did something stupid

[unbreakable]

okay, well last week wednesday i stopped by my lfs to check out what he had. he doesnt order anything unless someone asks for something. well, i saw he had a purple lta and gbta.. the gbta was just bad and melting, the lta on the other hand looked OK. the mouth wasnt gaping, but questionable, the foot wasnt a deep color but looked faded. i noticed it wasnt planted into the sand or anything for that matter.

ive seen this guy do his water changes and he uses tap water, so i was just starting to worry about the plta. i asked about the lighting he had and it was just some crappy PC lighting that didnt go over the whole tank. needless to say, he mentions that i could take it and pay through paypal later, so i went ahead and took it.

did an hour+ acclimation and set him in, watched him to make sure he was okay, within 15 minutes he dug his foot in the sand. i thought it was perfect, well, just today he moved and isnt in the sand, but attached to the side of glass.

before he wouldnt eat, so i was worried, he does have sticky tentacles. today i offered him a piece of raw shrimp, he took it right away and ate it and ate 2 very small pieces of raw shrimp, smaller than an eraser end.

the guy is 4" when expanded. first day i got him he did expell some brown stuff that might have been his zooaxenthella, but it was a very small amount and it didn happen anymore. he looks like this guy in this picture, just with a faded foot:

250w MH with 2x65 actinics
28 gallon tank (small, i know)
salinity: 1.026-1.027
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 10ppm
ALK: 8dkh
tank has been under my care for 5 months but has been setup longer than that

my question is, is it normal for him to be attached to the glass like this? i think he moved because he planted so deep that the bristleworms were bothered by this and started crawling around him and left, but could also be that hes annoyed by something.

should i expect the worse? i know it was a stupid move on my part but i just didnt want it to melt like the gbta :|

i dont have clowns so it has no fish thats bugging it. so its all on me and just want to make sure i do everything correctly

 

[unbreakable]

what should i be looking at within the first week or so of having it? will daily or every few hours of shrinking and expanding be something to look at, like a sign its not doing well?

 

[cwk132]

it might be a sign that its not doing well but it has also been said the be a way of acclimating to your tank water since it had a different tanks water in it when you put it in. so the best advice is to watch it carefully and if he is still eating that is a great sign. make sure to keep feeding him the very small pieces a few times a week and just keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't take a turn for the worst. nice lta by the way!

 

[onecrzyboi4u]

Ok first you need to lower your nitrites!, it's recommended that for anemones your tank be up and running for 6 months to a year.. most would suggest a year. I wouldn't bother trying to feed it so much.. since you said he ate.. thats good.. (but should have waited) don't feed it again until next week. Id feed it once a week. anemones will move where they feel most comfortable. so he must feel okie on the glass which is okay..if you look at the gallery section here you'll see some peoples anemones has attached on the glass. second.. he will inflate and deflate hes adjusting to your tanks water don't worry..Dont' worry about the bristle worms they are very good for your tank. third id wait until the anemone is adjusted to your tank before adding fish.

 

[Haddonisreef]

It may be trying to get to the light sence it was under pc

 

[onecrzyboi4u]

nitrates sorry.. typo

 

[unbreakable]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10644618#post10644618 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cwk132
it might be a sign that its not doing well but it has also been said the be a way of acclimating to your tank water since it had a different tanks water in it when you put it in. so the best advice is to watch it carefully and if he is still eating that is a great sign. make sure to keep feeding him the very small pieces a few times a week and just keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't take a turn for the worst. nice lta by the way!

I'll keep a close eye on it. How long does it take for anemones to expell the old water to replace with new? Thanks for the help!

 

[unbreakable]

Thanks for the advice charlie and onecrzyboi.

I just kept hoping things wouldn't end bad since it would deflate and inflate every few hours, at night it stays inflated until the morning comes, then thats when it happens. I'm either guessing its freaked out with the new lights or that my water quality is bothering it. It was orginally just going to be an LPS tank, but i removed the LPS to another tank and im stuck with the softies that came with the tank that are on the rocks

 

[unbreakable]

how long will it take for it to get used to the tank

 

[onecrzyboi4u]

depends on your anemone..

 

[timrandlerv10]

he doesnt seem to be shrinking away when the light comes on does he?

i've heard some people say that when moving a nem from capture/warehouse/shipping/crappy lfs light to your high light at home, that he needs to get acclimated to the bright light.

if that seems to be the case, then maybe shading him a tad when the lights come on...like putting a few sheets of window screen over your tank, and removing one every few days may help.

religious adherence to water consistency seems to also be a big suggestion...somebody said 10ppm for 'ates was too high, but i've seen worse (not saying lower isnt better, just saying dont freak out). maybe cutting back on the food will help reduce waste, which...

anyway, consistency in salinity, ph and alk can never be wrong


i would also wonder if you are on the light side of how much LR to have? maybe others will chime in.

do you have a sump? maybe some macro algae in the sump, with an off-cycle 5600 cf light would help some--would use up some ates, help keep P down, and also help add 24 stability to ph.

i wouldnt be surprised if it took him a week-ish to be halfway more comfortable.

pics would be nice...

tim

 

[unbreakable]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10649095#post10649095 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by timrandlerv10
he doesnt seem to be shrinking away when the light comes on does he?

i've heard some people say that when moving a nem from capture/warehouse/shipping/crappy lfs light to your high light at home, that he needs to get acclimated to the bright light.

if that seems to be the case, then maybe shading him a tad when the lights come on...like putting a few sheets of window screen over your tank, and removing one every few days may help.

religious adherence to water consistency seems to also be a big suggestion...somebody said 10ppm for 'ates was too high, but i've seen worse (not saying lower isnt better, just saying dont freak out). maybe cutting back on the food will help reduce waste, which...

anyway, consistency in salinity, ph and alk can never be wrong


i would also wonder if you are on the light side of how much LR to have? maybe others will chime in.

do you have a sump? maybe some macro algae in the sump, with an off-cycle 5600 cf light would help some--would use up some ates, help keep P down, and also help add 24 stability to ph.

i wouldnt be surprised if it took him a week-ish to be halfway more comfortable.

pics would be nice...

tim

I have chaeto, but I dont have a sump. It's just a regular 28 not drilled or anything. I have about 40lbs of live rock with around a 4" sandbed. At night it seems to stay open the most, even when actinics come on itll be okay, but throughout the day it will shrink and open up. i thought it was okay at night too, but ive noticed it will also shrink at night-- either its really stressed out with the move from being captured (assuming it is from the wild), being shipped, being not proplerly acclimated to the dealer's tank and housed with improper lighting and water quality (tap). i remember the guy telling me when he got the shipment he left everything in the bags overnight which pretty much shocked me too. i know the place sounds crappy but he has a higher success rate with keeping fish healthy than petland where everything has ich and doesnt order fish weekly. someone ordered a purple lta, so i guess he ordered 2 in case one died from shipping

im thinking of getting something like phosguard.

i dont know if im freaking out too much or not, but id just hate to see something like this die.

 

[unbreakable]

i dont have a camera, the gf took my digital SLR with her upstate for school, the best i would be able to do is a camera phone which is bad quality

 

[unbreakable]

right now it looks like its fully opened and stretching, i have the moonlights on. looks like it wants to plant its foot but not ready for it

 

[unbreakable]

It buried its foot again, but only about 1-2 inches away from the original spot. Right now it's on a side of the tank thats lower in sand; it's at a slope in one corner since I used to have a powerhead that blew it away from the corner.
These are shots using my camera phone, only thing I had, and the round thing that looks like is on his foot is on the glass

 

[Ladipyg]

Well, it looks pretty good but you have to start doing some water changes to get the quality up...it may look like he's doing well but they are sensetive to all the bad things, ammonia, nitrates and nitrites. If it's doing the inflating/deflating thing it's taking that high nitrate water in and that's not good. They can go down very quickly...small-regular water changes a couple of times a week until you get your nitrates to 0 would be a good idea. Good Luck!

 

[Mr Stomato]

My LTA was in the worst shape I had ever seen one. It had been shrunken and tumbling accross the tank bottom for days. But I'm a rescue type of person so I took it for like 5 bucks. LFS owner tells me that it's highly likely it wont make it. Of course I knew that but I wasn't going to just let it die without giving it every chance.

I brought it home, acclimated and slipped his foot through a hole I had made with to rocks in a shaded area. It didn't foot or eat for months. Now some 5 moths later it has tripled in size is eating and is footed very well.

So what I'm saying here is that I think you can make it work out well if you do the right things. As the guys above state, 0 nitrates sounds like a good short term goal. It looks far far better than mine did when I got it. It does look like it's hunting for soemthing and if you say it shrinks up when the halides come on I would venture to say that it's too intense too soon. It is possible that he is looking for shade.

Do you have a skimmer of any sort on the system? Your water changes will will def help, but if you do too much volume it may have negative effects. I stick to 10-15% a week.

 

[unbreakable]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10654646#post10654646 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mr Stomato
My LTA was in the worst shape I had ever seen one. It had been shrunken and tumbling accross the tank bottom for days. But I'm a rescue type of person so I took it for like 5 bucks. LFS owner tells me that it's highly likely it wont make it. Of course I knew that but I wasn't going to just let it die without giving it every chance.

I brought it home, acclimated and slipped his foot through a hole I had made with to rocks in a shaded area. It didn't foot or eat for months. Now some 5 moths later it has tripled in size is eating and is footed very well.

So what I'm saying here is that I think you can make it work out well if you do the right things. As the guys above state, 0 nitrates sounds like a good short term goal. It looks far far better than mine did when I got it. It does look like it's hunting for soemthing and if you say it shrinks up when the halides come on I would venture to say that it's too intense too soon. It is possible that he is looking for shade.

Do you have a skimmer of any sort on the system? Your water changes will will def help, but if you do too much volume it may have negative effects. I stick to 10-15% a week.

I don't have one on there, but it looks like I'm going to have to set it up with the water change coming soon. I have the coralife 65 but it doesnt work correctly, you have to remove the little cylinder it has in order for it to work right, but you can hear the loud gurgling and sucking in air, which is why i stopped using it.

It looks okay, but it just worries me when it shrinks down continuously. I bought it for 35, next day I went to pick a couple of snails up when I told him how he was doing and how he had planted his foot within 15 minutes of putting him in. He was in shock and made a weird face and said, "really??" I'm assuming that most people have had a hard time keeping anemones alive once they buy from him, or he's never had any success with them

These are the pics when it shrinks:

sorry the glass is a mess. I'll try the best to keep everything in check. Even after finding his second spot, he still shrank. That was only with actinics on too. Has to be water quality or still adjusting?

 

[JamesJR]

Man, whatever you do make sure this anemone gets something to eat! Your chances of getting it to thrive and keep it long term will be next to nothing if you don't get it to feed! I would try some pieces of fresh shrimp or fish like lancefish or silversides. I would try and feed it about 3 times a week at the least. If that doesn't work, try and put a little mysis by the mouth. It is hard to tell from the picture but I suspect it may have a slight bit of bleaching, which puts a very strong emphais on it being fed.

I wouldn't worry about your nitrates that much. 10 ppm is not high enough to cause anything to worry about. Nitrate is not really that bad for anemones.

 

[unbreakable]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10656825#post10656825 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JamesJR
Man, whatever you do make sure this anemone gets something to eat! Your chances of getting it to thrive and keep it long term will be next to nothing if you don't get it to feed! I would try some pieces of fresh shrimp or fish like lancefish or silversides. I would try and feed it about 3 times a week at the least. If that doesn't work, try and put a little mysis by the mouth. It is hard to tell from the picture but I suspect it may have a slight bit of bleaching, which puts a very strong emphais on it being fed.

I wouldn't worry about your nitrates that much. 10 ppm is not high enough to cause anything to worry about. Nitrate is not really that bad for anemones.

I mentioned that in the beginning it wanted nothing to do with food, maybe it was a noobie mistake offering food so soon. Yesterday when it had moved and stuck to the glass, I offered food again and it took it right away. I think someone mentioned that it was too soon to feeding it still.

I suspect that it's a little bleached too, but its a purple/brown color, when it deflates its all a darker purple. So far I've only offered raw shrimp since the grocery stores don't have any other type of seafood that's not cooked. LFS doesn't carry frozen foods either.