TankBud

Magnificent anemone

Heteractis magnifica

Also known as Ritteri Anemone, Magnificent Sea Anemone

SaltwaterAnemone

Magnificent anemone (Heteractis magnifica)
Nhobgood Nick Hobgood · CC BY-SA 3.0

Care at a glance

Temperature
75–81°F
24–27°C
pH
8.1–8.4
Adult size
19.7 in
50 cm
Minimum tank
53 gal
200 L
Temperament
Peaceful
Social behavior
Solitary
Swim level
Bottom
Diet
Photosynthetic
Difficulty
Difficult
Breeding
No record
Rarity
Rare
Reef safe
Reef safe with caution
Family
Stichodactylidae
Origin
Indo-Pacific reefs (East Africa and the Red Sea to Polynesia)

Overview

The magnificent anemone is a clownfish host anemone for an advanced reef tank. It is an expert-level animal and one of the most demanding anemones.

Did you know

A single magnificent anemone can host an entire clownfish family at once. A dominant breeding pair shares it with a string of smaller, non-breeding juveniles queued up by size. The next in line steps up to become the new breeding female when the largest fish dies or is removed.

Caring for the magnificent anemone

Give the magnificent anemone very strong lighting and vigorous, turbulent flow that closely mimics a shallow reef crest. Many home tanks cannot fully deliver those conditions. It relies on symbiotic zooxanthellae as its main energy source.

Keep the water at 75 to 81°F (24 to 27°C) with a pH of 8.1 to 8.4. Add it only to a large, mature reef tank of at least 53 gal (200 L). Have reef-grade lighting and flow dialed in before it arrives. Give it a slow drip acclimation and time to settle before you judge it a success or failure.

Target-feed it meaty foods two or three times a week. It classically hosts ocellaris, Clark's and pink skunk clownfish, along with several other Amphiprion species across its range.

It roams more than almost any other host anemone, even after it seems settled. It drifts across the tank in search of better light and current. Guard every powerhead and overflow, and give every coral real breathing room from wherever it might end up.

Good to know

The magnificent anemone is accepted by the World Register of Marine Species as Radianthus magnifica. Most hobbyists still know it as Heteractis magnifica. It is widely considered the premier clownfish host anemone for its size and color. Its oral disc can reach a meter in exceptional wild specimens. The retracted column ranges from electric blue or green to red, pink or purple. It can live for decades, and one well documented aquarium specimen reportedly reached about 80 years old.

In the wild

The magnificent anemone ranges across the Indo-Pacific, from East Africa and the Red Sea to Polynesia. It is usually attached to hard substrate in shallow, well-lit, high-flow water on the reef crest or upper slope.

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

What size tank does a magnificent anemone need?

A magnificent anemone needs at least 53 gal (200 L).

What temperature and pH does a magnificent anemone need?

A magnificent anemone is comfortable at 75–81°F (24–27°C) with a pH of 8.1–8.4.

What does a magnificent anemone eat?

A magnificent anemone gets its main energy from symbiotic zooxanthellae. Target-feed it meaty foods two or three times a week as well.

How big does a magnificent anemone get?

An adult magnificent anemone reaches about 19.7 in (50 cm).

Related species