My first anemone - I have no idea what i'm doing. Please help

[flixxx]

Hello, I got my first anemone and I have no idea what i'm doing. I'd like some help please.

I got a purple Doreensis. I was told to acclimate like a fish and turn off the powerheads for the first few hours.

I turned off my lights, turned off the pumps. Acclimated and put him in the spot i would hope he'd stay.

This is what he looked like;

About an hour later i saw him open it up;

About an hour after that, i turned on my powerhead at the lowest setting but the anemone got blown away. I turned off the powerhead and repositioned him.

This is what he looks like at this moment;

I don't intend to turn on the powerhead until i get some guidance here as to what to do or when it would be safe to turn it back on. Is there anything I can do to help him attach or is this something that will happen naturally?

 

[sh0ck]

It does not look like 3-4" sandbed for the anemone to burry itself.....
So what exactly you expect it to do there?
It is nice LTA specimen - sand dwelling anemone which need sand to burry whole that red foot into.

If you have some sand layer there, help him with digging hole and gently pushing that foot in. Or simply stand him on sand and put stones around it, so it does not flip when it does its extend/retract foot burrowing cycle.

 

[ItzJustinN]

it looks to me like you have his foot loosely sitting in the sand.

try wedging it between some rock if you can.

a healthy nem like this one shouldnt take more than 10 mins or so to attach firmly.

 

[flixxx]

It does not look like 3-4" sandbed for the anemone to burry itself.....
So what exactly you expect it to do there?
It is nice LTA specimen - sand dwelling anemone which need sand to burry whole that red foot into.

The sandbed is about 2", I asked my LFS if it's enough and he said it will be fine; "odds are he'll go near a rock and the sand..." Was I mislead?

 

[ThisGuy12]

My first anemone - I have no idea what i'm doing. Please help

I'm a first timer as well (don't have my anemones yet). But it looks to me like his foot isn't flat or buried which it should be.

Maybe put him closer to your rocks away from the current. Keep in mind they will move around as they please and will choose where they end up in the tank.

From what I've read if you want him in a certain spot you'll need to make that spot desirable to his species IE current flow and light levels

 

[tattozabo88]

Dig a hole to the glass and let him attach to it and feed him small food like brine and mysid etc good luck

 

[flixxx]

Alright, the message is clear I'm going to get my hands wet. I'll keep you posted.

 

[sh0ck]

lets show you some of moves when I was adding mine
I prepared deep plastic cup for it filled with sand
1)it flip over every time when started inflate foot cycle
2)than tried glass - it partially burried, but I did not wait till it ended burry cycle and when I was taking glass off I pulled it with glass.
2)than I added a lot more crushed corals around so it does not have chance to flip over. And it finished successfully.

 

[flixxx]

Alright I just wedged him between two rocks for now.

 

[Fishmommy]

man that thing is beautiful. hope it finds a happy place!

 

[flixxx]

man that thing is beautiful. hope it finds a happy place!

Thanks, with all of your help I'm sure he'll be as happy as he can be in no time.

lets show you some of moves when I was adding mine
I prepared deep plastic cup for it filled with sand
1)it flip over every time when started inflate foot cycle
2)than tried glass - it partially burried, but I did not wait till it ended burry cycle and when I was taking glass off I pulled it with glass.
2)than I added a lot more crushed corals around so it does not have chance to flip over. And it finished successfully.

I don't understand the cup trick, how do u remove the cup without disturbing him?

P.s.: I have left over sand if that's what it will take to make him attach.

 

[sh0ck]

this is all what need to be above sand... not more.
if planting in rock u need to find deep enough crevice so it can hide more than in this 2nd picture. I scared it just a little so it does not had time to deflate more. But when I was trying to move it, it deflated so much that nothing was above sand.

 

[sh0ck]

trick with cup is that I dont have sand bed with good sand size, so I used cup filled with small sand. There was no removing planned after. It lived happy in cup.

 

[flixxx]

I'll leave him the way he is for now, I turned on the powerhead and he seems to be stuck there good, tomorrow morning I'll see if there is any update.

So just to confirm, signs of stress are:
Deflated tenticle
Gapping mouth
Closed anemone

Anything else to look out for?

 

[homegrownREEFER]

Hmmmm mine will randomly have some deflated tentacles although it's random and not that often. Also I find it closed up/balled every so often with only a few tentacles sticking out. If it's mouth is gaping or the nem is shrunk/shriveled def signs of stress.

 

[Menace2Sobriety]

The sandbed is about 2", I asked my LFS if it's enough and he said it will be fine; "odds are he'll go near a rock and the sand..." Was I mislead?

If your sand bed is 2" then why do we see bare glass in pics 2 and 3?????

Add some sand.

Menace

 

[flixxx]

The bare glass is because of the power head. I got an mp40 in a 45 gallon cube, even at the lowest setting that bad boy clears the sand in that corner every time.

Everywhere else the sand is at 2 inches

 

[Menace2Sobriety]

Well I think part of the problem is that where you put the nem he don't have enough room to "root" himself. The LFS told you that 2" was enough... I'm sure they assumed you'd put him where there was ACTUALLY 2" of sand... NOT where your powerhead blew the sand down to a 1/8" depth...

Menace

 

[sh0ck]

and LTA hate strong current. I put mine directly under my only powerhead to have just symbolic flow. Without that step it was always showing partial deflation and stress.

 

[OrionN]

Alright I just wedged him between two rocks for now.

Use coarser sands there, crush coral or something larger than the san that got blow off. You can wedge it in the rock or place a concave rock on top of the column of the anemone to keep him from blowing away. Make sure the rock is smooth and concave so you won't injure the anemone. Do this right above the sand in low flow area and he should attach, then dig down into the sand.