LTA not putting his foot down...any suggestions?

Luanialus

New member
Hey guys,

I've had a LTA for approximately 2 weeks and he still hasn't put his foot down. Drip acclimated approx. 2 hours. Have tried holding him places with strategically placed rocks, have tried digging down to the aquarium bottom and placing him there in several different tank spots...I'm really at a loss for what to do now. Tonight, I used a small plastic container with the bottom cut out to form a little sand free (almost) area for him to attach to the bottom- waited a bit...nothing. Added a few pieces of rubble to the bottom of the "plastic dish with no bottom" after reading that they like coral rubble to attach to...still nothing- its been about 2 hours. Any other suggestions if this doesn't work. I'm getting really worried about him as he hasn't eaten at all during this time. This is my first shot with an anemone of any sort, so I'm sure that this is my bad somewhere. I've left him alone for 3-4 days in between each attempt to help him get attached as I've also read not to mess with them too much because it will take longer for them to attach. Water parameters are good and get checked regularly. Calcium was a bit low but has slowly come up- now 456. He is not bleached to the best of my knowledge- ie doesn't look like any of the other bleached corals/anemone's I've seen, still has the same color as when purchased (bright orange foot with green/brown tentacles- a few are beigeish...so maybe this is the beginning of bleaching??) He has expanded slightly on some evenings, but he hasn't ever been what I would consider to be fully opened. He has two oscellaris clowns hosting him- could they be messing with him too much? I've read that they can sometimes be too aggressive when the anemone is first getting established. They are away from him several hours at a time during the day when I have watched them.... When I handle him, he still retracts to my touch and I can still feel stickiness to his tentacles.

Sorry for such a long post, I just figured I would give you as much information as I could in hopes of finding a solution for my guy. Any help you can provide would be wonderful!!


Thanks!
Melissa
 
What size tank is this, and what type of lighting do you have? What about your salinity, and temp. (( along with other parameters ))

Do you have a sand bed, and if so, how deep? Every LTA that I have had it would bury its foot into the sand bed, the deeper the better.

Also, is its mouth tightly closed? And is there any damage to the foot?
 
This is a 125 g tank. 6 foot long- Lighting right now kind sucks... PC's. Will have 3 250 MH by mid sept. Salinity is 1.026, temp at 78 F, Nitrates/Nitrites 0, Alk 8.4, Mag 1280. Any other parameters that I should look at? I do have sand bed...3.5-4 inches deep. Since this is my first anem, I'm not really sure about the mouth. It is slightly open...so I'm going to say no, its not "tightly closed", but I'm not sure about that. There is no damage to the foot that I have seen.

Thanks for the questions Todd, hopefully we can get this guy figured out- I just checked on him and he's currently laying on top of the coral rubble inside the little cup on his side.... :(

Melissa
 
While PCs won't work long term, I don't think that is the issue right now. Your numbers look good.

I would take the coral rubble out of that cup, and replace it with sand. ( though it might be better off out of the cup all together -- dig a little hole in the sand bed and place it in there.

After 2 weeks, I would like the month to be tightly closed -- if you can see into the mouth at all, that isn't considered tightly closed.

Any chance of getting a picture?
 
Yeah, I'll try to get a picture tonight... and also attach one from when we first got it to this post (8/26)...haven't posted pics before, so I'll see how it works :-). I just put it in the cup last night hoping that it would help to hold it in place so it would attach. I've tried the digging a hole and placing it there...thought it was doing good for about a day, and then it slowly migrated up and out...

photo


photo


If those don't work...here's a link :-P http://picasaweb.google.com/bgenie/AquariumPicsForMickey/photo#5234389262127433442 There are two of them located there...just click forward or back.
 
So the "in the post images" didn't work...Let me know if you have trouble with the link. Thanks again for your help!
 
Here is your picture, (( for some reason those links don't work right with the image tags, so I put it in my photobucket.

Images012.jpg


It looks a bit bleached, but otherwise not too bad. I would try digging another hole, and if you can, turn down/off the powerheads to give it time to settle in.

Bleached ones can be brought back to good health, but it is a long process.
 
That picture is from the day he came from teh store, or the day after... Perhaps he just wasn't a healthy anenome to start with?? thanks!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13153386#post13153386 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Luanialus
That picture is from the day he came from teh store, or the day after... Perhaps he just wasn't a healthy anenome to start with?? thanks!

It is possible. But, I for sure wouldn't give up on it. But, in the future steer away from any that are white/light in color.

However, you never know what might happen,
This,

GLTA.jpg


Turned into this,

abouttime.jpg
 
When I was looking at his color specifically last night, it seemed like the 5 or 6 tentacles right around the mouth were the lightest...and the others were the beige/greenish color...it's more pronounced than in the picture above...I'll see if I can get another image tonight and see if I can bury him again. I did not turn off the powerheads before, so maybe that was the issue. How long should I leave them off for? My husband and I are both posting under this name, so if it seems a bit like we're two personalities...it's probably because we are :-).

Melissa
 
Ahhh, I just thought you were crazy. ;)

Can you see the underside of your tank? If you can, I would leave the powerheads off until you can see its foot attached to it. Otherwise, if you can't, leave them off for a day or two (( shouldn't cause any issues with your tank, if you have a sump )). When you turn them back on, do it when you can watch the tank for a bit -- to see if it is holding.
 
Wow! okay, I was thinking like 2 hours or something. I'll do this tonight and keep you updated. Thank you so much for all of your help today. I really appreciate it. I can't see the bottom of my tank...bummer!
 
Glad I could help.

Yea, it can take a while for them to foot themselves, if they didn't do it right away. I have had ones that took a week or two, and others that did it within hours.
 
They like medium flow and strong light. I really believe he is just not happy with your lighting and flow. Mine didnt feel sticky or eat for about two weeks and he moved 3 times before his color started to improve. Is there any chance you can get him under stronger lighting?

Until he is happy he is not going to eat so I wouldnt aggrivate him by trying to feed him.

Best you can do is keep your water quality perfect, Give him as much light as possible, try to keep direct flow off of him and leave him be.
 
This was him just a few minutes ago... http://picasaweb.google.com/visionteacher/Anenome/photo#5234565511715207410

He's been out of the cup with the powerheads off for the last 5 hours...he's opened up some since I messed with him to take the cup out. When I took the cup out, it looked like he might have been trying to attach to the side of the cup, and was open about the same as he is in the linked picture. When I tried to bury his foot somewhat when I took the cup out earlier, he shrunk his foot way up and thus I wasn't able to get it down in the sand at all... Will he dig his foot down into the sand with no human intervention? Should I try again to help him get buried or just wait it out a bit? At what point should I turn all my powerheads back on? He sat in one corner in the same position he is now- laying on his side for 3 days.

Looking at him now vs the pictures from when he first came, I think he has bleached considerably more since that point. I didn't think so earlier today going from my memory, but after looking at the images of your LTA, him when he first got here and then today, he's much lighter. I guess that is just the stress of not being planted and happy?

Thanks guys!
 
I am having a similar issue with my Bubble. Though I just got him yesterday, I am a bit nervous that he has not planted down. The tentacles are out and his foot is exposed.

Very interested in seeing if you have any luck.

PHELPS!!!
 
I have had a LTA for 2 weeks now and he is still not putting his foot down. I have a course type sand and substrate mix about 3" to 4" in some spots. This week I made a nice hole all the way to the glass tank bottom. Still no luck. I am not sure they like any flow. I tried finding the still spot of the tank and still no luck.

He is healthy, eating, nice color..... not bleached.


I am dumbfounded!!!! About ready to give up on him.
 
Hey guys, Just wanted to post an update for those of you who were following along, or who helped me out so much with suggestions. I finally got fed up mid week last week after 3.5 weeks of the anemone floating around the tank. I have a very good relationship with my LFS and had been talking with him about the anemone too everytime I went to get water :-)! Wednesday he told me that he would be getting some new LTA's in on Friday, so Thursday morning...the anemone returned to the LFS- and as of the last time I checked on him, he still hadn't put his foot down in the store either! The LFS guy checked him over and said he had no idea why he hadn't planted as his foot looked perfect and he could see no apparent damage on him. So....Yesterday evening we stopped into the store, and he had two beautiful LTA's planted and looking great! Within 30 minutes of hitting my tank water, the anemone had planted where I had placed him...all seemed well! ...Then he decided to move locations and ended up briefly in the PH! GRRR.... I started to think my anemone super powers were doomed to failure forever! We must have caught the anemone right after getting sucked up as he was deflated, but had very little damage on him....really just a few tentacles that were tattered on one side. I got him replanted....and left the powerheads off since I had no way to protect them. This morning as soon as I turned the PH on (and while doing PH watch duty), he moved...guess he didn't like my spot :-)...but he has picked a wonderful spot and looks amazing! I found some mesh balls at the craft store and they work wonders for covering my two tunzee's...I'm really excited! I'll get some pictures posted of the new anemone and the tunzee covers...I couldn't have asked for a better fit for them!

Thanks for your help everybody!

Melissa
 
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