malu questions

[djberg]

so about a month ago i picked up a sebae, and he's been hanging out in the sand bed, eating 2-3 times a week(hardest part is keeping the peppermints away until he completely swallows).

the only thing is he's not sticky what so ever. so i'm going to take that as a bad sign. is there any thing i can do to help him along?

also he's pretty neat to watch move around the tank, instead of "crawling around like a snail, he will pull himself out of the sand bed balloon up and tumble to his next location, via the flow in the tank.

as of right now he eats grocery store shrimp, marine cuisine, and mysis. i have a pair of false clowns in with him but niether want any part with him, the only interest so far is by the male who really wants to host my frog spawn. can i throw a clarkii in with them or is that a bad idea? figured having another "larger" clown would just mean war.

thanks DJ

also if anyone wants to know 75 reef, 250# rock, 100# sand, bought the whole system a few months ago and was told it was a 10+ year old setup. parameters are salinity 1.025, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0, calcium 480, dkh 10.5, mag 1400, phosphates 0. all tests are api pther than cal, dkh, and mag, red sea.

 

[JamesJR]

I've had a malu and it never wondered at all. The lack of stickiness wouldn't be my primary concern as it shouldn't be wandering in the tank. The first thing I would do is get it to find a permanent placement so it can adapt to your tank. They are sand burrowing anemones and need bright lighting. I'd first find a good spot in the sand bed where it will have room to grow and expand and dig a pit in the sand and maybe move a rock it has wandered on over to the sand bed so it can attach to the bottom glass. Maybe keep the rock isolated from the rest of the rockwork so that the anemone will find the sand.

I didn't feed mine all that often and feeding it that heavily may be more counterproductive. I stopped feeding grocery store shrimp as I've had occaisional problems where my anemones would look bad for no reason. I've read that store shrimp are sometimes treated with bleach to prolong the shelf life but to what extent and if this was the cause of any problems I do not know. I'd stick to mysis shrimp and fish food.
especially for such a small anemone species as a malu.

What kind of lights do you have?

Malu anemones are not a natural host for false perculas and only naturally host clarkii. I would not get Clarkii's with ocellaris in a 75 as Clarkii's get to be big bruisers. The clowns you have may take to the anemone eventually but it may take a long time for it to happen.

Good luck with it!

 

[djberg]

thanks james, lights are hamilton tech 175's 2x and t12 vho actinics. and the false perculas went in the 55fowlr/future nps this morning. and i went to the lfs remembering they had 3 clarkii's and one was smaller... i swear to you the three of them are exactly the same size... so there's one in there it's about 2.5-3". here's to hoping.

 

[t4zalews]

I find these the hardest of all the anemones I have tried to keep. Good luck with your malu

 

[djberg]

yeah thanks t4, here's to hoping. so far he's doin well, doesn't seem to be so keen on the lights but else wise now that he's in the very light shade, has found a spot again and its i would guessing hes testing it out.

 

[garygb]

Your parameters look good, that's the first biggie in acclimating a new anemone. As mentioned, the wandering around suggests something is not to its liking, perhaps the water flow. I believe that species likes moderate, rather than brisk flow. Your lighting, etc. seems fine. Though I've never kept this species, lots of folks on here have and seem to love them. They don't get too large and seem to settle in nicely for many. Good luck with it. Pics?

 

[djberg]

If I remember tomorrow, I can get you guys a side profile of it, it's facing the back of the tank as of now.

 

[djberg]

after tonns of fun with the holidays. here's a shot of my malu. seems to be better each day, now when i feed the new diamond watchman golby he will collect any scraps far faster than i've seen yet!


_DSC3750 by dj.berg, on Flickr

 

[davocean]

I've had a couple Malu's, and I don't think they are really that difficult to keep, medium to strong light, medium flow.
Mine did not have very sticky tentacles either, certainly nothing near what my hadonni is that's for sure.
That's a nice yellow, and it looks like it's foot is well set and where it should be, where it can tuck in or stretch out for light as it feels.
Don't add more than one pair of any type of clowns.
Keep posting pics, I'd like to see if that yellow darkens up or stays the same.

 

[djberg]

yeah i wonder the same, sure wish it would get it's tips back, only seems to show the blue/purple when he's about to move. but i've seen picks of that same coloring(no clue how long they were in the tank where the pic was taken), so i'm not sure if it was bleached and dyed or if that is natural. i originally though it was a crispa that had been bleached but then i saw a pic of a malu and knew what it was. we shall see over time he's only been in my system for a month and a half.

 

[davocean]

I was going to say expect some folks to call it out as bleached, and it could be a little bit for all we know, but yellow is a natural color for malu.
Does it have little rings around tentacles?

 

[djberg]

yeah they seem to be transparent except for the rings they are more of a dense coloration.

 

[zsxking]

I have got one a week ago. But it still not accepting any food. I tried grocery shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, and frozen bloodworm. It shows not reaction when I put the food on it. When pump back up, the food just got blown away.

Also, it seems to like getting on rocks, or go under rock in shade, never seem showing interest in staying in sand, even lights there is a lot better.

Are these normal? Is it just because it is new to the tank or something sounds wrong?

 

[djberg]

from my experience with mine(notice a newbie to these as well), i have found that high light is not so much of an importance, even flow is not so much on their demand. mine seems to like to not be disturbed(i think my sand sifting goby caused his last move), as for food it took me a while to get it to take food(3-4 weeks), but it seems to like mysis the best, just sort of coat him in it and he will slowly close in on it may very well lose 75% of the food but each feeding after he will catch more and more.

sad part with my guy, the goby made him mad with a sand dusting, so he ballooned up and has "tumbled" some where in the back rock scape. where i have yet to find him, it took me a while but i made a series of caverns in my rocks for the fish and more exposed surface area for filtration. but this has now given my malu multiple hiding spots that i have not spotted him again it's been a week now so i'm betting he's found a new spot, and i just hope he's finding food.

 

[djberg]

ok so after a bit more reading, malu's do have symbiotic relationships with zoozanethli. though my malu is happy, and now my smaller clarkii has taken to him. but he's still a creamy white, maybe that's his natural coloring. i dont know. but he get's stolen sinking shrimp pellets that are for my watchman that the clarkii steals daily, also seems to really like the fine form of coral frenzy, and as stated before mysis.

he's definitely happy, and growing so i'm gonna think that i'm winning with my malu. who knows. but he has definitely responded better and better especially with the clarkii hosting him.