LTA not attaching, but seems okay?

[formsix]

Ack, I've been drooling over the purple LTA's on LA and DD for a while now, and finally purchased a small one from LA that arrived last Friday. Tank is 7 months old and was set up with live live-rock and sand (from the gulf of Florida), so it is teeming with life and I have a number of corals, filter feeding cucumbers, urchins, etc. that are all thriving.

Anemone arrived and floated to match temp and then drip acclimated for about 90 minutes before adding to my DT. Salinity it arrived in was 1.024 and my tank is 1.025 so parameters should have been similar.

Five days later and the anemone looks fine, and still about the same as when it arrived. It's bright, sticky, and opens up as soon as the lights go on. First day I tried placing her in the sand next to a rock in a low-med flow area of the tank. I dug a little hole, dropped her in, and she started opening up within 10 minutes. Stayed there all day, but didn't attach.

Next morning I found her on the opposite side of the tank a few inches off the sandbed up on a rock. She stayed on the rock all day, but still didn't attach. In the evening I moved her to the sandbed right near that spot, and again dug a hole and placed her in it, and surrounded her w/ a small collection of shells to try to keep her in place. Again she stayed for a while, but then went back into that same spot on the rock. At this point I figured she's made up her mind, so I've left her there since Sunday (day 3 now). Sunday night she also caught a piece of mysis and gobbled it up. She's laying half up and half on her side with her food kinda wedged between two bumps in the rock, and maybe she's attached in the tiniest spot, but definitely nothing like planting her whole foot.


LTA 1
Second spot in the sand I tried to place her.

LTA 2
Back up on her rock, with a sexy shrimp friend.

LTA 3
About how much she's attached...

Is there anything else I can/should be doing?

 

[formsix]

Anyone have any ideas? Yesterday it seemed like it was starting to attach, but then overnight it balled up and flipped over. Today it's pretty much back to how it was yesterday -- foot somewhat down but not really attaching, and starting to open back up as the lights just came on.

 

[Winwood]

It's bleached and needs some tlc. They don't care for much flow, especially when acclimating. If it were me, I'd try and give it a protected, low flow area, like a cove where it can get moderate but not too much light.

 

[formsix]

It's bleached and needs some tlc. They don't care for much flow, especially when acclimating. If it were me, I'd try and give it a protected, low flow area, like a cove where it can get moderate but not too much light.

Thanks so much!! She's in a fairly low-flow area now, but seems to keep trying to sink further into the rock, so I will see about creating a little cove area. Last night she moved itself right up next to that torch coral in the pics -- right into the same crevice. Torch is not too happy, so one or the other must move. If the nem hasn't attached at all I'll try to move her this morning.

Do you suggest I target feed with mysis yet or wait? She ate a piece that second night, but I haven't tried since.

 

[Rippinfrags]

I'm really surprised your anemone came from live aquaria, it's tiny. I would try and keep all shrimp off of your anemone, they can and will stress it out. I would not feed until it attaches, but I would not wait too long your anemone needs some energy. When you feed stick to small pieces, such as mysis.

 

[ento-reefer]

I think that is the smallest LTA I have ever seen. Good luck with it.

 

[formsix]

Yikes, I didn't realize she was so much smaller than usual!!

It's my first nem so I didn't know what to expect size-wise, but it was ordered as a "small" off of the Live Aquaria site. I tend to buy small fish and other critters on the assumption that they might be more adaptable to tank life, but I hope this anemone isn't too small to make it. It seems to have loosely attached down in the spot where the torch coral was, so the torch now has a new home and the anemone seems alright. She's not opening quite as much as she was the first two days, but her mouth is nice and tight and she responds to the light.

If it unattaches I'll definitely put it in a more protected area, but I think it's currently in an area of lowish flow and low-moderate light. I'll keep you updated