anemone question

[fishdweeb]

I purchased a mated pair of clowns with the anemone. I put them in my tank about a week ago and all has been going well. I fed the anemone a medium sized piece of krill last week and he seemed to be happy. ( My water parameters are perfect)
Not fully knowiing how much water flow the anemone wants, I have been experimenting with power head proximity.

yesterday after work I go down to feed the fish and the anemone is flat, as in completely deflated and like a pancake. I kick on the Halides and move a power head closer to increase water flow...I come back about 30 minutes later and the anemone is looking a bit better....I feed the clowns and feed the anemone two medium pieces of krill....he grabs and engulfs....this morning I go down and he is puffed up and looking wonderful.

questions:
1. What is this pancake look?
He wanted Light?
He wanted more water flow?
He was starving?

I have not kept an anemone for about 7 years, and I think I over fed the last one to death, if that is possible.

This is a beautiful flourescent pink animal and I really need to learn how to get them to thrive. I thought I was doing everything correctly....

thanks in advance

brad
northdakota

 

[Toddrtrex]

What type of anemone is it?

"beautiful fluorescent pink" sound to me that it is either starting to bleach, or recovering from bleaching, but a picture would help.

What are the numbers behind the "perfect" parameters ?

What lights was it under before hand, and did you acclimate it to your lights?

The "pancake" look could be normal adjustment to a new tank, but really need to know what type of anemone it is to answer your other questions.

 

[jon1985]

what kind of anemone is it? I have a carpet that looks like a pancake most of the time against the rocks, but if its an LTA or BTA it shouldnt be flat.

As for the over feeding, from what I have read if you feed to regularly it doesnt get a chance to digest the food from the previous meal and it eventually starts to rot inside the anemone.

 

[fishdweeb]

It is not a carpet anemone....probably a bubble....I am trying to find a decent website to visually identify.

color is good. This came from another reefer using similar lighting.....I observed this anemone for about about six weeks prior to taking it home. I did acclimate to my lighting...1400k (which was what it enjoyed in it's original home)

water parameters- I have at home....I used my api set, so not as accurate as I would like...phosphate- lowest color on the card, Nitrate-zip, Nitrite-zip, ph...I want to say 8.0
amonia-zip

I found a website this am that had a graph relating survival to feeding amounts.
it said 92% survival with feeding 30x per month....is that accurate or insane?

seems insane to me...but I'm a 48 year old noob.

 

[Toddrtrex]

It is not a carpet anemone....probably a bubble....I am trying to find a decent website to visually identify.

color is good. This came from another reefer using similar lighting.....I observed this anemone for about about six weeks prior to taking it home. I did acclimate to my lighting...1400k (which was what it enjoyed in it's original home)

water parameters- I have at home....I used my api set, so not as accurate as I would like...phosphate- lowest color on the card, Nitrate-zip, Nitrite-zip, ph...I want to say 8.0
amonia-zip

I found a website this am that had a graph relating survival to feeding amounts.
it said 92% survival with feeding 30x per month....is that accurate or insane?

seems insane to me...but I'm a 48 year old noob.

I personally think that is insane. I currently only have Haddonis, with the oldest one being 10+ years old. They are lucky if they get fed every 3 weeks. IMO, most people feed their anemones too often. (( excluding bleached ones that need to be fed more often )).

 

[coralreefer80]

I agree with insane. I've fed an anemone every day but like Toddrtrex said, it was bleached and needed to be nursed back to health. Anemones metabolize super slow so feeding a healthy one is completely unnecessary. Once mine was healthy, I could tell that it didn't want to eat every day because it started spitting the food out!

 

[nozleman]

+1 if healthy feed only once every 3 or 4 weeks!

 

[tufacody]

I think this depends on the nem. If I go a week w/o a feeding for my gig, I notice that even though fully inflated, he seems smaller. I give him a feeding and the next day he is much fuller. I have found that a pea-sized feeding every 4-5 days works best for me.

 

[fishdweeb]

Good info- thank you.
won't they just refuse food if they are "not hungry"? or are they like the Basset Hound I used to have that would eat until it exploded, if allowed.

 

[tufacody]

i don't know, mine have never been not hungry