Anemone follow up

I

Icewing726

New member
1st yes my tank is probably too young for this anemone.

That being said he seems to have settled under an overhang only hanging half of his tentacles in the light. Maybe the leds were too bright? I tried moving him out but he moved himself right back to the same spot.

His color looks good but he hasn't buried his foot in the sand and even moved back into the open space under the rock after I positioned him in a nook so he could grip. Do they need to bury their foot or can they lay on the sand?

Finally, he's been closed up all day today... His colors the same, is this normal?
 
The best thing to do is pay attention to the advice that has been offered here in the forums. There are some very experienced reef/nem keepers giving advice derived from personal experience.

Im no nem expert. Far from it. That said, Im in a somewhat similar situation as you. My tank is relatively young, but has ran stable and Ive had fairly good luck with any type of corals Ive tried, so I decided to try a BTA.

Luck would have it (or bad luck), the BTA I had reserved split the day I went to pick her up. Splitting and a move on the same day, double the stress for the nem. Anyways, she immediately got off the rock she had been attached to at the lfs and headed for shade in a cave. She stayed at the base of a rock in this cave, out of the light for about two weeks. She would open and close constantly throughout the day. About three weeks in, she started climbing the rock inside the cave, peeking out into the light more. Over the course of a few days she traveled vertically about 8" until she found a spot she liked, anchoring into a nook in the rockwork.

Two months later, she is thriving. She has grown nearly double her original size is open all day long, is very colorful, and eats whenever fed.

My long winded point is, from what you describe, and from what Ive seen with mine, what you are seeing is normal behaviour for an acclimating nem.

I would say leave it alone. Let it go where it wants, unless it in danger of finding a powerhead. At this point, you and the nem are like the turkey on Thanksgiving. You're committed. I think the best you can do at this point is keep your water in order and let the nem do what its gonna do. Good luck!
 
I really appreciate your personal experiences. I figured out why the nem was retracted, I had the lights in my tank dimmed after it started hiding but the program ran today and it returned to an intense daylight. I dimmed it again and programmed it to go dim from now on.
 
I put a rose BTA in my tank one month after setting it up. Everyone said I'm stupid. It's been over a year now and I have 11 of them that have taken over an entire section of my tank. If there is one thing that's thriving in my tank, it's the anemone.

Here's the key - if you anemone is tank raised, they are super hardy. If not, you are asking for trouble.
 
Aquacrazed said:
I put a rose BTA in my tank one month after setting it up. Everyone said I'm stupid. It's been over a year now and I have 11 of them that have taken over an entire section of my tank. If there is one thing that's thriving in my tank, it's the anemone.

Here's the key - if you anemone is tank raised, they are super hardy. If not, you are asking for trouble.
Click to expand...

More times than not, excessive splitting is usually caused by stress, which in such a fresh tank would be my guess.

There is good reason we advise waiting for tank to become mature and balanced, you just happen to choose BTA, which often fool people into thinking they bare having success thinking that splitting automatically means thriving.
 
davocean said:
More times than not, excessive splitting is usually caused by stress, which in such a fresh tank would be my guess.

There is good reason we advise waiting for tank to become mature and balanced, you just happen to choose BTA, which often fool people into thinking they bare having success thinking that splitting automatically means thriving.
Click to expand...

I disagree. What do you mean by excessive splitting? Splitting once a month? How do you know this is excessive? Also how do you explain the fact that none of them have died? Don't you think at least one or two would have died if they were under extreme stress?

My theory, and yes this is just my two cents, I have no solid evidence, is that they move around the tank because they are stressed. Mine haven't, they find a place and they have been there ever since (knock on wood).
 
I don't know you, or your tank, you could very well be the greatest anemone whisperer there ever was for all I know...

All I know is your post is by far not the most common outcome, and if your nems are indeed thriving and not just surviving, you would be an extreme exception.

I'm not here to point out the exceptions, but the most probable outcome that comes w/ placing anemone's in a one month old tank.

I'm here to advocate and inform towards responsible reef keeping and care of sensitive animals
 
Aquacrazed said:
I put a rose BTA in my tank one month after setting it up. Everyone said I'm stupid. It's been over a year now and I have 11 of them that have taken over an entire section of my tank. If there is one thing that's thriving in my tank, it's the anemone.

Here's the key - if you anemone is tank raised, they are super hardy. If not, you are asking for trouble.
Click to expand...

Did you acquire the 11 through the single splitting over a year's time?
 
davocean said:
I don't know you, or your tank, you could very well be the greatest anemone whisperer there ever was for all I know...

All I know is your post is by far not the most common outcome, and if your nems are indeed thriving and not just surviving, you would be an extreme exception.

I'm not here to point out the exceptions, but the most probable outcome that comes w/ placing anemone's in a one month old tank.

I'm here to advocate and inform towards responsible reef keeping and care of sensitive animals
Click to expand...

Maybe it was all luck, who knows. This was the first time I kept an anemone and this is my first saltwater tank. Although I've been in freshwater for over 15 years, the last 5 breeding & raising Discus so I do have advanced knowledge of aquarium/fish keeping in general.
 
Here's a shot of my tank:

26ZprAj


Closeup of the anamones:

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i think the waiting for your tank to mature is for people that just start up... i have been in this hobby since 2010 and ive kept multiple BTAs in tanks that ive just started up. just watch your levels and you will be fine.
 
Aquacrazed said:
Maybe it was all luck, who knows. This was the first time I kept an anemone and this is my first saltwater tank. Although I've been in freshwater for over 15 years, the last 5 breeding & raising Discus so I do have advanced knowledge of aquarium/fish keeping in general.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm just basing my advice on 33 years of actually keeping anemone's and clowns, and my past 13 years here reading and sharing experiences w/ others who's main focus has also been anemone's

But FW experience helps too I'm sure.
 
^^ I would agree w/ him, and he has discus, so maybe his comment will have more weight w/ you...

I'm sorry but 10 splits in 11 months would be considered excessive.
 
Yes, I do keep discus but there's no correlation to being a good reef keeper just because of that. Apples and oranges. Yeah, I don't know why the OP mentioned it to back up his claim.
 
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