Anemone Question (Pics)

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boogie1986

New member
Hi,

I just purchased a Long Tentacle Anemone on Thursday from my LFS. My tank parameters are stable with Nitrites and Ammonia at 0 and my Nitrates at .5ppm. I'm keeping it under a 4x96 Current Orbit fixture.

Anyways, it seemed to acclimate quite nicely. Here is a picture of it under the actinics:

Picture471.jpg


However, on Friday night, it started moving around. When I woke up this morning I was able to see it's base out of the sand:

Picture478.jpg


It hasn't buried it's base back in the sand yet. I have 2 powerheads in the tank for flow, because I heard that anemones like lots of water flow. I was hoping that it would be more out in the open to catch more light, but it seems to want to hide.

Does anybody know what would cause it to do this?
 
i recently obtained the exact same type of lta. mine has that purplish brown color with the green semi curly tentacles. mine did the same thing, so i tried to help by making a spot for it that I thought it might like. I made a contained dsb, near the base of a natural cave structure in a decent sized piece of LR so it could hide when it wanted to. It took to it well and has been in my tank for a full week or so and has stayed put.


Here's a shot of it under the 150 MH 20K:

DSCN5040.jpg
 
Although your LTA doesn't look like it anemones have been known to split when stressed. Sometimes when they go into hiding spots, that means something is bother it. I would try moving it to a new location.
 
Well,

It looked like this for a short time

Picture506.jpg



After that, some brownish stuff came out, which I am assuming is feces. After that came out, the mouth closed up and it resumed it's normal shape.

As far as something bothering it, I don't have any other livestock other than a cleanup crew and a Royal Gramma. The Royal Gramma usually is very reserved and doesn't come close to the anemone. However, I do have some mushroom corals situated right next to the anemone....could that be a cause for concern?
 
You said brownish stuff. Thats not feces thats the zooxanthellae algae that lives within it. That means you either have inaquedate lighting or something is stressing your anemone out.

The mushrooms won't bother the anemone. If anything the anemone will bother them. I am talking about something in the water thats bothering them like high nitrates.
 
Well,

I'm keeping it under 4x96 lighting. My ammonia and nitrite are at 0, and my nitrates are .5ppm, the nitrates aren't that high, but do you suppose that it may be the problem?
 
55semireef

I'm using distilled water to top off. My tank it 75 gallons and the measurements are 48" x 18" x 20".

The tentacles are looking fuller than before, but the anemone still has it's mouth gaping open. Here is a picture, and you can just make out the white of the mouth:

Picture518.jpg


I'm thinking about moving it to the following location:

Picture519.jpg


It is kind of shaded from the light from where it it currently setting. If I move it out into the light, perhaps it will do better.

At this point however, I'm becoming overly concerned and very worried, because I've heard that when an anemone has it's mouth open like mine does, it usually is NOT a good thing and that the anemone is in the process of dieing.

I had ordered the anemone through my LFS, and the person at the store handed it to me right out of the shipping box, still in its baggie (Mistake #1 I guess). Also, the Royal Gramma I bought from them seems to not want to eat and has some white tissue on its forehead (which i found out from another forum, may or may not be a parasite...only time will tell).

Thanks for your help
 
I would put it close to the lighting on a rock. I bought my Condy Anemone from a terrible lfs for 6 bucks. They were in bad water and in a small tank with 7 other Condys. The lights that they were using were Normal Output which is your regular flourescent. All of the Condy anemones were bleached white and mine was no exception. I just picked mine bc it had a bright red foot and the others didn't. Well I fed it the first day and ate the food but moved to the bottom of the tank where there was practically no light. It didn't look good so I put it towards the top of the tank. Now my anemone is brown which means the Zooxanthellae algae is proliferating. A dark colored anemone= good.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Hi,

Well I tried moving it from it's current location, and putting it in a more well lit sandy area:

Picture523.jpg


It's base doesn't seem to want to wedge on to anything, and it's base is all shriveled up:

Picture520.jpg


I'm hoping this will help
 
Looks like your LTA has buried itself into the sand,,,that's where LTA's like to live,,, it will not stick to your rockwork higher up in the tank.

Your lighting should be adequate for a healthy LTA, just feed it small portions of raw shrimp or fish every couple of days and see if it recovers from the stress of shipping.
 
You could get somthing where you could make a DSB and put the anemone in there and then put that towards a the light on a rock so the anemone thinks its in a DSB.

Like get a rock that can hold sand. Add 3-4 inches of sand in there and then put the LTA in there so it can dig its foot in the DSB in the rock. Then put that rock close to the lighting. Know what I mean?
 
Well Juck, Condylactis Anemones prefer the sand too but yet its in the rockwork in my tank. I have not touched it since.

In addition, I just gave a method for it to be in the sand but also to be in the rockwork closer to the lighting.
 
Juck, I was making a comparison so boogie1986 could get an idea of thought here to help save her anemone. Throwing unecessary insults at each other will get nothing accomplished and will not be tolerated by any mod. Obviously I have no authority here but I am just giving you advice.

boogie1986, I am sure there are others out there that could give you better opinions and facts than I but I seem to be the only one really responding. I keep responding so others can see your thread that might know more than I do.

Good luck
 
I've read on other sites of where LTA's will attach to sand as well as rockwork. Thanks for all of your input 55semireef and everyone else, you've been very encouraging.

If moving it out into the open sand near the rocks doesn't work, I'll position him higher up in the rocks. There is a crevice that I'm sure it could put it's base down into in my rock structure.

Right now it's tentacles are extended out REALLY Far and they are waving around a great deal. I'll give it a couple of hours to settle before i attempt anything else
 
Have you fed it yet? If not try feeding it and observe how fast it reacts to the food. A healthy anemone will react fast and will be sticky to the touch.
 
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