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Variety of Bubble tip anemone

Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone

Entacmaea quadricolor

One of 4 varieties of Entacmaea quadricolor · See all varieties →

Also known as Chicago Sunburst Anemone

SaltwaterAnemone

Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor)

Varieties · Entacmaea quadricolor

See all 4 →

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

Overview

The Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone is a named strain, usually sold as a small split photographed as the exact animal you receive. Its price is a large step up from a green or rose bubble tip. It is reef safe with caution and best for a keeper with a little reef experience.

Did you know

A Chicago Sunburst is a piece of the founder animal rather than its offspring, because named anemone strains spread by fission. Buying one is closer to buying a cutting than buying a young fish.

Caring for the Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone

Give a Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone strong reef lighting, such as LED, T5 or metal halide. Use moderate flow that does not blast it directly. Set it 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 run 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. Target feed it chopped shrimp, fish or silverside a couple of times a week as well.

Like every true anemone, it can walk around the tank on its pedal disc. Shield powerhead and overflow intakes, and keep it away from corals it could sting on the way past.

Wild bubble tips host maroon, tomato, cinnamon and Clark's clownfish. Captive bred ocellaris and percula clownfish will often adopt one just as readily. It reproduces readily by longitudinal fission, splitting down the middle into two genetically identical anemones.

Good to know

The Chicago Sunburst's golden yellow to light orange color comes from pigment protein in its tissue, and it depends heavily on lighting. Reef Builders showed two crops side by side at ReefStock Denver. The one grown under LEDs was the classic bright yellow-orange, and the one from a tank lit with metal halide was nearly all red. The piece argues that much of the difference between named bubble tip strains is the light they were raised under. Reef Builders also reports a widespread belief that the Lemon Drop anemone is just a Chicago Sunburst seen when very small.

In the wild

The Chicago Sunburst is a captive color morph of the Indo-Pacific bubble tip, spread by splitting rather than bred from a cross. Eye Catching Coral's own listing says it bought its founding stock from Tank It Easy in December 2018. That seller had propagated the strain for several years before then. This is vendor history rather than a record, and who grew the original animal, or why the name says Chicago, is not documented anywhere.

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.

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.

Every symbiotic relationship in the catalog

Common questions

Is a Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone a different species from the bubble tip anemone?

No. A Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone is a variety of the bubble tip anemone, Entacmaea quadricolor, and it wants the same tank, water and food as the species.

What size tank does a Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone need?

A Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone needs at least 30 gal (115 L).

What does a Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone eat?

A Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone gets most of its energy from the zooxanthellae living in its tissue. Add chopped shrimp, fish or silverside from a target feeder a couple of times a week.

How big does a Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone get?

An adult Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone reaches about 11.8 in (30 cm).

How does a Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone breed?

A Chicago Sunburst bubble tip anemone reproduces by longitudinal fission. It splits down the middle into two genetically identical anemones, and it does so readily.

Related species