New anemone is going to need some TLC, where do i start?

[Taqpol]

Two days ago I saw that one of my LFS was having a sale: "RBTAs" for $29! I went to check it out and since I was there last the store has completely remodeled and the employees were knowledgeable, a big change for sure so i decided to give their nems a try.

The nems were housed in a normal fish tank with T12 fluorescent lights and looked a little faded with extremely shortened tentacles (starvation, I think), but surprisingly a few of them were still slightly bubbling out their tips. The lady who bagged the nem was very careful getting it off the glass and used a combination of the powerhead trick with light fingernail work and got it off in about 10 minutes. It stayed very sticky and its foot attached to the bag on the way home and again to my glove as I placed it into the tank. Everything was going good so far.

I checked the stores water when i got home and surprisingly it was at 1.025 SG. While temp acclimating in my sump I drip acclimate the anemone for 1.5 hours until it was up to my tanks 1.026 SG. It went into the tank at 6:00 on Wednesday and my lights were out all day Thursday for light acclimation. Again, i think i did this part pretty good.

Since then it hasn't been as sticky and the foot has swollen into something massive. It almost looks like there is an air bubble in it or something. It has slowly been moving upwards along my glass and settled underneath a HOB overflow millimeters away from a (thankfully) turned off koralia powerhead. Later it detached and i moved it back to some rock work I'm hoping it will stay near, but its foot is still swollen.

My two questions boil down too: IS the foot thing a problem or is it just irritated? Can i do anything about it.

Second, for the shortened tentacle/starvation issue, when and what should I try feeding it to nurse it back to health?

 

[Taqpol]

And for anyone that thought the price was too good to be true, under my actinic lights the tentacles fluoresce green leaving a purple/red base. Thats ok with me, I like GBTA's better anyways and if it survives it will still be a good price.

 

[PRDubois]

Feed it choped up silversides soaked in a droper full of Secon

It will probally move around till it finds a spot it likes. They like to attach thier foot under a rock.

 

[Slickcg33]

in my experience with nems (which isnt much) when they bubble their foot they are looking for a home, he hasnt found a spot it likes... sometimes they use the massive foot to float through a current to a different location.

 

[Taqpol]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14845524#post14845524 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Slickcg33
in my experience with nems (which isnt much) when they bubble their foot they are looking for a home, he hasnt found a spot it likes... sometimes they use the massive foot to float through a current to a different location.

That makes a lot of sense. It truly seemed like he was using the inflated foot as a flotation device....

I just wanted to make sure it wasn't due to some disease or damage.

 

[zaraemna]

I've seen the large inflated foot too. The anemone was always moving when the foot was big. I wouldn't worry about the big foot, but there is a chance it could release and get sucked up into something.

 

[Taqpol]

Good news, anemone seems to have attached (even where I wanted it too!) and even seemed to eat some mysis. The oral disc is expanding much more then when it was in the fish store, but the tentacle lenght is still really short.

Is it absolutely necessary to feed small chunks of silversides? I heard that anemones did really good with filter feeding and target feedings with mysis shrimp.

 

[Toddrtrex]

Personally I am not a fan of silversides, I like krill better. (( But mysis will work too )). IMO, a lot of people feed their anemones too much and too often.

What lights do you have?

 

[Taqpol]

4 T5 HO on the 38 gallon, soon to be 8 T5 HO on my in progress 120 upgrade.

 

[Toddrtrex]

Do they have individual reflectors? Might want to consider using some window screening to acclimate it to your lights.

 

[Taqpol]

The current ones are in a Current Sundial with individually contoured reflectors, the new ones will be icecap retrofits with true individual reflectors.

When I first tried an anemone I thought there was no way my 4 T5's could be more powerful then the 150w MH at the store. I was wrong and that anemone died due to the light shock. this time I ran one day with no lights -> half a day with just actinics -> full day with actinics -> half a day with daylight lights -> almost full day with daylight lights -> and tomorrow will be back on schedule. The light acclimation seems to have worked well this time and the anemone has had full extension during the day .