Help with beaded anemone/H. Aurora Anemone

[MarineGirl411]

I got a beautiful purple H. Aurora Anemone from Divers Den. It will end up just flopping over. I don't really know how to say it. It will not bury its foot in the sand. I have turned off my pumps for at least 8 hours giving it a chance to bury its foot. Not all my pumps, just the closed loop. I cannot find much information on these guys. Virtually, none. I have had him for about a month. What can I do to help this guy?

 

[bradleym]

Have you tried burying the foot next to the base of a rock? Is it eating? Is this the one you bought?

http://64.73.26.105/diversden/detailed_image.cfm?ddID=113637

You can also try putting an eggcrate cage over it to keep it from rolling around the tank after you bury it's foot. If it's eating it will eventually work it out in most cases.

 

[BonsaiNut]

H. aurora is a shallow water sand anemone. It is a smaller anemone, and is considered a "nursery" anemone for clowns, since adults are very rarely found with H. aurora in the wild.

When I have sand anemones that flip, I usually consider it to be a sign that they are very unhappy with their current environment, and are trying to move somewhere else. In the wild they let go and get washed up into shallower waters toward the sand and mud where they are more often found. They actually don't like low flow. As bradley pointed out, they like to be buried up to their oral disk in coarse sand or fine crushed coral. Otherwise they like bright light and strong indirect flow (i.e. flow across their oral disk NOT aimed directly at the anemone).

 

[aday2remmbr]

H. araura is related to the ritteri anemone the malu and sebae anemone. it does host clown fish and i have not seen one over 10 inches wide. place it at the base of the rock with its foot between the sand and the live rock. it will eventually secure its foot if conditions are good. how old is the tank?

 

[BonsaiNut]

H. araura is related to the ritteri anemone the malu and sebae anemone.

Eh?

Do you mean they are all in the same genus? Aside from that, they are completely different creatures with different care requirements.

 

[MarineGirl411]

No, that is not the one I got. It is bigger, but the color is the same. When I first added it to the tank, it seemed happy and found a spot right away. I have tested all my params and everything is fine. It did come in with it's mouth gaping though. I thought that was a bad sign right away. I took pictures of the mouth. It is unhappy right now. I will try to bury its foot later today when the lights come on. It flipped over last night and was floating around the tank. I will close off some of the loc line where it is at. Maybe it does not like how it is pointed in its direction. It had a lot of sand in its mouth yesterday. I removed the sand with a pipette. I wish I would have seen that before.

 

[davocean]

A shipped nem will almost always look stressed and have an open/gaping mouth from my exp, that I see as no big deal, not unless it stayed that way.
My concern is usually when I see on here that a nem won't set foot there could be either an issue w/ the tank, params, or my worst suspicion, a torn foot, which does happen in collection.

 

[MarineGirl411]

Great. Well, I just inspected his foot and it looks torn. I'm really P!$$ED. This guy was expensive. I have blue Torts, a Setosa and hard to keep SPS, but I could not take care of this anemone? I don't get it at all. I have been doing this for almost 6 years.

Alk 9.9
Calcium 425
Temperture 76.5-78
Phosphate 0ppm
Nitrites and Nitrates 0

I just don't get it.

 

[MarineGirl411]

Also of note, I smelled it and it does not smell bad. Could it recover from a torn foot? I have not moved it. I don't see how it could have been torn. I have read online where bristleworms supposedly have been reported to chew at the foot. Is this possible? The foot is stringy. So sad and mad.

 

[garygb]

Bristle worms probably didn't cause the damage; however, once they find the tear in the foot, they're likely to attack.

 

[ezhoops]

yes it can recover from a torn foot but it will need to have a spot were it is settled in. Keep in mind DD has a 14 day live guarantee. I would call them and tell them the situation, their customer service is top notch.

 

[MarineGirl411]

I wrote Divers Den and they said since it is past the 14 days, there was nothing they could do. It is not that long past 14 days though. I bought a sebae at the same time and it is doing good. I'm upset. I don't think I will try one again.