Sabae (H. Crispa) Health

[whiteshark]

I'm by no means new to reefing, but rather new to anemone keeping. I'd like to inquire about the health of this sabae. It's been in the tank for a couple months now. Intitially it was bright white. From what I understand, this is not the natural state of this anemone. Over the past several weeks it has been getting some brown spreading through. Is this an indication of improving health, or failing health?

 

[davocean]

Gaining that beige color is a good sign, yes.
I'd squirt mysis towards it a couple times a week to help regain health.
When I see them on glass like that, I wonder if they are reaching for light, they like very strong light, especially once healthy, so hopefully you've got that covered

 

[whiteshark]

I was somewhat concerned about the lighting level. The tank is 24 inches deep. I have a single 250w halide and 4 24w t5s. I'm thinking of swapping out the 250w bulb and ballast for a 400w combo.

I have been feeding about twice a week with mysis and brine, occasionally krill, which it gladly accepts.

 

[davocean]

Brine has little nutritional value unless live or enriched, mysis is usually better, krill fine too.

250MH and T5's are not bad, but it will handle pretty much all the light you can give, but I'd wait till you regain more health before blazing it, and you may find you don't even need to.

Right now lacking color/zoo it probably can only handle or make use of so much light anyway.

It may have just anchored at that spot for now, or maybe it likes the flow there, they can usually handle pretty good flow as well.

 

[whiteshark]

It's enriched brine. I wouldn't feed frozen, non enriched brine to anything on a normal basis. Realistically I just feed it what I feed the fish which is two kinds of enriched brine, mysis, krill, and copepods.

It has moved a total of about 6 inches since I put it in the tank. It was anchored just under the rock to the left for a few weeks, then moved just to the right against the glass over the next several weeks. The sand is a faux sandbed, so it's essentially a rock bottom that it can easily anchor to.

 

[whiteshark]

So hear is a question. Should I be concerned about an over ambitious emerald crab that literally waltzes straight into the middle of this anemone to try to steal food? It doesn't seem to actually bother the nem, which is looking even better over the past several days, but it doesn't seem to be a healthy relationship.

 

[davocean]

I would not worry about that.

The faux sand bed could be an issue and explain why it went to glass, it may climb glass as it gains health and wants more light.

 

[whiteshark]

I would not worry about that.

The faux sand bed could be an issue and explain why it went to glass, it may climb glass as it gains health and wants more light.

Do they prefer actual sand?

 

[davocean]

Sand at base of rockwork

 

[whiteshark]

Sand at base of rockwork

I could always put some sand in around the base of the rocks. It seems happy at the moment so I think I'll hold off for the time being.

Thanks for the info!