I received the anemone in the first week of November. It came in looking very bad. The mouth was gaping severely and the anemone looked more like an old ragged frayed sweat sock as opposed to a healthy anemone. However, the tentacles were long, and not short/stubby like I've seen on starving anemones.
I immediately put it into a container with freshly mixed ASW. The water had been mixing for about 24 hours. I drained out all of the water the anemone was shipped in. It was cloudy and smelled bad. The anemone was placed into the container with an airstone and a single 100mg tablet of Doxycycline was added. The container was placed into my display tank to maintain temperature and was left for 6 hours.
The anemone began to look better, but was still very flaccid and the mouth was still gaping, although not as bad as before.
I placed the anemone into an established 58 gallon tank, lit by a single XM 250 watt 15K bulb, circulation is by two Tunze Stream 6000's on a controller.
The anemone attached to a rock directly under the light and under the Tunze's flow pattern. After waiting a day, I attempted to feed it a small piece of scallop and a small piece of raw shrimp. It took neither.
I fished those out and tried a few pieces of PE Mysis. The anemone accepted the Mysis. Feeding response was very sluggish and it took the anemone over 45 minutes to move the Mysis into the mouth, and swallow them.
The next morning, the anemone had let go of the rock and was floating about the aquarium, blown by current. I was unable to get the anemone to attach, or to take any more food.
I honestly figured the anemone was certain to die at this point, but kept attempting to place it on a rock somewhere and to feed it. All to no avail. Every morning the anemone would be face down behind the rocks somewhere. Every time I would right the anemone and place it face up some where. The mouth would be gaping, but would close fairly quickly once the anemone was righted.
After two weeks, the anemone was still alive, and the tentacles were still lengthy, and the mouth was still tight-ish.
Realizing I had nothing to lose, I made up a small container with egg crate sides, and placed the Ritteri inside it. I moved one of the sump returns so that the anemone was getting significant current/flow, and kept it there. The container was an acrylic frag rack with small holes on the bottom. The egg crate sides were zip tied in place to keep the anemone inside the container. The container was placed at the top of the tank in a relatively shaded area, but the anemone could move to a better lit area if it desired to do so. The anemone never attached to the acrylic, or to a small piece of tile I placed in the container specifically for that reason.
A pair of Picasso Percula clowns had decided to grace the Ritteri with their presence. I had to chase them out every time I fed the anemone. Otherwise they would steal the food from its mouth.
*Note, the faint lettering and white-ish stripe are not a watermark, they are the reflection of the PVC return line above the container
The anemone stayed in the make shift frag rack container for a month. I fed it every day. Its feeding response was very sluggish. It took about 45 minutes to an hour to take the food in. Sometimes, it didn't take it at all. Eventually, the anemone's feeding response got better. It was began swallowing Mysis in about 30 minutes.
After a month, I moved the anemone over to another container. This one was made of the frame of a breeder's net. I removed the net, and attached egg crate to the inside of the frame. I surrounded that with window screen, but left enough space for the clowns to come and go. I placed a piece of tile on the bottom of the container hoping the anemone would attach to it, but again no luck.
I also moved this container to more directly under the light. I placed window screen on top of the container to shield the anemone from too much light. The container was placed in the front of the tank, and had a pretty good flow of current as the Streams blew right past the outside of the container. The anemone could still get some flow inside the container, based on what I saw with tentacle movement.
After a week of the anemone being in this enclosure, it appeared to be panning for light, (struggling to get more light), so I removed the window screen from the top of the container.
This was not a good idea. The anemone quickly bleached, and stopped eating for a few days. As soon as I realized the anemone was bleaching from too much light, I immediately covered it back up. I can only assume the anemone was actually trying for more water movement, and I mistook that for wanting more light.
Finishing up feeding in the first image, this is why the mouth is inflated/everted some.
Within a month, the anemone was back to gaining a nice healthy tan color. The tentacle tips were still a faint purple, but looking better all the time.
As before, I fed the anemone every day. This was labor intensive since the clowns had to be chased out and kept out during the entire feeding process. Otherwise, they would rip the food from the anemone, even if it had been mostly swallowed. Try explaining to the wife why you are disappearing down into the basement for 30-45 minutes every night, and sometimes come up cussing like a sailor"¦.telling her you were feeding a sick anemone didn't make much sense to mine"¦
It should be noted that the anemone was not always strong enough to pull food into its mouth with the Streams running. To feed the anemone and ensure it took the food in I needed to shut off the Streams, chase off the clowns, and hover over the damn thing, watching, and ready to run the clowns off when ever they tried to sneak back in. The male got very quick at darting back into the anemone if left unattended for a few seconds.
Then anemone began to accept small chunks of raw, (uncooked) scallop and shrimp. If fed too large a piece, the anemone would regurgitate the undigested portion and the clowns would go nuts.
After a month in the 2nd container, the anemone was feeding much faster and had a much stronger feeding response. Feeding times were down to 10-15 minutes.
On January 26th, (over 3.5 months of having the anemone in my care), I once again moved the anemone to the original rock formation, directly under the light, (approximately half down the tank), just underneath the flow of the Streams. The anemone gets vigorous water movement and can easily stretch and get violent water movement if desired. The Streams are dialed down as far as possible, which I believe is approx 30% of total power, (1849 gph at max, 30% = 550 gph approx per stream. They are set to alternate, left then right for approximately 2 hours run time per side).
Initially, the anemone had a weak hold on the rock at best. Only half of the foot was firmly attached, the rest of it just kinda bobbling around. I was worried about it, but it seemed to be holding on, and the parts of the foot that were not attached, would attach and it would promptly release some other part of the foot. It appeared as if it were getting "œreacquainted" with attaching to rock work.
Because I worried about the clowns pulling food from the anemone while it was getting back to life outside the container, I pulled the clownfish from the display.
The next day I fed the anemone, worried it once again detach off the rock. It easily took several pieces of Mysis and ate them with no issues. The anemone did not detach from the rock at all.
I was no beginning to be cautiously optimistic of the anemone's survival.
I kept the clowns out of the display for two weeks, and continued feeding the anemone daily. After a week of the anemone feeding itself, I quit turning off the Streams to see if the anemone was strong enough to pull food into its mouth with the current blowing. It was.
After one week of the feeding the anemone without turning off the Streams, I realized the anemone was beginning to add mass and size from the daily feedings. Initially, the anemone was around 5 inches in diameter. It had now expanded to approximately 8 inches in diameter. The oral disc was a nice healthy tan color as were all the tentacles. The base remained a pale lavender, and the tentacles still had a faint purple tip.
I released the clowns from purgatory, and they immediately moved right back into the H.magnifica anemone. I fed the clowns initially, and then fed the anemone, wanting to see if it was strong enough to keep the clowns from stealing from it. If it wasn't, the clowns were going to be banished again.
Fortunately, the anemone was strong enough to hang onto its food and to keep the clowns from stealing from it. In fact, the anemone actually pulled some food from the smaller male clown and ate it.
The anemone has been in my care now for almost 5 months, no where near long enough to be considered a success. But, I'm quite happy with the anemone's over all health and response to food, light, water flow, and the clowns. As long as I don't have any unforeseen incidents, the anemone should be a success story.
Nick
