new anemone just floats around

[mth1993]

I purchased a very nice purple small seba Anemone, 7 days ago. It has not attached anywhere yet. In fact yesterday it flipped over and was upside down for quite a while. I have somewhat course sand. Initially I created a med/low flow area in the front corner of the tank and cleared most of the sand out so it could easily get to the glass to attach. Just now it was flipped over again. It's mouth is closed and looks ok, it is still sticky, is keeping it's color, and seems to react to touch. I found a crease in the rock area and have put it in there to hopefully get it to attach.

My two clowns love it but when they go in it it just starts to float.

Any ideas would be great.

I feed it some thawed mussels on day 2, I think it got some but the fish were all over it trying to steal the food. Some of the normal feeding pellets are also landing on it daily.

Tank, 72 gal bowfront, 700 w light, ph 8.18, sal 1.024, Am=0

 

[raoul]

You'll probably be asked to provide more info, the first one being the age of your tank, the type of lighting you have (is the 700 w metal halide, pc, or something else).

You may want to keep the clowns away from the nem while it tries to settle in. Most people find a strawberry basket placed upside down over the nem is helpful. You can also feed through this so the clowns don't get to it.

Something else I'm curious about is the color - you said purple. Is it all purple of just purple tips. I'm asking because if it's white with purple tips it's bleached and there are things you can do to help it out.

Our H. crispa (also sold as sebae) did this upside down thing for a while when we first got it (It will be two years on MLK day!), but it was in pretty bad shape. It was starving (short bulb tentacles) and bleached. We were patient, left it alone as much as we could, did what we could for it (good lighting, water, and feeding) and then just waited it out. Ours rolled around the aquarium too, but we set up some rock boundaries to help keep it in place and this seemed to work. Of course we made sure that this area was as close to the conditions they do well in as possible.

Good luck!

 

[mth1993]

It is almost all purple, not white with with purple tips. It has very short bulb tentacles. Lighting is 2*250w 14k hamilton, + 2*96 w CF (one of the two is actinic), 12 w LED blue moon lights.

Lighting cycle is actinic cf 12 hrs, plain cf 11 hrs, MH 1 (over anemone) 5 hrs, MH 2 4.5 hrs.

It is staying on the rock for now, will it be happy there or do they prefer sand.

 

[raoul]

Short stubby (bulb) tentacles usually indicate the nem is starving. When food is not available they begin consuming themselves as a survival mechanism. They may diminish in size, but when food is available they're still around to eat it.

Usually they don't settle down and dig in unless they're content. Hungry = not content.

I would suggest isolating the nem from the clowns right now (they could be hurting more than helping especially if they're bigger than the nem), people have had luck with the strawberry baskets as stated above. This guy is in need of food. The basket will keep other things away so you can tell whether or not it's eating. Try small peices of different things until you find ones that the nem likes. Small at this point means pencil eraser size or smaller. You can try every other day, this seems to be the gereral consensus I think. Sometimes they won't eat before they settle in, sometimes they will. Each nem is different.

Did you get this from a LFS? Here in Missouri it seems very hard to get a crispa that isn't bleached, maybe it's different in Michigan (or maybe you got it from a fellow reefer). This leads to my next thought.

I'm always curious and wonder if people have the right ID on their nems. Lots of times they come in mis- labeled or only labeled with a common name that can be applied to many other nems. If you're curious too, you can post a picture of the base and under the oral disk as well as top side. There are people on the board very good at identifying them. I believe that a proper identification is very helpful in providing care for the things in our tanks.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox I hope there was something helpful and wish you luck!

 

[raoul]

Missed that last part of your post. As far as rock vs sand, part of it depends on the individual anemone, as well as the type of anemone, and more than a common name is needed for that. If it is a crispa (or even M. doreensis) they're typically sand dwellers, but that doesn't mean they won't go on rocks either. Many people on RC have pictures of their sand dwelling nems on rocks

At this point, I would leave it where it is. If it wants to be in the sand, it will move down to the sand.

Good luck!