Novice Owner of a New Sebae

[garygb]

It looks like it is securely attached now. That's very good news. I would still refrain from feeding it for a few days.

 

[Ohio]

It is looking better. How is the mouth now? The pictures don't show it. I agree with Gary about holding off in feeding.

 

[Xanthus]

Looks good so far. Not feeding it, crabs are still in a breeder box, they ate one of their own, so I dropped a few krill in there this morning, apparently the food we were giving them wasn't enough. not feeding the anemone though.

 

[Ohio]

Once the Nems mouth is completely closed the crabs should be ok to set back loose. I would wait until then though.

 

[Xanthus]

It is, but they were messing with it before then anyway...so, I'd prefer to wait a little longer. I was contemplating returning the crabs to the LFS and buying something different for my CUC. Maybe go with all blue legs, since they stay really small?

 

[garygb]

Here's my sebae, Xanthus. It looked bleached when I got it. You can't tell much about how it's attached in this pic, but its foot and part of column is in a hole in a largish piece of liverock.

 

[garygb]

I snapped a photo of the base right now, maybe you can better see how the foot and base are in a hole that is a couple of inches deep, as I recall.

 

[Xanthus]

Yeah, mine looked anchored like that last night, this morning, it was stuck in between the two rocks in the sand, like the picture shows, now it's all 'bleh' looking again and it seems to be falling over. :/

I think I'll try to prop it back into the crevice and maybe throw some live rock 'rubble' in the crevice alongside it to keep it from crawling out again? I dunno. It seems like it really really doesn't want to attach. I don't know why.

 

[Xanthus]

It looks all deflated and sad again and it has definitely detached from the crevice it was in and is laying on it's side again.

 

[Ohio]

Keep a close eye on him, they can decompose quickly and fall apart when you try to take them out if you wait too long. This could send your ammonia off the charts. He will look like he is melting if he doesn't make it. If it is questionable, post a picture and someone here can tell you whether to remove him.

 

[garygb]

Good grief, its not making things easy for you. The rock is the way to go I believe, I'm just not sure why its being so stubborn.

 

[Xanthus]

Ok, noticed my pumps were starting to get bogged down, and they haven't been cleaned any time recently, so cleaned them this evening thoroughly and topped off the tank, did all the tests I have except Mg, and put the anemone back in that crevice, and shoved some bits of LR in the side to hopefully keep it from crawling out.

Tests came back:
SpG 1.027
Ph 8.4
Calcium 400
Nitrate 0 (or undetectable)
dKH between 9 and 10 (closer to 9)

took a few pictures of where I put him back, plumbing bit is still there to keep him from tipping forwards, but I moved it up a little so it's not touching him, that might have ****ed him off last time, who knows.

 

[Xanthus]

Oh, and just to be a really smart guy, I stepped on the edge of my tank lid and shattered the whole thing...luckily it's an old lid and I'd already ordered a new one, but I'm without a lid for at least a few days, now.

 

[Ohio]

He looks pretty good considering that he is refusing to attach. Hopefully you cleaning your pumps will help.

 

[Xanthus]

Now he's climbed down from the rock and it looks like he's trying to climb up the side of one of the featherduster worms. The worm does not look amused.

 

[Xanthus]

Well, got him off the poor featherduster and back into the crevice, this time removed the plumbing as soon as he latched his foot in, so hopefully he won't feel the need to leave again.

The pictures show him crawling out of the crevice last night, and now re-attached in the crevice again, sans plumbing.

 

[garygb]

In those last pics the tentacles do look kinda like a malu. I was convinced before that it's crispa, but I may have to eat those words. Malu often attach to the underside of a rock at the sand/rock interface. I've never owned a malu, only crispa. Perhaps a malu owner can chime in with their thoughts about which species it is. The term sebae refers to either of those species, so the dealer calling it a sebae wouldn't preclude it being H. malu.

 

[Xanthus]

These pics make me think Malu?

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12180809&postcount=4

But google searching isn't very helpful, as I get a lot of similar looking pictures for malu and crispa. All the care instructions look identical, too. :/

Best I can tell is that they're very similar species in any case.

 

[bigben2057]

Im still thinking its not attaching because the light is too low. If you have a dual t5ho fixture around 24in that's 46watts of light which is not enough.

 

[garygb]

Yeah, they are very similar looking, especially when small. Eventually crispas tend to get rather large, where malus stay smaller. Only 2 t-5 bulbs? I agree, even on smallish tank, that likely isn't enough. 4 bulbs would definitely be better.