With the popularity of keeping clownfish as pets only increasing, we always see a steady number of people reaching out with various questions each month relating to offering their pet clownfish the best possible levels of care.
We have seen more and more people specifically reaching out and asking various questions about using a fake anemone for their clownfish recently and asking about the advantages and disadvantages of using a fake anemone over a real anemone.
Due to seeing so many people reaching out about adding a fake anemone to their tank for their clownfish each month, we have decided to publish our own article going over fake anemones.
We hope that we will be able to help our readers better understand the advantages of at least trying a fake anemone with their clownfish as well as answer a few other commonly asked questions that we see from the community too.
One of the main problems with trying to use a fake anemone for your clownfish is actually finding a decent fake anemone.
Thankfully though, due to so many people switching from using live anemone in their tank, you are usually able to find yourself decent, fake anemone online for less than $10 with more products being added to the market each year as demand increases.
Can You Use Fake Anemones For Clownfish?
You are able to use a fake anemone with your clownfish to keep your costs and maintenance times as low as possible with many clownfish happily hosting a fake anemone without realizing that it is even fake.
Using a fake anemone removes the risk of accidentally adding an anemone that your clownfish is not immune to and it stinging your clownfish too.
As we covered in our article going over how to care for a purple tipped anemone, it is very common for people to accidentally add anemone from the Atlantic Ocean to their tanks with clownfish having no immunity to their stings.
This can cause a number of issues in your tank while also preventing the clownfish from hosting the anemone with you still having to do the required maintenance on the anemone if you choose to keep it while it ends up offering no benefit.
Another advantage of going with a fake anemone is that they really don’t require as much time and effort to maintain while also not having any health problems that can develop due to issues with your water parameters.
As we covered in our article going over why your anemone may be shrinking, many anemone are very sensitive to water parameters and even something is simple as a shrimp walking over some anemone can be enough to cause them issues where as a fake anemone has none of these issues.
Should You Use A Fake Anemone For Clownfish?
If you are a beginner fish keeper and do not feel that you are experienced enough or have enough time to take adequate care of a real anemone then trying a fake anemone can be a quick, easy, and cheap alternative.
Many fish keepers all around the world use a fake anemone for their clownfish without issue with many clownfish hosting the fake anemone as if it were real.
Not only does trying a fake anemone in your tank remove most of the problems of keeping a real anemone but it also can help to prevent strange behavior in your clownfish too such as your clownfish swimming vertically.
Although some clownfish will not take to the fake anemone and some clownfish may not actually want to host any object, considering that you are able to pick up a fake anemone for around $10, they are usually worth trying.
You can usually find fake anemone in a wide range of colors, styles, and sizes too making it very easy to ensure that they will fit in with the overall look of your tank and not look out of place.
If you are into your aquascaping though, you probably have the experience required to maintain a real anemone anyway so going with a suitable real anemone for your clownfish like a bubble tip anemone.
Does A Clownfish Need An Anemone?
A clownfish does not need to have an anemone in their tank to host and many clownfish will start to host random objects in their tank is no anemone is available.
Many people do try to add an anemone to their clownfish’ aquarium though due to it being able to help reduce stress and anxiety levels in a clownfish by helping it feel safe.
Due to clownfish having developed an immunity to the stings of many of the Pacific Ocean anemones, they can happily host an anemone and live in it without issue.
This is why so many clownfish will host a fake anemone as they can rarely tell the difference between a real anemone and a good fake anemone as they look and feel similar with neither of them actually stinging the clownfish.
A fake anemone also helps to minimize the stress and anxiety in a clownfish by helping it feel safe even though the fake anemone does not have a sting that may deter any other fish in the tank from attacking your clownfish.
If you do have a highly stocked tank then this can be a great way to help your clownfish feel safe and reduce its stress levels without having to put any of your other fish at risk by adding a real anemone that can sting other fish in the tank.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over using a fake anemone for clownfish in your aquarium to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand the advantages of a fake anemone and why many of our readers, especially those without enough time to care for a real anemone should at least try their clownfish with fake anemone. They are cheap enough to be within budget for the majority of people and really can help to enhance the life of your pet clownfish with minimal effort being required.
