X

[@wizzywizard1223]

It’s been a while since I’ve tried keeping a bubble tip anemone and that was when I had a different lighting set up and I changed it a while ago and everything is so much better I think I may try it again

[@tidalgardens]

I've noticed that they like really bright light.

[@wizzywizard1223]

Tidal Gardens do you think that led lights with a par of 300 be able to maintain bubble tip anemone I have a maroon clownish and I’ve been noticing he’s been getting close to my Duncan corals kinda like wanting to host it and I would find it amazing for him to host an anemone

[@wizzywizard1223]

Tidal Gardens do you think that led lights with a par of 300 be able to maintain bubble tip anemone I have a maroon clownish and I’ve been noticing he’s been getting close to my Duncan corals kinda like wanting to host it and I would find it amazing for him to host an anemone

[@tidalgardens]

300 is a lot of light. I would be more worried about that burning out the other things in your tank.

[@sandroaces]

When I give the buble tip anenome lots of 200 plus par for lots of hours in bubles up.

[@kingfisher7960]

I add waterer and lights

[@guapodidier2099]

first of all nice video, i have a 120g reef tank, only soft corals, mushroms, palys, kenia t, green star polyps, xenias and 2 sarcophytons.. the great cuestio is: CAN I ADD A BT ANEMONE ..??? some guy told me that bta is not reef safe, and others said yes it is feef safe...

[@alecc.lambert2352]

Should it be cool to have a Bubble Tip Anemone dominated reef tank with a few Zoanthids, Mushrooms, and maybe a Gorgonian or two?

[@stevepearson3446]

the link to the other tank doesn't work for me

[@PokeFBL]

Like everyone wanted to see the fish getting eaten and he just ket us and waited what a legend

[@lisadimercurio9473]

How old should a tank be before adding an anenome? Also is a 30 gal tank large enough for a nem? Thank Than, I love your vids

[@saltystripesfishing2980]

Id say, make sure your tank is established. So about 6 months to a year old. Coralline algae growth is a sign that its established.

[@artemkvas2246]

Hey there, I was wondering if someone could help me out a little. I got a rose bubble tip anatomy about 3 months ago and like 2 weeks of having it, it split. So now I have two. They were doing amazing. Always opened up and showing there colors. Then out of no where they got all shriveled up and now there not as they use to be. I know they are very sensitive to Nitrate and I’ve been having low levels of that. My water quality is perfect I also have quite some other corals that are growing and flourishing always staying open. I can’t seem to find anything on this and I’ve been adding my iodine every 2 weeks I have a 65 tall gallon aquarium. Please if anyone could help me out. Reply to me thank you.

[@1977Lazlo]

I was feeding the anemone every 3 to 4 days and when it got bigger it split by itself. it was tearing itself half by attaching it's foot to two different rock. I had to keep taking the extra ones back to the LFS.

[@tidalgardens]

+Laszlo Vig good problem to have.

[@Claya94]

I find that if I use iodine my survival rate decreases so I gave up on that, maybe its just the strain I've tried it on though

[@Entety303]

My friend feeds them jellyfish and they grow like crazy evry other week he plops a jellyfish in his tank

[@FlyingPigNJ]

Question for you. When I chop a shrimp to 5 pieces and feed a piece to it at a time. do I leave the shell on or take it out? How about the shrimp head? thanks

[@tidalgardens]

***** I've left the shell on sometimes. The head may be a little too sharp.

[@FlyingPigNJ]

Ah ok, I'm going to try the body and legs, so basically no head or tail. thanks:)

[@Will40th]

On my tank they inflate bubble on the morning when light go on release water they retain when my light start dimming

[@Syed5y]

Can they be glued to a piece of rock so they dont move?

[@tidalgardens]

No they cannot

[@anasansari8389]

mine stuckd in wave maker and unfortunately died.

[@scoodles93]

same with me but i also disinfect their wounds...

[@martinwhitter8366]

my mate bought a bubble tip anenomie 5 yrs ago and within 3 years his red sea max was over run by them. i had 1 off him and now 1 yr on i have got my whole tank covered in big healthy bubble tips. but the thing is i want my tank back but dont no how to remove these frm the rock

[@masrrek5132]

Martin Whitter I’ve been working every day to tickle mine off with tooth picks. Spending about 5-10 minutes some times getting them off. But they sell so easy on Craig’s list for me that I’ve made hundreds in a few days

[@TexasGarcinias]

What do you find is the best way to acclimate BTAs? I've heard some people say they just temperature acclimate them in the bag, and then just toss them in the tank! I've also heard that it's best to drip acclimate. IF so, for how long? I want to add an anemone to my tank soon.

[@cencalsreef5883]

I've done both but have had greater success with 20 minute float and 45-60minute drip on my last anemone

[@Alex-dp1bk]

You think feeding them dead feeder goldfish is a good idea?

[@billkopainting]

We bought a bubble tip anemone 2 months ago to our 180 gallon saw it the first day ,and have no idea where shes at. Can you help and tell me if i have to look for her? Im sure shes on the back of the tank, which os very difficult to look. I dont want to flip the tank. Thanks

[@tidalgardens]

Sorry to hear that. It's always the risk with anemones in general. They can move to pretty much any location they like. It may move back out in time, but if you wanted immediate results, you would have to take apart the rocks to do so.

[@nelsonocasio2462]

Mine was missing for 5 weeks and just three days ago came back out and looks perfect. It even got bigger not sure how since I have no idea what it was eating. I do dose Cal, Alk & Mag so maybe it helped. But this is a normal as they do hide and move around allot. This was my Green bubble tip now my rose bubble is still in the same place and has not moved since I purchased both 6 weeks ago.

[@ferozkaamil1]

I feed my red bubble tip to anemone once or twice a week and he keeps splitting once a month.

[@MARINETV]

Feroz Reef wow

[@MrBreezdad]

Do you have any extras i could get from you

[@chrismoniz5898]

feed them 💪👍😎

[@landonpinnick9535]

I like to raise and lower the salinity to make them split

[@masrrek5132]

Started with 2, I have about 100 now. Over 3 years time. I’ve been selling them like crazy. I don’t do anything to propagate. Tho they never get larger than about 7 or 8 inches before they split again. I have a radian xr15 over a 40 breeder with a 20 sump. I don’t even feed Them directly. I feed froze in mysis to the fish and the nems catch them.

[@davidbergaragonzalez5653]

That's awesome. I just ordered my first anemone, hopefully it will propagate like yours. My brother-in-law is thinking about starting up a reef tank and I told him I might be able to provide him some corals and an anemone if I can get the thing to propagate.

[@MrPninja]

Mine unfortunately went over the overflow and propagated in my return pump

[@fishingnh4543]

interesting

[@futzfn]

What anemone can go in my 14 gallon biocube

[@jonathanlee97]

Squash Man!! I see 3 gallon nanos with carpet anemones. Though you will have to change to a bigger tank when the anemone grows

[@andyprem]

nothing like bad water . one day I had one split to 5 lol

[@xarope33]

I overfeed them (big pieces of shrimp) and I have 9 times propagation in a year.

[@BL_Denni]

too much flow to mee would stretch out the anemone and cause the bubbles to be reduced.

[@sherwincapule8031]

Stress Stress Stress when in danger they will split naturally

[@plug-inreview7161]

Mine split at an alarming rate 🙂All by them self, so I realy do nothing at all!

[@yeshwanthyarremsetty528]

do anemone need calcium?

[@nikhilroy5197]

Yeshwanth yarremsetty no they need iodine but there should be calcium in the water there kinda like a soft coral

[@MARINETV]

no , they don't

[@BuddySheroka]

My personal opinion I do not believe in cutting them in half because they are asexual and it is quite easy to induce them to split on their own I like to see them every day for a week straight smaller particles of food and then I do a moderate sized water change over feeding them for the week and then changing water chemistry will induce them to split I find that to be the best way to propagate them and it's much less barbaric than cutting them in half I really enjoy all your videos than Happy Tree Friends

[@whmmm]

I just power feed them

[@oceanbouy8740]

Will they eat reef roids??

[@15290calvo]

Time

[@nathanial7249]

for the life of me, i cannot keep a BTA, i can keep Montiporas and LPS. Strange aye?

[@masrrek5132]

Nathanial your shit may be too clean

[@todo870]

I just wish they wouldn’t kill corals😭

[@fishingnh4543]

I know mine has constantly been moving for like 2 weeks now and I'm paranoid

[@PokeFBL]

Also but protection for the heater any your d.¥

[@RubenGomezRealestate]

Hey guys, thank you for the video, its great. I have a green anemone who split in two thanks to my anemone crab. one day the anemone was attached to the front glass, and the crab was holding tight in the middle, it looked like he was going to kill it, I left it alone and next morning there were two identical anemones next to each other! check my video! =)

[@Claya94]

I slice them in half or even quarters with #10 blade scalpels so far I have never had an anemone die on me

[@crybabyangel1317]

Paandemonium that's evil.

[@doncheko6866]

People don’t know why bubble tips don’t maintain their bubbles.. no one knows right??? Wrong!!! I do and o have done many experiments and it is so obvious… let me just star with oxygen and finish with camels… now there is a little more but I hope everyone is smart enough to get it done if not feel free to message me :))

[@reptilewizz]

Mine lost there bibles shortly after getting them what can I do?

[@yeshwanthyarremsetty528]

do anemone need calcium?

[@nikhilroy5197]

Yeshwanth yarremsetty no because the don't a have a calcified skeleton so they are kind of like a soft coral . I would recommend trace elements and iodine