One species · 4 varieties
Bubble tip anemone
Entacmaea quadricolor
Also known as BTA, Bulb Tentacle Anemone
SaltwaterAnemone
Care at a glance
- Temperature
- 75–81°F
- 24–27°C
- pH
- 8.1–8.4
- Adult size
- 11.8 in
- 30 cm
- Minimum tank
- 30 gal
- 115 L
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Social behavior
- Solitary
- Swim level
- Bottom
- Diet
- Photosynthetic
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Breeding
- Medium
- Rarity
- Very common
- Reef safe
- Reef safe with caution
- Family
- Actiniidae
- Origin
- Indo-Pacific reefs
Pick a variety
One setup covers every line on this page: care is the species' care.
Overview
The bubble tip anemone is the most widely kept host anemone in the hobby, and the easiest one to pair with a clownfish. It is reef safe with caution and better for a keeper who has kept a reef tank for a while.
Did you know
A single well fed bubble tip anemone can split into a small colony of clones within a year or two. That is why aquaculture farms propagate them for the trade, while most other host anemones are still collected from the wild.
Caring for the bubble tip anemone
Give a bubble tip anemone strong reef lighting, such as LED, T5 or metal halide, and moderate flow that does not blast it directly. It wants a spot on the lower to mid rockwork, with room to expand and eventually split.
Only add it to a tank of at least 30 gal (115 L) that has been running for several months with stable, mature water. Drip acclimate it slowly. Keep the water at 75 to 81°F (24 to 27°C) with a pH of 8.1 to 8.4.
It gets most of its energy from the photosynthetic zooxanthellae in its tissue. On top of that, target feed it chopped shrimp, fish or silverside a couple of times a week.
Like every true anemone, it can walk around the tank on its pedal disc. Shield powerhead and overflow intakes, and keep it at a distance from corals it could sting on the way past.
In the wild it hosts maroon, tomato, cinnamon and Clark's clownfish. Captive bred ocellaris and percula clownfish will often adopt one just as readily. Their own natural hosts are harder to find in the trade. It reproduces readily by longitudinal fission, splitting down the middle into two genetically identical anemones.
Good to know
The bubble tip anemone, Entacmaea quadricolor, takes its species name from the Latin for four colored. Its column, tentacles, tentacle tips and mouth can each show a different hue. The bulbous swellings on its tentacles are thought to help pack in extra algae, though they can shrink or disappear under lower light. It belongs to the family Actiniidae and also goes by BTA or bulb tentacle anemone.
In the wild
Bubble tip anemones live throughout the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea to Samoa, and from a few feet down to over 30 m. They usually wedge their base into a crevice in the reef or nestle it among the branches of an Acropora or Seriatopora coral head.
Other named lines
Color strains of Entacmaea quadricolor, spread by splitting rather than breeding. Color does not change care, and every strain hosts clownfish the same way.
- Black Widow
- deep red with a high-contrast dark sheen
- Colorado Sunburst
- intense orange glow strain
- Watermelon
- pink body with green tips
Symbiotic relationships
Clownfish and their host anemones
A clownfish lives inside an anemone that stings and eats other fish its size. Its mucus coat keeps the anemone's stinging cells from firing, and a new fish builds that protection up over hours of brief touches. The fish gets a refuge no predator will follow it into and a nest site at the anemone's base. The anemone gets a guard that drives off the butterflyfish that would graze its tentacles, a steady supply of nitrogen from the fish's waste, and water movement at night, when the fish fans its fins among the tentacles and the anemone takes up more oxygen. Only ten anemone species host clownfish in the wild, and each clownfish species uses its own short list of them.
Captive-bred clownfish have never seen an anemone and do not need one; they settle for a coral, a powerhead or a corner of the tank. If you want the pairing, the anemone is the harder animal by far and goes in first, into a mature tank with strong light and stable water, at the tank size its own profile lists. The bubble tip anemone is the hardy host, and the one most clownfish accept in captivity even when it is not a natural host, so a clownfish profile lists it as the usual tank host where that is the case. The sebae, magnificent and carpet anemones are marked difficult, and the carpets eat fish. Expect a paired clownfish to defend its anemone against everything else in the tank.
Ocellaris clownfish
Amphiprion ocellaris
Saltwater3.1 in (8 cm) · 20 gal (75 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)Takes it in tanks, not a natural host
Percula clownfish
Amphiprion percula
Saltwater3.1 in (8 cm) · 20 gal (75 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)Takes it in tanks, not a natural host
Clark's clownfish
Amphiprion clarkii
Saltwater5.5 in (14 cm) · 30 gal (115 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
Maroon clownfish
Premnas biaculeatus
Saltwater6.7 in (17 cm) · 40 gal (150 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
Tomato clownfish
Amphiprion frenatus
Saltwater5.5 in (14 cm) · 30 gal (115 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
Cinnamon clownfish
Amphiprion melanopus
Saltwater4.7 in (12 cm) · 30 gal (115 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
Red saddleback anemonefish
Amphiprion ephippium
Saltwater5.5 in (14 cm) · 30 gal (115 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)
Red Sea clownfish
Amphiprion bicinctus
Saltwater5.5 in (14 cm) · 30 gal (115 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
Barberi clownfish
Amphiprion barberi
Saltwater3.5 in (9 cm) · 30 gal (115 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)
Bluestripe clownfish
Amphiprion chrysopterus
Saltwater6.7 in (17 cm) · 55 gal (210 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
Shrimp and crabs that live in anemones
Several small crustaceans live where almost nothing else can: among the tentacles of an anemone. Sexy shrimp perch in the tentacles in a cluster, bobbing their tails in the display that named them. The white-spot anemone shrimp is near transparent apart from its spots and lives on carpet anemones. The porcelain anemone crab sits at the anemone's edge and filters plankton from the water with two fan-like arms. Pederson's cleaner shrimp lives in the Caribbean corkscrew anemone and cleans fish from there. In every case the anemone is a bodyguard: its sting keeps off the small fish that would eat the shrimp. The anemone gains little, and the white-spot shrimp will nibble its host's tentacles when it is hungry.
Give each of them its anemone. Sexy shrimp take a rock flower anemone, a bubble tip or a carpet. The white-spot shrimp and the porcelain crab want a carpet anemone or a long tentacle anemone, both of which need a mature tank at the tank size their profiles list. Pederson's shrimp wants a corkscrew anemone or a condy. Without a host they perch on a coral or hide in the rock and are picked off by any fish that eats shrimp, so they suit a peaceful nano reef. A clownfish will evict them from an anemone it has claimed.
Common questions
What size tank does a bubble tip anemone need?
A bubble tip anemone needs at least 30 gal (115 L).
What temperature and pH does a bubble tip anemone need?
A bubble tip anemone is comfortable at 75–81°F (24–27°C) with a pH of 8.1–8.4.
What does a bubble tip anemone eat?
A bubble tip anemone gets most of its energy from the zooxanthellae in its tissue. It also takes chopped shrimp, fish or silverside from a target feeder a couple of times a week.
How big does a bubble tip anemone get?
An adult bubble tip anemone reaches about 11.8 in (30 cm).
How does a bubble tip anemone breed?
Bubble tip anemones reproduce by longitudinal fission. Each one splits down the middle into two genetically identical anemones, and it does so readily.
