anemone won't attach

[0rangeFish]

I got a long tentacle anemone three days ago, but it still hasn't stuck to anything. The first day I set him on the sand bed, but he kept being blown around by the current. I surrounded him with rock with a net on top (my clowns kept swooshing him out of the circle of rocks) to keep him in place, but by the end of the day he still hadn't attached. The second day I decided to just let him float around, but still no luck. Now it's day three and he's still where he stopped flowing around from yesterday. Any ideas on how to get him to stick? He is sticky and looks really healthy, and even ate the day I had him surrounded by rocks. He's just lying on his side on the sand bed currently.

 

[ERIKtheG]

Maybe dig out an area of sand to the glass and let his foot stick to the glass. Then put some sand around its trunk so it's foot stays buried. Of course it needs to stick before you can bury his foot. Worked for my carpet. I turned the flow off for a bit too, like ten minutes.

 

[MacWilliams]

Turn your powerheads off, do not feed right now and clear some sand to allow him the easiest access to the glass on the bottom of the tank. Try to set him near a rock and possibly and overhang so he can get out of the light if he needs to. Then move the sand you pulled away around his foot. LTA's like to have thier entire foot buried in the sand. Just keep your power heads off for a hour or so and give it a chance to properly attach. Make sure its in a medium to low flow area as well.

 

[0rangeFish]

well i dug a hole for him and turned off the powerbeads, but he's still just laying on his side. I had to put the net back over him because the clowns keep pushing moving him. How long do you suppose it will take? I attached a picture of him.

 

[0rangeFish]

Still not sticking

 

[shifty51008]

Can you tell us about your tank? Size what lights, water parameters (numbers please), how long the tank has been running, ect. Maybe the anemone just isnt happy where its at.

 

[0rangeFish]

Day four still sitting on his side, but when the lights come on he opens up all the way. As for the tank it's a 46 gallon, metal halide lights (150w bulbs), the sand bed is 3 inches deep, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate, 0 nitrites, 0 phosphates, 8.2 pH, 480 calcium, alkalinity 196.9 (11 drops), salt levels 1.024, temp 80F. The tank has been running for a year, but it was actually my old tank down sized and that was six years old.

 

[Silvergryphon]

Mine attached right away, but over the past week has moved 4 times, and currently just has it's foot stuck in the corner of the glass and not buried.

 

[justthewife]

Did you check his foot? Is it injured? Was it attached at the the place your purchased him?

 

[0rangeFish]

His foot looks fine. Unfortunately I got him online, so I didn't see if he was attached or how they got him into the bag. He didn't come attached to anything. He picks up little bits of sand and holds on to them, so I assume his foot is ok.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

I'm going through this as well with my LTA from DD. It's very frustrating.

 

[MacWilliams]

Just stay patient. If its opening up and you dont see any damage just leave it alone and try to keep the powerheads off for a few hours so it doesnt get blown around. Try simulating it attached by moving sand as close to the bottom glass as possible and then fill the hole around its foot. This worked for me and was fully attached and hasnt moved within 30 -60 minutes. I left the poowerheads off for 3 hours just to allow it time to get a good hold.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Patience is definitely key. Mine finally attached. I turned off major flow, dug down to the glass and put a clear strawberry basket over it for a couple of days. Once it attached I placed the sand back around it's column.

 

[salty14]

Sorry to add on to this post, but I am new to the reef world and I can't figure out how to make a new post. I just bought my first anenome yesterday and even after a ton of research, the fish store somehow convinced me to buy a partially bleached anenome. It won't attach to the floor and it just keeps getting sicker looking as time goes by. I didn't want to interfere with it too much, but I read about helping it by exposing the glass and then burying it. This didn't help at all. I don't know what to do at this point. All my tests have came back great except for the smaller trace of nitrate but it's barely detectable. My light is a coralife dual fixture high output t5. I don't know if that is good or not but when I bought it they told me it would be good for corals... Any help would be appriciated I'm so upset about this and I will do anything to save it!