nemone needs id please

[doin' fin]

Please help- bought under pretense of "carpet nem" for the two saddlebacks purchased at same time. Knew it wasn't the saddleback anemone but thought they would host- which they did right away.

I think he is a sebae. Not an easy keeper from all I have read. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[GSMguy]

sebae H. crispa
needs lots o light good flow and meaty foods

 

[doin' fin]

What is normal behavior for them as they acclimate? How long should it last? I see it expanding and shrinking a few times a day and occasionally expelling its phytoplanton stuff ("zoo..."). It was bleached when I bought it but otherwise appeared healthy- sticky and eating. Would have been smarter to know more prior to purchasing... I know. I know.

My understanding is that they usually die slow deaths. Considering anemones are difficult keepers anyway, these are about the worst ones of the whole lot. I guess I should take off my rose colored glasses hugh?!

 

[illcssd]

Normal behavior for them to acclimate would be releasing all there water and then re absorbing water. I.e. shrinking then re expanding, Your probably wont get full extension for a few days. With proper food and light, partnered with real clean water, a recovery from being bleached is possible, but it takes work. When feeding use small peices of silversides or other meaty foods, like shrimp, scallops, clam. Ime they choose silversides over most others.
austin

 

[StunnaShadez]

it seems bleached to me..

 

[doin' fin]

it is... and it is doing very poorly now. It begain looking better and then something happened last night. Our coral banded begain trying to take over territory. I think he stressed the anemone to death. The anemone is tiny and haggard looking now. We are removing the shrimp today but I fear the worst for the nem.

 

[raoul]

They can go through times when they look horrible, and you think the end has to be near, and you even consider pulling it, even though it's not quite dead - and then they get better....That's what ours did anyway.

Like mentioned previously, light, food, stable water conditions. Ours weren't perfect, and still aren't but they're stable, and two years later we're still going. It went from about baseball size, white, stubby tentacled to somewhere between salad and dinner plate size, beige, long tentacles.

There needs to be some flow for circulation, but make sure it's not directly at it, ours at least doesn't like it.

Good luck!

 

[55semireef]

Looks to be a very bleached H. Crispa. They prefer the sand. Make sure you feed it everyday and keep it in a great amount of light if you want to bring it back.

 

[raoul]

Although they are naturally found in sand, in captivity they don't always follow the rules If it's attached to the rock, I wouldn't move it, I would work on getting it healthy. If it's not attached a move to a sandy area might make it happier.
Good luck

 

[doin' fin]

Thanks for all of the input! It is looking better- less bleached and not retracted. It hasn't

 

[doin' fin]

Sorry, 2 yr old commandeered the controls! He hasn’t moved off of the rock so I suppose we will leave him alone for now and hope for the best. We have been feeding him mysis shrimp every day and that seems to be helping as well. Thanks for all of the input!

 

[raoul]

You may want to try slightly bigger foods every couple days. For us, mysis worked well in getting it to eat, but I'm not sure I'd feel safe using it as a sustaining food source. Some good options are; shrimp, clams, scallops - these you can get at the seafood counter or silversides & krill from the lfs. There's probably more, but these will at least get you started. Pencil eraser size pieces seem to work best at this point.

Good luck

 

[doin' fin]

Thank you Raoul. I have some shrimp in the freezer... We will hope for the best. One of the clowns went into the filtration chamber last night. It was not good. Husband and I found him within the hour. It must have jumped and fit through the space between the plastic on the lid and the top of wall. Haven't talked to my son about it yet not looking forward to that...

 

[55semireef]

I fed my Crispa shrimp and it absolutely loved it.

 

[illcssd]

All my anemones love silversides and clams. Never rejected either of those.

 

[doin' fin]

This will probably be a stupid question but here it goes... Do they eat pods too? Will clowns? We had a ton of pods prior to their addition and now it is like they have disappeared...

 

[illcssd]

Not really, Clowns will pick at them occasionaly, but they wont have any real affect. Your probably just not noticing them as much or something.

 

[55semireef]

I know ny Ckarkiis eat pods if the opportunity arises but anemones don't unless they are really big.

 

[doin' fin]

Perhaps a turbo? I have found some pods on the glass following a water change so there are some still in there...but previously the rocks almost looked like they were moving there were so many.

 

[cschweitzer]

oops...