Long Tentacle Anemone Missing

[JJP161]

About a week ago I added a beautiful Long Tentacle Anemone to my 75 gallon reef tank. For the first few days it and one of my maroon clowns rolled around the tank together. Now for the last 48 hours he has been missing in action. The clown is still around but there has been no sign of the Long Tentacle Anemone. I would guess he is hiding in the rock somewhere, but is this normal? How long before he pops up and when should I start pulling out rock to find him? Thank-you

Joe

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Temp 75.6

 

[JJP161]

Update: It's been almost 96 hours since he was last seen. So last night we began to carefully move rocks around till we could get to the bottom of the tank on both sides and still no sign of him. But all of my water still tests out good. Any ideas?

 

[ssavader]

Did you look in your overflow, and up high in the corners of the tank?

 

[JJP161]

Hi Scott,

I checked in my overflow, sump and powerheads, no sign of him yet. The anemone and a mushroom coral frag are completely MIA. It's starting to drive us a little crazy.

 

[Swanwillow]

how big was it?

it IS possible, if it was still 'rolling' as you say, that it got sucked up into an intake and shredded, and if your skimmer/filtration was good, you wouldn't even have a spike or anything drastic of the sort.

 

[ssavader]

JJP, how big was your LTA? Even a medium size nem can deflate into a small nondescribed ball, including pulling their tentacles into their folds. It is a mystery, but as long as your water is clear and clean to the smell, no debris is floating around, and your nitrate is at baseline, you are most likely safe and your nem is alive. Give him time to adjust (up to two weeks) and he should come out as he seeks light and food.

 

[JJP161]

Swanwillow & ssavader,

Thank-you for your assistance. As for size, fully open he was about the size of a baseball, closed a little bigger than a golf ball. Water is still cear, clean to smell and no debris. Nitrate is still around 10 and holding. A couple more water changes and it should be lower. I will definitely follow your advice and quit digging around for him. My live rock is covered with sponges, vegatation, feather dusters, etc and I don't want to risk damaging anything trying to handle it. Thank-you again, as a "newbie" all of your help is certainly invaluable.

Joe