Do you keep hermits with your anemone?

[TOURKID]

I have a 45 gal tank and my anemone isent hosting right now because my maroon is in QT.

Ever since I had to take the clown away, my BTA is constantly getting beat up by hermits!

Ive caught one pulling off a tenicle, stabbing at its foot with theyre pinchers, stealing its silverslide out of its mouth.

Im getting really fed up!! I sat there with tongs yesterday and everyone that was destructive to the anemone i threw in the toilet (ya, really fed up)

Today I found another poking at it. Is this normal? I havent been adding alot of food to the tank cause my nitrates are high, but im sure they arent starving.

need advice, might be getting rid of them all and adding more snails unless theres a good reson why i need hermits.

tia

maggie

 

[Doni]

The only hermits allowed in my reef are scarlets. I have several anemones and my crabs never bother them. What type of hermits do you have?

You say your nitrAtes are high? Anemones are very sensitive to high trAtes. Is the anemone showing signs of illness? You should begin doing frequent large water changes until they are reduced to 10ppm or less.

 

[IslandCrow]

I have red leg and blue leg hermits, and I've never seen any of them touch my anemone. My maroon clown has exclusive rights on any abuse to the anemone. Fortunately, it seems to take the abuse well.

 

[TOURKID]

island.. same. never had a problem with the fish around (tank is fishless right now)

I have blue legs. and... a ton i dont know of. i ask my lfs for blue legs, i get home with zebras, redish/orange ones with 1 bigger claw, darklegs with spots....

i have killed about 7.... none of the blue legs. and they dont bother it, unless they fall on it by accident or somthing


doni.. ive had a nitrate problem for about 3 weeks. ive added a skimmer, ive changed 50% of water at a time, ive blown on my rocks, ive vacummed my substrate., ive started quite a few threads trying to fix it, i dont have an algea bloom because of it, and all hermits and snails are alive. one test i have reads 40's the other one reads 30's.

It all started after i used a gravel vac the first time (had the tank 5 months, diatris build up for 4 months, then i shook it all up. thats the only thing i can pinpoint.

I was over feeding a lil bit.. but that stopped to.

anemone? looks peachy. shes very sticky, loves to eat. bubbles during the day, and stretches huge at night. go's for an occasional swim, or a hop onto the substrate now and then... but shes living it up.

My newest try? AZ NO3.

ive head good things in the chemistry forum... of course.. it was mentioned in a vodka thread. I will post results.

 

[Doni]

Are you using tap? ro/di? Have you tested it for no3?

 

[TOURKID]

doni.. been thru this to, just forgot. I was using tap water with no conditioner the first 4 1/2 months of my tank. when my nitrate problem arose, i found out r/o d/i water existed. and ive been using it for 3 weeks.

 

[rrome]

I have red legs and have never had a problem. These animals are oportunistic so they'll try to eat whatever they can, if there is no normal detritus, well, they have to eat.

If your anemone is sick/dying that maybe a reason they pick at it....

Throw a couple of silversides in there for them to eat when you feed the anemone to keep them distracted.

>everyone that was destructive to the anemone i threw in the toilet

That was a tad harsh. You could not take them to the lfs or given them to someone? These are living creatures you know.

I do not think a 4 1/2 month old tank is old enough to be 'settled yet' so I would not freak out over the nitrate levels. This article is useful

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

 

[IslandCrow]

You're not going to get on him for all the ants he killed with a magnifying glass as a kid, are you?

 

[TOURKID]

it was a bit harsh, but like i said, i was fed up..... i dont know anyone to give them too, and I think I wanted revenge for the bta

throw em a couple silverslides?? thats hyorrible advice for someone with high nitrates to begin with!!!! lol

im a chick,and i thought burning ants was mean, but i did catch alot of paper on fire...

 

[phender]

Hi Maggie,

If you're finding your BTA on the sand or floating around at all, then it is not as healthy as you think. BTA's do tend to "crawl" around the rocks, but something is wrong if they become detached. It would not surprize me if there is some sort of decay going on in/on your anemone that is attracting the hermits.

 

[TOURKID]

phender... Ive never found her on the sand. lastnight I was observing her,(1 watt lunarlight) and she hopped down to the substrate, then climbed up some rocks and burried her foot. she stayed there tonight. she definatly dident become unattached without it wanting to do so. and thats the first time ive ever seen her do it. The hermits bother her after she is fed. I have a ton of bristleworms and they arent bothering her. shes a nice tan color, havent noticed any bleaching at all. she has tons of
bubble tips, ate today

Her behavoir in general is strange as far as i can tell. Its my first anemone but everything I read differs a little with her. (like she gets very large at night, not folded into a ball

my only problem is nitrates (35-40ppm) and im trying really hard.

Ill be the first one to admit that i should have waited to get her, but I dident know better, and I dident have RC to turn to yet.

I really dont like having people tell me shes probley sick and stuff because thats just not so, Im trying really hard and it means alot to me to keep her happy and healthy.

Im always willing to take a experienced persons advice, and will take a million pics and answer questions to make sure shes ok. and improve anything im able to.

Shes gotton bigger since i got her
shes nice tan with pink tips
foot is light pink
eats everything i give her
has her bubbletips (loses them if being hosted)
She went through a hard spell with mw when I was learning about refractometers/hydrometeres and I lowered my salinity by accident. she looked like a taco shell for 3 days, and has bounced back with my correction
shes very sticky

the only issue im having is
1. I cant seem to get my nitrates stable
2. shes still moving every few days. But I must say, i rearranged my tank and changed flow, and so shes still looking for a sweet spot.

(there may not be enough flow actually, but im trying to research this now)

well... i donno, i dont think she is sick, but if it wasent for all the great help on rc, she might be by now. dont know what id do without it

 

[TOURKID]

afterthought... I checked karensanemones after the hopping inscdent and I had the impression that.. it happens. she has a pic of one rolling around...

 

[phender]

I'm sorry. I should have said, it may be sick. When you said, "an occasional swim, or a hop onto the substrate now and then", it sounded to me like your anemone has been falling off the rocks more than a couple of times. Karen's site is great, but in my experience, a clownfish hosting anemone floating around the aquarium is a bad omen.
You didn't say that the crabs were only attacking during feeding time. That changes things a little.
The combination of the anemone detaching and crabs attacking sent up red flags for me. I have seen anemones that ate and looked healthy and two days later are dead because they had an infection eating a hole through their foot. I didn't mean to upset you. I was just trying to give a "heads up" to someone without any experience, based on the info I was given.

 

[TOURKID]

quite alright. i spend hours watching it. im worried about my nitrates, and I really enjoy my bta. I feel bad having it in my tank because my water isent perfect and it deserves the best, being taken from the ocean and all.

I really enjoy and rely apon RC's opinions, and I will keep a close eye on it to ensure its ok.

I bought az no3 as a 'i dont know what else to do' solution for my nitrates. and today will be the second day. Ive also decided to keep my maroon in QT until the bta gets a little bigger (course.. the fish seems to be growing too!!) but the maroon really seemed to be detrimental to the bta so Im kinda torn.

I was going to return the fish.. then she got a bacteria infection... and now im kinda attached after 3 weeks of caring for her

I may even start another tank..

Really enjoying this hobby, its done wonders on my outlook of life, makes me feel impotant and gives me somthing to do

the bta stayed in its spot all night. (awsome spot to). no food today. ill keep an eye on the... remaining hermits

 

[Amphiprion]

Just to let you know, the 30-40 ppm nitrate will not cause a serious problem with most anemones. I would look to something else as the culprit.

 

[TOURKID]

Theres no culprit. I just had a few non-blue leg hermits stealing my anemones food, and 1 was pulling on its tenicles

amphiprion... I agree with you, and am confused by you as well. Ive read a few posts just in the last few days that was repromanding a newbie for having nitrates that were 10 or 8 or somthing, saying that they are terrible for the anemone and will be deadly n stuff.... got me all worried agian.

But I agree with you, because there has been no change in my anemone since my nitrates spiked..

I have noticed somthing in the last two days that bother me.

It might just be its positioning on the rocks, but her left half of her tenicles are elongated and bubbled and the right half are very small... hold on, Ill take a picture its easier.

This look ok to you guys? she pooped yesterday and everything was shrunk, I saw the right half bubbled this morning, but now it looks like this.

 

[IslandCrow]

Sorry, Maggie, didn't mean to call you a guy. Well, I did. I just didn't notice your name the first time. Anyway, I agree the nitrates probably aren't going to be all that harmful to the anemone, but it may explain it moving around a bit at night. The first anemone I had would always stay put during the day, but would generally be in a different spot the next day. They can be picky, and if they don't like anything about where they are, whether it's crabs annoying it or water parameters it doesn't like, that seems to get them up and moving. Unfortunately, it doesn't realize it's in an aquarium, and the water's going to be the same no matter where it goes.

I've also heard good things about AZNO3. It also sounds like it's based on biology rather than chemistry, which I rather liked, since I personally try to avoid treating my tank with chemicals whenever possible. Anyway, good luck. That's certainly a nice looking anemone. I eventually gave up looking for a BTA around my area with different colored tips. That other half may just be in the process of reinflating. As long as it does, I think you're fine.

I've found that it's best to take any advice about anemones with a huge grain of salt. There is so much even people who study these creatures don't know, you'll find that there are literally hundreds of opinions out there on what you should or should not do to and/or for an anemone.

 

[DaveG99]

I have blue legged hermits, emerald crabs, sally light foots, mean little gorilla crabs (I got the big ones out), I also have hermits that are really small and brown in color (from the ocean here in florida), and lastly I have decorator crabs. None of them bother my anenome. My yellow tang bumped into it the other day with its nose and then took off like it got burnt.

My BTA deflated like that and I thought it was sick. But that is normal for the BTA's from what I have read. It comes back up to size in about 30-45 minutes. Well atleast mine does. Yours looks a lot liek mine does. Good luck with it. I am sure it will be just fine.

 

[larac]

Hmmm... What other fish have you got in there? Any LR? I have many different varieties of hermits and have never seen them bother my anemone. Actually my ceriths can get to the food my fish miss alot faster than the hermits, which usually are cleaning detrious and algae off LR.

I have read posts from alot of people who have had success keeping unwelcome visitors (including abusive clowns) away from their bta by using strawberry baskets placed over the anemone during feeding time. You could also try to lure your hermits with a small piece of silverside in tongs or tied to a string. Feed your bta, then yank the extra food.

 

[TOURKID]

Island.. you always make me feel better

Azno3.. I dont know much about it, I think its on the same level as using vodka.
1st day 2 drops
second day 4 drops

all the way to 32 drops. It turns the nitrates into somthing the skimmer can pull out. I really hope it works!!

The day I bought this anemone the lfs had another, same exact one but green tips, kicking myself for not knowing i could have to bubble tips in one tank

So after that pic, it ended up deflateing more than Ive ever seen it do. It deflated so small, it fell into a little crevice (kinda like a macaroni noodle) and that noodle shaped dip had a piece of rock crossing over it.

it pooped more than I ever seen it do, and I was afraid it was its zooathle. when it started to reinflate, it got caught between the rock crossing over the crevice and couldent reinflate!!! it was crazy. It ended up pulling its foot out like it was ready to walk (but half was stuck!) I was afraid it was going to split to get unstuck, but I woke up this morning and it was unstuck and only moved about 3 inches!

It does move almost every night... although. since th day i started using azno3 it hasent move except the two inches lol

hopefully it works out


larac... going to try the basket today, because no matter how long i sit there and fend off the hermits from her silverslide, as soon as im gone they take it! i waite dover an hour the other day! (crazy. i know. lol) well, feeding day today... we'll see.

OH. forgot. when I turned on the lights this morning to hermits were sleeping underneth the anemone.. like under her disk part.

The real question is, are an all snail clean up crew good enough? except a select few bluelegs, they are up to no good. might be conspiracy