long tentacle anemone (I think)

[JonnyH]

Hi all,

I just wanted a bit of advise. I recently purchased a long tentacle anemone from my lfs. After acclimatising as instructed by the store, I placed it in my tank where it seemed happy.

When I woke up the next morning it had moved itself between the sand and a live rock in the bottom right corner and it hasnt moved since. It still seemed very happy. Three days later I noticed that its tentacles appeared somewhat deflated but its colour started turning from a very faint rose colour to more of a deeper rose/pinky colour. Its been like this for 2 days and the tentacles do not seem to be showing signs of inflating.

I noticed today that its mouth, whilst closed, was like a small bubble slightly inverting. The tentacles are still waving around and react when something touches them, I.e. brine/mysis shrimp from feeding the fish.

The anemone itself is around 5 inches. The tank is around 250 litres including sump. Its coming up to 7 months old which I was advised that is ok for anemones although I understand that older is better. Measurements are:

Temp - 79
Ph - 8.3
Alkalinity - 9
Nitrates - 2
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0

Do I need to be worried or just monitor her over the next couple of days?

I will try to attach some photos but ive had issues doing so in the past.

Regards,
Jon

 

[worm5406]

Pictures should be uploaded to a third party site (google, flickr, or others) and then linked. That way you can set them in an e-mail as needed also.

Here is a picture of my LTA, until you get your pictures posted. Does it look like this?

 

[Reef Man Dan]

Your levels are all in check, so I'd think it should be okay. If it isn't moving from its spot, that's usually a good sign. What type of lighting are you using?

 

[JonnyH]

Ok I will try to post some pics up later. I have a photobucket account so will try to use that.

Mine is a much lighter colour but is starting to darken. It was possibly bleached slightly but wasnt expecting a change in colour anytime soon.

I am using 4, 32 inch T5's. 2 sea blue and 2 arctic white. I also have a blue l.e.d. strip. The T5 lights are 39w tubes. The anemone is approximately 13 - 14 inches below the lights. It was closer to them when I first but her in the tank but she moved further down towards the bottom right so assume the lighting is sufficient?

 

[OrionN]

You can upload onto reefcentral. It better than elsewhere, IMO.

 

[sh0ck]

RC downscale images a lot.
BTW here u can see how bottom texture of LTA can look

 

[JonnyH]

The file upload keeps failing. I don't know why. I'm such an amature! I will keep trying guys.

 

[worm5406]

It might be too large of an image too.

Try your photobucket account.

 

[JonnyH]

Here goes:

<a href="http://s929.photobucket.com/user/JonnyH83/media/20140212_151812_zps5781bbb9.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad139/JonnyH83/20140212_151812_zps5781bbb9.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20140212_151812_zps5781bbb9.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s929.photobucket.com/user/JonnyH83/media/20140212_151828_zpsb1a539da.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad139/JonnyH83/20140212_151828_zpsb1a539da.jpg" border="0" alt="LTA photo 20140212_151828_zpsb1a539da.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s929.photobucket.com/user/JonnyH83/media/20140212_151838_zps5b0476b4.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad139/JonnyH83/20140212_151838_zps5b0476b4.jpg" border="0" alt="LTA1 photo 20140212_151838_zps5b0476b4.jpg"/></a>

 

[sh0ck]

yes thats LTA.
how deep sandbed? seems strange that it does not burrowed more.

 

[jdstank]

My green LTA is almost 3 years old and goes through cycles of deflating his tentacles. I doubt it's much to worry about with yours. If he's eating that's always a good sign. Your pics look good, he'll definitely grow if you take care of him. Mine started about the same size as yours but is now about 16" across when he spreads out. I have a Clarkii that took to him within hours of being introduced and he feeds him everything that goes in the tank, but I also supplement with chopped shrimp once a week.

 

[jdstank]

yes thats LTA.
how deep sandbed? seems strange that it does not burrowed more.

Mine shows a large portion of his foot as well, he is rarely buried all the way up. Of course his foot is quite long so unless I had a 12" sandbed it's unlikely he could ever bury it all the way.

 

[stevenson22]

lta's are always at the bottom of the tank up next to a rock with its base in the sand..

 

[JonnyH]

Thanks for all of your comments guys.

I will continue to monitor as the tentacles still havent really inflated back to their original size.

I should never have purchased a LTA. Its turning me into a nervous wreck!

 

[bjledbetter]

He looks good to me.

 

[JonnyH]

Well, I woke up this morning to find that my LTA had moved itself to a quieter, less flow spot in the tank, right at the back behind the live rock. I can no longer see it unless I squeeze myself to the side of the tank

Im not going to move it as it knows best and also do not want to annoy it. Hopefully it will move itself to a more visible area soon though!

 

[glyn]

..... my LTA had moved itself to a quieter, less flow spot in the tank, right at the back behind the live rock.

Hi - that's my experience with LTAs - bit more nervous about high flows than my bubble-tips. I've had to dial down my Jeboa WP40s to keep my current LTA happy.

 

[OrionN]

Wait a while. Then you can rearrange the rock. They like to be in the sand with open space around them. Just remove the rock in from of them and you have a center piece anemone.

 

[sh0ck]

I planted mine in plastic glass under jebao wp-25, it liked that symbolic flow, never moved till I added magnifica.

 

[JonnyH]

Hi guys,

So I got home from work this evening to find my LTA on its side, with a 1/4 of its tentacles 'stringy' which have also turned a purple colour. I also noticed that it was spitting out a brown ball type substance. It's mouth also looks swollen. Unfortunately I cannot take photos of this at the moment.

The remaining 3/4 of the tentacles look healthy and are sticky to the touch.

I'm just a little worried now about the swollen mouth and the string-like tentacles.

My water parameters seem fine still. Any ideas?