Another Sebae PROBLEM!!!

[1GoldClown]

Can anyone identify why he is doing this. All he has been doin is staying very small since he has moved from his original spot his is expelling his mouth/butt out all the time and rarely gets large. I got him about 2 weeks ago and for 11 days he satyed in one spot happy then moved, AAfter he moved he never reconnected to anything and decided to stay in sand in a dark back corner of ma tank. So i made him a spot and put him there. He gets larger during the day and does this at night but still never gets full expansion . All help is appreciated..

 

[garygb]

I would flip it back over. Frankly, after two weeks, that is not a good sign. Your post says, "just starting" in the hobby. Heteractis crispa are definitely not for someone with less than a year, preferably a few years, keeping water parameters stable and in check.

What are your water parameters, btw?

 

[Toddrtrex]

Gary -- I may have read the OP wrong, but I think the anemone is right side up, and that is the mouth/insides protruding out. And if that is the case, that is really a bad sign.

 

[garygb]

Oh, you're right! I thought it was the foot. I'm glad you pointed that out. Yeah, all that can be done at this point is to provide it with as near ideal conditions as possible.

 

[BigH55]

The brown tissue is not a good sign either. Looks like its on the way out.

 

[garygb]

Maybe the brown is zooxanthellae that the anemone is expelling--of course that isn't a good sign in this case.

 

[ShilohPSU]

It is defintely not a good sign... Just out of curiousity, what kind of light are you using on the tank? I'm not sure if insufficient light would cause an anemone to turn inside out and expell their zooxanthellae, but the light in the picture appears to be pretty dim. Not enough light will definitely upset an anemone.

 

[1GoldClown]

that is the camera, the light is 54 watt PC's t5 .the only problem i had with my water is that the alkalinity was a little low. im about 7 months into this so im not exactly new but on the other hand im not experianced

 

[ccampbell57]

The issue is that your lighting is not good enough for the anemone. It requires at least 3w per gallon.

Generally Sebae's require Halides or at least VHO's. Your PC 54w T5s are not cutting it

 

[garygb]

You refer to your lighting as 54 watt pc t-5s. Do you mean 54 watt bulbs for t-5 ho's? If so, how many t-5 bulbs do you have and how far is the anemone from the bulbs? T-5s, or pcs, potentially could be fine for the anemone, but it depends on the depth of water, number of bulbs, age of bulbs and color temp. of the lights.

 

[1GoldClown]

Yea sorry that is what i mean. I have 2 bulb's on a 29 gallon tank and yes I know they are to big but that is what im working with for now. I had it originally seen in this pic

but now it 's as seen in first picture

.As for color temp of lights you will have to explain that.

 

[Toddrtrex]

Color temp ----
6700 K would be fairly yellow
10000K would be fairly "white"
20000K would be fairly blue.

So the higher the number the closer to the blue spectrum it will go. There is a bit more too it, but that is a quick answer.

 

[garygb]

yeah, daylight is in the 5-10,000K range, and gives the highest PAR (photosynthetically active radiation), i.e., the most useful lighting for shallow water animals like your H. crispa.

BTW, the Condylactis gigantea you have looks great. Is it still doing as well as in taht last pic?

 

[WDLV]

Your Crispa looks very bleached in both pictures. Watts per gallon is not a foolproof way to measure lighting, but it's the best rule of thumb we have in the hobby.
I have kept a 58 gallon reef ready tank with 3 96W PCs with success. I have kept a 20 gallon with NO (normal output) bulbs with some success.
You can grow coral with any type of flourescent bulb. But you need to match the same number of Watts/gallon as their metal halide counterpart. In which case your energy bills will remain the same and your bulb costs will go up. Not only do you need more bulbs of flourescent to equal he same wattage as MH, but you need to replace them twice as often. MH will need to be replaced every 10-12 months depending on how many hours per day you run them. Flourescents will need to be replaced about every six months. I have heard many rave reviews about T-5s but I also have seen some of the same people who write the rave reviews switch to (or back to) metal halide six months later. I have no experience with T-5, so take that with a grain of salt.
The bottom line is that I believe that your anemone is hosed. My best advise to you at this point is to leave it alone to do whatever it wants to do and start saving up for a better lighting rig. One that will provide a MINIMUM of 3 Watts per gallon... regardless of what kind of bulb you wish to run.
Once you've upgraded your lighting rig, I would be on the lookout for a BTA that has been cloned in another reefer's tank. It will be much more likely to survive.

Something else I highly recommend doing is finding a reefer that lives near you who has a proven track record of keeping the kind of animals that you wish to keep and use them as a mentor. Listen to them and only them until you have enough experience to make good decisions on your own.

Good luck!

 

[1GoldClown]

Yes I have heard that my crispa looks bleached but thats how i got him and thats how he has stayed, he eats alot and acts very normal so im not worried about it.

 

[WDLV]

I'm not sure what you've been told but an anemone spitting out it's zoanthellae is not acting "normal" by any stretch of the imagination nor is being bleached. If you're not worried about it I may have missed the point of the thread. As for the eating habits, you might want to make sure it's not taking food in only to spit it back out later when you're not in front of the tank because based on your description and the pics you provided, yours does not appear to be eating well.
If I offended you somehow in my initial resopnse it was not intentional. It may not have been what you wanted to hear, but it was the truth.
If I needed to qualify myself....
Against my better judgement I have kept quite a few anemones in the last 11 years with varying levels of success. I've lost about half of them and sold many others to responsible hobbiests. I am currently keeping three species. I have 3 RBTA clones that range in size from 6" to 12" a carpet that I rescued that was 2" when I got it and is now 8" and a LTA like yours that's 18".
Despite any level of "success" I may claim I do think about the clownfish that will and have died on the reef because I decided to keep an anemone in my tank. To haphazardly purchase anemones without trying to at least educate myself on their care would be irresponsible at best.
For reference, here's what a heathy one looks like.

 

[garygb]

Your thread begins with this:

Another Sebae PROBLEM!!!

Then your last post is this:

Yes I have heard that my crispa looks bleached but thats how i got him and thats how he has stayed, he eats alot and acts very normal so im not worried about it.

Seems like contradictory information.

 

[1GoldClown]

Ok so i contradict myself. Is this a psychology forum or a forum for help of aqautic animals??? If you want to bash then dont post, its not needed. What is needed is help for me and my aqaurium. So I am new at this and dont know what I am doing at that , did we all not start like me or am I the only one??? Yesterday I said that i feed my pink tip(what i was told) and it eats brine with no problem. Also about it being bleached i was told time is the key for that to return to normal. The sebae does not eat so I decided to ask a fellow reefer what to do. He told me to buy some essential viatamins and some microverts fo them, and so I came back with phytoplankton and a product called Reef Solution made by EcoSystem Aquarium. If I have taken another step backwards please let me know in a kind manner. As for my light I am working on getting a new lighting system. And for the record I was not affended at first, until further comments were made.

 

[WDLV]

I was trying to help you. Even with the second post. My interpretation of what you initially posted was that you needed help with your anemone. I think your anemone is hosed. So, I gave you the best advise I could give you for your next purchase.
When you said "Yes I have heard that my crispa looks bleached but thats how i got him and thats how he has stayed, he eats alot and acts very normal so im not worried about it."
It gave the impression that you didn't care what anyone had to say unless they agreed with what you already wanted to do.
I wasn't trying to bash you in either post, but rather let you know that if you ask for help and someone takes the time to try to give it to you that you could show a little appreciation rather than giving the impression that thier opinion is not wanted.

That said, as a newbie, I gave you the best advise I could to hopefully save you some grief and some money. Which was to find a mentor with a proven track record to assist you. I say that because you will hear a hundred different opinions on this forum and they may all work for one style of reefing but not the one you're subscribing to. A mentor will know the history of your particular system and will be better able to help you with where you may be going wrong.
Please try to keep an open mind. Just because I'm direct does not mean I'm out to get you.
I wish you the best of luck with your hobby.

 

[garygb]

I know that sometimes the way things come across in text can easily be perceived as attacking or rude, but I think for the most part people post with the intention of being helpful. So most likely they are coming from a good place. I hope that as frustrating as some of the posts may seem, that you won't avoid using RC in the future if you are seeking help. There really is a wealth of knowledge available on here if you persist. I can't imagine that anything I've posted was perceived by you as rude, but just in case, if anything was offensive, I genuinely didn't intend it that way.