Newbie with a Sebae Anemone, now what ?

[nycfishguy]

So first off hello, to all the RC ppl out there and thanks to your help and insight i am now running two SW tanks.

i have decided that one of my two FOWLR tanks is slowly getting some invertabrates and small frags of coral.

Here is the issue i bought a Sebae Anemone at my local fish club for a few bucks and was excited to add it to the this tank. Tank is 3 year old setup and running well. I have a clarkie clown and two snowflake clowns. I slowly accilmated it with a 45 min to 1 hr drip . After floating bag for 30 minutes. I attemped to place it on a rock structure to attach and it floated around looking like a human embryo for a minute. I held it to a rock where it attached and stayed there for 1 day. Then it went MIA. After a week i found it deep within a rock structure still living and when i try to target feed a small peice of shrimp or clam it closes up whatever few tentacles i can see. Oh BTW lighting is a orbit marine led turned down to 45 % on both channels. SO now what ? does it come out when its ready ? Current is produced by a gyre also slowed down to only 10 % , anything more will create a middle eastern sand storm due to the shape of my dumb tank. (54 corner). I would consider current is medium because kenya tree and small ricordea frags are growing well. Any advice ??

 

[JonezNReef]

If you have a pic of it at all please post. If it is a Malu seabae then is will probably work its way to the sand bed since most of them prefer to attack there foot in sand. If its a Crispa then it will probably find a place in the rock work.
Did you quarantine and observe it or treat it at all? Was it bleached out and/or inflating itself out or staying closed up? Because many nems have a bacterial infection when most hobbyist get them and may be why its not accepting food. If you able to, you might want to try to get it into a hospital tank to treat because a week without food or light is never a good thing when it comes to nem's.

 

[nycfishguy]

Hi, not sure how to tell the diff. It whitish tan but more white when i got it. It has small reddish lines running from foot to tentacles. It was closed up in the bag and opened a bit to reveal a roundish disc the first day, then went MIA. its tentacles never really extended ever. It is still same color from when i got it. just deep within rock work. I will try to take a pic tonight, gonna be tough because its in there pretty well. thx.

 

[nycfishguy]

ok, after getting home last night the anemone must of heard about this thread. It decided to come out and play. After picking my jaw off the floor, i decided to try to feed it a small piece of freeze dried jumbo krill. To the amazement of me and my kids, we sat and watched a huge peice of krill disappear into the anemone. I was so excited . I have been caring for fresh water for 20 years and now SW for 3 years. And i can clearly say " That was awesome " I have never seen anything like that ever. SO, is it safe to assume that because it ate it s ok ? Any tipes or future advice would be great, even what type of sebae it is ? thx, again.

 

[nycfishguy]

Sorrysome of the pics came out weird. i will try to correct them.

 

[nycfishguy]

lets see if this works

 

[nycfishguy]

sorry guys , pic are tough. well at least some went through.

 

[nycfishguy]

ok last attempt.

 

[gibbous]

Maybe it's just me but that looks more like a very unhappy rock flower anemone than a sebae.

Good that it's eating but eventually you'll want to give it something besides the freeze dried krill.

 

[nycfishguy]

oh ok, what do you recommend ?

 

[gibbous]

If it's staying in one place it's found a spot it likes, so I would just feed it a little bit of chopped shrimp one or two times a week and keep everything as stable as possible.

RFA's are pretty tough so if that's what it is I think there's a chance of it coming back from what appears to me to be pretty severe bleaching. Though your description of red lines on the base make me think of a mertensii or something. If you have a chance to get a closer picture it would help ID it.

 

[nycfishguy]

Thanks, i will try for more pics in the future, i appreciate your advice thx.

 

[JonezNReef]

Picture isn't the best but I don't know if that a Seabae either.

This is a picture of my Malu Seabae.... Did it look anything like that?

 

[nycfishguy]

Here is the latest pic, does it look very Sebae like ?

 

[gibbous]

I still think RFA. Based on the little bit of green around the upper edge and contrast with the pointed tentacles that are still white, I would wager that it will look something like this when it colors up.

 

[garygb]

It is a rock flower anemone, Phymanthus (or Epicystis) crucifer. Provide natural seawater specific gravity, 1.025ish, 76-82F, fresh pieces of seafood you can get from the grocery store, or frozen mysis, squid, etc. from lfs. They need good quality light, soft coral intensity, low to undetectable nitrates and regular water changes.

 

[OrionN]

I agree. It is a Rock Flower, an Atlantic anemone that does not host clownfish naturally. Clarkii often use essentially anything as host so may choose to go into this anemone.

 

[nycfishguy]

gibbous, gary and Orion, thanks for your insight. Im starting to agree it looks more rock flower, only thing i havent seen it in 3 days its been MIA for a while. And last feeding attempt didnt work. Thanks again everyone.