Any tips on keeping vibrant colors in coldwater anenomes? I notice that they tend to fade in time.
Does anyone notice that also? How do you overcome it? Can it be diet, water parameters, lighting or a
combination of all? What do you think?

H

My orange one hasn't really lost color. Then again it wasn't amazing to begin with. How often do you feed yours? Also I don't think light affects their color.

the color shift, if it exists, will likely remain a mystery. temperate anemones, as far as I know, don't obtain color from their food source (like flamingos). some anemones (anthopleura sp., specifically) gain their coloration from the chlorophyll they harbor. the coloration of pink, orange and red anemones may be part of a mechanism to deflect UV light, and the pigment would understandably lessen once the anemones are placed in typical low to no light systems, but it's a stretch. I suppose if someone were willing to pop a metal halide over their coldwater tank we could perhaps find some validity in that theory.

I feed every other day. Mysis, brine and freeze dried plankton.

Yes I did hear sometihing about that. Corynactis are found deeper so they may receive less lighting. They
are non photosynthetic to begin with. Anthopleura sp are photosynthetic and need light. I have heard from others that have Giant Greens in captivity that they also have fading issues. Metal halide light probably
will not fit on my set up, so I could not test the theory. Hmmm....

Cyclopeez flakes and whole or chopped krill are apparently a good source of red-orange pigments (beta-carotenes?) from my own experience; I had some of my temperate anemone specimens for about two years and they had not lost any bit of their bright color while on this diet. It's possible that the plant material in the frozen food I occasionally supplemented their diet with somehow helped as well.

Yes I was going to get some Cyclopeez flakes specifically for
that purpose. I have a Waratah Anenome that I would
love for it to keep it's color. I will give it a try.

H

I can't say I've observed any trend toward dullness in my anemones. If anything they seem to get brighter over time. One quantifiable change I've notice is that over time, when kept in aquaria, A. elegantissima anemone develop white bands on their tentacles.

As far as light intensity is concerned, I don't think it would matter.

Tropical corals use colorful sunscreen proteins to protect their zooxanthellae from getting too much light. More light = more sunscreen proteins = more colorful coral. It would not make sense that anemones that are non-photosynthetic and collected from very deep, dark areas would have any means of protecting themselves from high light, because they wouldn't need to - they aren't exposed to high light in the wild, and they don't have zoox to protect, so they wouldn't need the proteins anyway.

Diet may be a factor, I feed mysis and rotifers, which probably contain some red pigments.

jamie, aren't the majority of temperate anemones you all are keeping found in shallow water, tidal and subtidal? anthopleura, urticina, actinia...

good thread...just pop my head in quick to say depth doesn't equal light intensity, although it may. The shallows tend too be far more turbid throughout the year, and light can be low from sand storms. It depends on the particular location to some degree, sheltered, connection to freshwater etc...

True... I was thinking about corynactis when I wrote that. Still though, I don't think azooxanthellate anemones would have sunscreen proteins, would they? I mean, they would for UV, but red light? It doesn't seem like it would be a problem if they didn't have photosynthetic algae in them - there would be no risk of oxidative stress.



Also a good point.

The seasons are another thing to take into account. In the winter we only get 9-ish hours of daylight, and in the summer we get 16. I wonder if you'd see a seasonal shift in coloration in anemones from higher latitudes? The time they were collected could have an effect on their coloration.