Coralkin honest saltwater & reef care

🩺 Emergency Vet-Prep

Rock Flower Anemone Emergency Vet-Prep

Marine vets are rare and it's easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. Print it, keep it with your care notes.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it's serious yet? Run the symptom checker or the water-test checker first — many worries turn out to be a husbandry fix.

Coralkin honest saltwater & reef care · coralkin.com
Rock Flower Anemone — Vet-Prep

🔍 Find an aquatic vet

  • Search the WAVMA (World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association) directory — or search "aquatic / exotics vet near me".
  • Call ahead: "Do you treat marine fish?" Few vets do — find and save one now, while things are calm.
  • Ask the exam fee when you call — knowing the cost up front removes the money-panic in a crisis.

📇 Fill this in now

My vet
My rock flower anemone
What I'm seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

Quarantine and get help promptly if you notice any of these:

  • Detaching and floating/tumbling — almost always too much flow or unstable water.
  • Bleaching or fading colour — light stress (often too intense, too fast) or instability.
  • A wide gaping mouth, “nubby”/retracted tentacles, or a deteriorating foot — signs of a sick specimen; avoid buying these.
  • Failing to open or adapt after shipping — post-transport stress; watch it closely.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Test your water NOW — salinity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, alkalinity and temperature — and correct anything obviously off.
  • Move the fish to a hospital / quarantine tank if you have one.
  • Keep it in its own stable tank water.
  • Keep the tank calm and dim.

⛔ Don't

  • Don't dose the display tank with OTC or shop “cures” blindly — copper and many meds are harmful to inverts and corals, and they mask the real cause.
  • Don't make a big, sudden parameter swing.
  • Don't add anything you can't explain the reason for.

🎒 What to bring

  • A recent, full water test — salinity, alkalinity, nitrate, temperature (and ammonia/nitrite/pH if you have them).
  • Photos plus a short video of what you’re seeing — it may not show it in the clinic.
  • A note of your system and how you feed.
  • Only if advised: the animal itself, in its own tank water.

🗣️ What to tell the vet / expert

Adult size
Small — typically 2–4 in across, up to about 6 in.
Lifespan
Long-lived — sources cite many years to a decade-plus with good care (some claim far longer). As with all anemones, stable conditions decide it.
Minimum tank
~20 gallons and up. Notably more forgiving than host anemones — it doesn't demand the very mature, months-old system a bubble-tip does, though a stable, established tank is still best.
Lighting
Moderate and forgiving — roughly PAR 50–150 is the sweet spot (it adapts across a wide range). Acclimate to brighter light gradually to avoid bleaching.
Water flow
Gentle-to-moderate, varied flow. Too much flow and it lets go and tumbles around the tank.
Placement
It tucks its foot into a rock crevice or the sand bed (often anchoring to buried rock, leaving just the disc showing) and, once happy, STAYS PUT — the big advantage over wandering host anemones. It can still relocate if conditions are wrong, so a roaming one means check your flow and water.
Temperature
72–80°F (22–27°C); ~78°F is a common target.
pH
8.1–8.4.
Specific gravity
1.024–1.026 (~35 ppt).
Other targets
Standard stable reef parameters; zero copper, as with any invert.
Feeding
Photosynthetic PLUS small meaty foods — mysis, brine, finely chopped seafood — spot-fed about 1–2× a week for real colour and growth. It can survive on light alone, but feeding is better.
Temperament
Relatively mild — it has nematocysts and can sting a neighbouring coral or anemone and irritate sensitive skin, but it's far less aggressive than a host anemone.
Reef-safe
Generally reef-safe with a little spacing — it poses less threat than most anemones because it stays put. Leave a buffer, and note it will eat a small fish or shrimp that falls into it.
Natural range
Caribbean / Western Atlantic (much stock is now aquacultured, e.g. from the Dominican Republic).

⚕️ Most marine illness starts with water quality or acclimation, not infection — bring a full set of parameters (salinity, alkalinity, nitrate, temperature). Marine-fish medicine is specialised and few vets treat fish, so call ahead. Copper and many OTC 'cures' are toxic to invertebrates and corals — never dose them in a reef display; treat a sick fish in a separate quarantine/hospital tank, and tell the vet exactly what you've already added.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you treat marine fish?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my water or acclimation be the cause?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for?
  • How do I prevent this happening again?