diced up anemone

[dfepeman]

Well, I bought an anemone before I read up enough on it, and sure enough I paid the price: the second night it got into to Turbelle 6100 and met a grizzly end. After the fact I read about how common this is, but I thought I'd ask: Is it possible to put some filter foam around the intake gill of the turbelle without messing things up? I realize it would require regular cleaning, but with the high flow of the turbelles perhaps a foam screen is ill-advised?

I feel bad about the poor rose bulb-tipped anemone. I should have looked into thigns more.

 

[rvitko]

I think the best move for the future would be to turn off the Streams for a few hours and let the anemone attach and then run them as slow as possible for a week and slowly increase the flow after that. I don't know what you would use for a strainer foam. It wouldn't be impossible to do this but it should be quite coarse.

 

[dfepeman]

From the threads I've read, eventually red bubble-tipped anemones will find the powerhead- it's a matter of when, not if. Besides some sort of coarse foam, perhaps a larger wire basket would work.

Surely some turbelle owners have experience keeping anenomes and have had to "anemone-proof" them?

 

[rvitko]

I disagree. Anemones stay put unless they don't like where they are. Now, granted they could move because the flow slowed from the pumps getting dirty or the lights got old and dim and this is hard to prevent. A trick that works with most anemones is they only will move up (usually) so, build an island of rock that is too far removed from other structures for them to move and they will generally perch at the top and stay. The light has to be suitable and you have to feed them and the flow should be going across either side and not direct.

I think in general the Stream Rock is the best way to safeguard the pump. If it is positioned on top of a rock structure with careful attention to keeping the side openings small their is little chance for the anemone to get in and the pump is not obstructed or damaged in anyway.

 

[LowCel]

There is definately a risk when the anemone is new.

Here was my anemone the second day that I had it.

This was it a month or so later.

Like Roger said, once they find a place that makes them happy they will stay there. You just need to give it a little time to settle with the stream off.

 

[dfepeman]

Perhaps I will try again in the future, but I'll have to be pretty confident I won't dice up another anemone before I risk one. The picture of the anemone sucked into the intake looks better than what I found: it was torn into 3 pieces and was mostly on the inside being chopped by the impeller. I'm pretty positive it was dead and I didn't do a "live burial"

Yes, I've heard that anemones settle down, but I've also heard that they'll go on "walk abouts" with any change. They aren't supposed to release their foot like I observed, but a number of people have seen this behavior. My tank is pretty new so I better get everything settled down before trying an anemone again.