Magnificent anemone

T

thompson2224

New member
I am interested in getting one of these as a host for my two clownfish. I currently have a RBTA anenome that they never show interest in, and I know this is there natural host. Right now I have a 20 gallon aquarium but next week I am going to be starting a 72 gallon bow front tank. I just had an ich attack in my tank and currently have my fish in QT and my 20 gallon is fallow. My RBTA has been in the tank for 3 months and is doing great. The tank has been up since September last year and I do have other corals.

So how long does a tank need to be established for these anenomes because I was not going to move anything into the 72 until both tanks have been fallow for 2 months, so not til may. I wanted to be able to put my RBTA and the magnificent into the 72 first so that they settle and don't sting corals.

Would that be okay? I am starting the 72 with live rock that has been established in my tank since septmember and is covered in coraline and then a lot of dry rock. Would I be able to put a magnificent into the 72 in may if I start it up next week?

Thanks
 
Here's a couple of quick points for you.

Make sure your tank is stable. The parameters need to be consistent.

Maintain low nutrients. Keep your nutrients levels as if they were an sps tank.

Provide random flow.
These nems need randomized flow. If the tentacles are swayin, the anemones stayin.

Build a high point.
Give the anemone a high point in the tank to perch on to collect as much light as possible. If it feels like it needs more light, it will move to go get it. Usually it will start scaling walls.

Provide a powerful light source.
T5 or higher will work. Make sure you have the appropriate bulbs or wattage for your tank. LEDs will work as well.

Keep the powerheads away.
If when the anemone is spawled out on its perch and it can touch a powerhead, it's too close. Move the powerhead.

Here's how I built my tank for my anemones. And yes, you should structure your tank around this nem. It will get big and be magnificent as the name implies.



Now I have 2 nems that perch on the same rock.



Sorry for the cloudiness. I was going through a carbon dosing bacterial bloom.

Also, buy good test kits for testing. I started out with API and they were off from salifert by quite a large margin.

Hope this helps.
 
My 20 gallon is stable and my RBTA is doing great, so I should be able to replicate that with the 72 and I was planning on building a high perch for this anemone. I have LED lighting. on my 20 gallon I have the fluval marine and reef LED light which has a 25000K brightness and full spectrum color. I will put this on my 72 gallon tank and then I bought another LED light to go on the 72 here is a link to it
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=281246893404&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

So lighting shouldn't be an issue at all. My main concern is if I would be able to put in the 72 gallon tank in may if I setup this tank now. I want to put it in the tank first so it acclimates and doesn't sting my other coral
 
There is the possibility that it will sting your coral in any tank and as the tank get smaller the possibility increases.

You can keep it in the 20 for now as that's the size that most people use to quarantine but I would suggest getting a storage tote from a store that is in the 20-30 gallon range and storing it in there with the extra light you bought, a power head that is behind a wall of egg crate and start the treatment process with cipro.
 
I'll go first as to not alienate anyone.

Day Ph is 8.24
Night ph is 8.10
Kh is 10
Calcium is 540ppm
Nitrate is 0ppm
Phosphate is .06ppm
Salinity is 1.024ppt
Temp is 79.9f
 
What will the cipro treatment do? Does this need to go into an long established tank? or will moving all of my live rock from my established tank make it established?
 
Your tank is only as established as the medium in it. You should be fine with moving your live rock.

Ciproflaxicin is an antibiotic and it's intent is to treat for any bacterial infection that the anemone might acquire during transport/acclimation.

Go to sticky at the top of this forum and read up on the Cipro treatment process. Mihn and others have done an excellent job documenting and outlining this process.
 
Okay so it would be okay to add one of these as the first life to the tank in may? I want it to get find its spot before moving my corals over
 
Just make sure your tank has the stability to support it. If you get a spike in nutrients or a mini cycle I would hold off.

What I did as I restructured my tank was moved the anemone in with all pumps shut off to allow it's foot to attach to rock. After it did I added all my corals to the sand bed and let the anemone find its way about for a few weeks before I placed anything permanently.

This is assuming the anemone is healthy enough plant it's foot and move around easily.

Mine came from my established tank and had gone through treatment about 8 months before so it was okay to add it.
 
Okay so then come may after the 72 gallon has had the next two months to cycle itself I will add most of my live rock from the current tank treat the anenome and then put it in. How likely is it that the Magnifica will need the treatment? Are these anenomes likely to move a lot? Because I would build a high peak and place it there and then ultimately it would decide where to go but how likely is it that it would stay there?
 
The likelihood of it moving depends on the conditions you give it. Go back to my first post and just replicate that. Good, random flow. Key word is random. Linear constant flow will irritate it more. I've employed a wp25 on wave mode pointed slightly above the tentacles of my nems and they love it. I also have a sea swirl that does an excellent job. Twice a minute it sweeps by giving a gust of current the sweeps away.

Ideally you want to place it under the light source and I have found that if you feed them, they tend to sit where they are. Just my experience but maybe someone else can chime in.

Remember, keep it away from powerheads. I found out the hard way. Lost a bunch of fish and the anemone looked like trash for about 2 months.
 
I have 2 powerheads and then I have the return, so what can I do to make them random? And I would feed it as well. I feed my RBTA a mussel, and shrimp every few days
 
OK. That's good. Get a wave maker. Koralias are good but the wp series pumps seem to be all inclusive of being a random some what controllable pump. And they aren't expensive.
 
I would make a couple of other observations about magnifica anemones:

1. They are notoriously bad shippers and extremely difficult to acclimate to a new tank, so assume that you will need to treat any newly acquired one in a hospital tank with a 7 day course of cipro. Sometimes a second, or even a third round is required.
2. Although these animals can be made to stay put on a tall rock pedestal, if the nem is able to touch anything with its tentacles, it will be inclined to try to move. Since these things get big quickly, a front to back tank width of 24" is a minimum. In a tank 18" from front to back you will quickly run out of space. These animals need a big tank!
 
Rock scape in the center. Leave space on the ends, front, back, and sides. Build a peak up to the center of the tank as the highest point. Make sure the rocks are secured well. If it wants to move it can take rocks down with it. Or catching heavy flow it can take a rock down that its anchored to.

I'd move all your rock, all your water, into the new tank and then add the fresh salt water temp and salinity matched in with it. That way you can move as much of your stable tank into the new one as possible. Ditch the old sand and get new if you want sand. I'd wait a few weeks after the tank move though before getting a mag just so everything stabilizes and there's no mini cycle.
 
Do the rocks how ever you want. I tried the dump pile of rocks and ended up not liking it. Hence me changing my entire tank.

Just make sure you have a really high point. Otherwise scape however you see fit.
 
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