Although sebae anemones are still a relative niche anemone to keep within the reef tank keeping hobby, they are slowly growing in popularity amongst the community.
With more and more people sharing photographs of their sebae anemone on social media each month, we only expect their popularity to keep on growing.
We have noticed that so many people make mistakes in the actual placement of their sebae anemone with this often resulting in problems that can easily be avoided.
Due to this, we have decided to publish this article going over our guide on sebae anemone placement to try and help as many of our readers as possible who want their sebae anemone to thrive in their tanks.
Now, as will all anemone placements, the specific setup of your reef tank or marine aquarium will come into play but for the most part, following the advice in this article should be able to help you avoid some very common mistakes with your sebae anemone.
Sebae Anemone Placement Guide!
We have a short list of the most common things that you have to try and plan for when planning your sebae anemone in your tank:-
- Surface!
- Lighting!
- Water Flow!
- Water Temperature!
- Nutrition!
- Tank Mates!
The first four are the most important things to keep in mind but for the most part, beginners should be thinking about all six things when planning their sebae anemone placement in their tank.
Surface!
Unlike with most other types of anemone, the surface that you place your sebae anemone on is extremely important for optimal growth rates.
Ideally, you will be placing your sebae anemone right where a rock meets the substrate and most sebae anemones will lock their foot and stay in this position and stay there being very happy.
In theory, you can set a sebae anemone on rock or on the substrate but having a hybrid is almost always best and will usually offer you better results in the general health of your sebae anemone.
Lighting!
A sebae anemone needs intense lighting and although you usually see people recommend a high lighting intensity of 220-350 PAR, they can live in lower lighting conditions with minimal issues.
This can allow you to lighting match your sebae anemone with other anemones, corals, and fish that you have in your tank if needed.
Ideally though, you will be sticking to a high light intensity rate for your sebae anemone if you want optimal growth rates.
Some tank setups may allow you to place your sebae anemone closer to your lighting source to help you get your sebae anemone to thrive in tanks with moderate lighting but this is not recommended for most setups.
Water Flow!
The majority of sebae anemones will need a moderate water flow and unlike some of their other requirements, there really isn’t much wiggle room on this.
Although a sebae anemone may “live” in tanks with low or high water flow, its growth rate will be stunted and the chances of melting will be higher.
If possible, you will be able to place your sebae anemone in a moderate water flow tank and just forget about issues with water flow.
We have seen some experienced reef tank keepers keep their sebae anemone in a high water flow tank and place their sebae anemone on the opposite side of a rock to their water pump.
This will usually allow the rock to act as a water flow break for your sebae anemone and reduce the water flow to a moderate level reducing issues but this is more difficult to do successfully than most people realize.
Water Temperature!
A sebae anemone will need to be placed in a tank that has a water temperature range of 81-84F (27-29C) and there really isn’t much fluctuation on this.
Thankfully, there are plenty of other anemones, corals, and fish that can thrive within that temperature range making it quick and easy for you to pick out tank mates for your sebae anemone that will thrive in this temperature range.
So many people new to keeping reef tanks seem to overlook just how much cross over there is within the various requirements of their anemones and corals so almost all setups offer plenty of tank mate options.
Nutrition!
Your sebae anemone will need to be fed in the vast majority of tank setups and many beginners overlook this.
Although you can technically set up a self sufficient reef tank, it is more difficult than most people think and even experienced reef tank keepers still usually opt to hand feed their anemones.
The key to feeding your sebae anemone is to make sure that the food that you offer your anemone to eat is small enough for the anemone to eat.
Here are some popular food options for sebae anemones that they tend to enjoy eating:-
- Fish.
- Clam.
- Muscle.
- Squid.
- Shrimp.
There are a number of commercial anemone food options on the market these days that can work well but for the most part, we would still usually recommend that you just go with the above options.
Tank Mates!
There are plenty of suitable tank mates for a sebae anemone with there being a number of different fish, shrimp, and snails that can all work to bring a community reef tank together without issue.
The key thing to remember is to do your best to avoid having any issues with non-reef safe tank mates in the tank as sebae anemone are very susceptible to nips and bites.
Thankfully, pretty much any reef safe tank mate that meets the same temperature requirements as a sebae anemone will work in the tank and not cause you problems.
Just try to remember that in rare cases, there are outliers in a reef safe species where a very small percentage of the species will still nip and bite the anemones in your tank.
