Rock Flower Anemone

Care at a glance

Overview

Give it moderate to strong lighting and gentle to moderate flow that carries food to it without battering the disc, plus occasional target feeding of mysis or chopped shrimp for the best color. It does not roam the way a bubble tip or carpet anemone does, but it can still sting a coral planted too close, and its tentacles carry a real punch for their size, so give neighboring corals a few inches of clearance and handle it with gloves. It is not a natural clownfish host; instead it partners with certain anemone shrimp and porcelain crabs, and is better thought of as a reef friendly color anemone than a host anemone. Acclimate it slowly and add it once the tank has been stable for a few months.

In the wild

Found across the Caribbean and West Indies, where it wedges its column into a crevice or buries it in sand between rocks with only the beaded, colorful oral disc left showing. It is one of the few true anemones that stays put once it has picked a spot, which makes tank placement easy: give it a stable perch on the lower to mid rockwork under moderate to strong light and it will typically root there for good. Unlike several of its Indo-Pacific relatives, it does not host clownfish.

Good to know

Phymanthus crucifer carries symbiotic zooxanthellae like other reef anemones and shows an unusually wide range of natural color morphs, from sandy tan and green to vivid red, orange, and purple, which is why the trade sells named ultra color forms. Colonies can also reproduce by pedal laceration, leaving small clone fragments behind at the base that grow into new anemones, so an established rock flower can slowly multiply on its own.

Did you know

Rock flower anemones are one of the few anemones widely propagated by coral farms rather than wild collected, and their color range is so broad that named morphs like Ultra Red or Ultra Rainbow are traded almost like designer coral frags.

Related species

• 

  Maxi-Mini Carpet Anemone

  Stichodactyla tapetum

  3.1 in (8 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Malu Anemone

  Heteractis malu

  7.9 in (20 cm)40 gal (150 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Curlyque Anemone

  Bartholomea annulata

  5.9 in (15 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Tube Anemone

  Cerianthus sp.

  7.9 in (20 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)