Sebae anemone

Massengill

New member
What's the trick to keeping one? I have seen many Sebaes for sale at our LFS, most arrive "bleached" from what I can tell. They are usually white with yellow tips. Once in a while I will see some brown ones with purple tips. Usually the look great for the 1st 2 or 3 days, then they shrivel up. I think these are one of the most impressive looking anemones, but appears to be one of the more difficult to keep. What temp do they like, salinity, food, water flow, lighting (position in aquarium) etc?
 
I've had mine for about 3 months. Got it a very light, almost white, pinkish-purple with purple tips. No one ever said anything about feeding them, so I just assumed it filter fed the stuff I threw in the tank for the fish. RRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNTTTT!!!!! WRONG ANSWER!!! Bought some silver sides. I fed three in two days and it perked right up and inflated nicely. Now I feed silver sides about 1/2 - 1 twice a week. It's now a nice deep lavender and sits near a power head where it gets the light and flow it wants.
Sp Gr - 1.023
temp - 75-78F
NO2 - 0
NH3 - 0
NO3 - 5-10
pH - 8.2
dKh - 13.2
Ca - 400
Mg - 1300

Hope that helps a little

Dave
 
I have sebea though im not sure if it malu or crispa, aurora or even something else. I bought it bleached white as you describe but it has now recovered. they need a sand bed, decent light gentle flow and mine prefers shrimp to fish. I also think they do better if they can host clownfish
 
I also bought my Sabae very bleached (see the first picture below). I didn't realize it was bleached when I first bought it. It looked horrible about 24 hours after I put it into my tank. I thought it was going to die. Took me a while, to get used to how bad these Anemones can look when they deflate, and then how they inflate hours later and look beautiful again. I've had my Sabae for 4 months now, and it has turned very beige and still has the purple tips. MUCH healthier! See 2nd picture that I just took last week. Anemone is in the center of the tank. Mine has JUST started to have a good feeding response. I've tried pieces of silverside and krill, but the clownfish always pulls out the food. Mysis with Selecon seems to work better for me. It looks like the clown might have actually just started bringing food to the Anemone instead of stealing it.

I think what's important for these Sabae's, is very good water quality, and strong lighting. Mine doesn't seem to like strong flow at all....which is why he has now positioned himself between the two rock structures.

I chose the Sabae because I had read that they are less likely to wander and get caught in powerheads etc. My Sabae has never traveled further than a few inches from where I originally placed him, and has never traveled off of the sandbed.

Just FYI....my parameters are quite different than Dave's (Alk, PH Salinity, Temp, Mag), so it seems they can do well in a good range of parameters. My lighting is a 150W 10k Metal Halide Bulb and 4 24W T5's.

Nitrites and Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 2.5
PH: 8.4
Alk: 8
Temp: 80f
Calcium: 400
Magnesium: 1170
Salinity: 1.025

Good Luck! Pam


Sabae Anemone - January 2008
AnemoneandClown3.jpg


Sabae Anemone - April 16, 2008
FullTankShot4-13-08.jpg
 
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It sure was stark white. Very very beige now. I preferred the looks of the Anemone when it was white, but didn't realize how badly bleached it was. So, if mine can recover from being that bleached, that's a good sign for the rest of the bleached Anemone's sitting in LFS'.
Pam

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12399888#post12399888 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Massengill
Man that anemone is white, looks good though.
 
I read somewhere mixing anemones is generally not advised, but especially not recommended to house a Sebae with a Carpet because Carpets release a toxin very deadly to Sebaes. Any of this make sense? I am looking into the future here, I'd love to have a 100 gallon tank with a couple of anemones and a pair of Oscellaris and a pair of Perculas one day. Not so much a carpet, but maybe a BTA and a LTA, or BTA and Sebae, or LTA and Sebae. I guess I could always get a BTA and RBTA.
 
You should be fine if you use carbon. I have Sebea, (5)Rbta, gbta, condy, one wich looks like a cross between a carpet and a bta, and 8 tulip type anems. They al ldo well together and have grown and thrived
 
I see you have a nice mix of NEMS, but the arcticle I read mentioned not to mic carpets with sebaes specifically. From what I read, the arcticle said that carpets release/secrete something very toxic to sebaes. I don't know why this "stuff" isn't toxic to other NEMS, weird. My ultimate goal is to have a big enough aquarium to house a carpet, sebae, BTA and LTA. If at all possible maybe a rock anemone and condy, that's a stretch. I'd like to have a 60 gallon (36"X18"X24") since lighting would be cheaper, but probably not big enough for all the NEMS. I have also considerred a 90 gallon (48"X18"X24"), but lighting would empty my pockets to buy and run three 150watt 14k MH. Whereas I could get away with two 150watt 14k MH on the 60gallon.
 
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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12401806#post12401806 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Javeo
You should be fine if you use carbon. I have Sebea, (5)Rbta, gbta, condy, one wich looks like a cross between a carpet and a bta, and 8 tulip type anems. They al ldo well together and have grown and thrived

I was looking at your signature and roughly converted your set-up. How do you get by with only 90watts of lighting on a 55 gallon aquarium? Are we talking about a standard 48"X12"X18" tank? Do you have more than one bulb, or just the one T-5? I only have a 30 gallon/110ltr (36"X12"X16") and I am running 4 bulbs, two 10k and two 460actinics, 156watts total. I have about a 2.5"/6.5cm sand bed and my lights are sitting directly on top of my tank. They are only piercing about 14" of water and a glass canopy, and I worry my anemones aren't getting enough light. Please elaborate.
 
I bought one of those "brown with purple tip" ones last Oct. About 2 months later it started turning a nice yellow with purple tips and the tentacles finally started to stretch out (for a while there I thought I might have had an H. Malu) It's now doing great and has grown a lot
I keep my sg at 1.026. Nitrates are a bit high, anywhere between 10 and 20 even with 40% weekly water changes but it seems happy enough and has never moved
Oh and there are 2, 175w iwasaki 14k MHs lighting the tank

Pic taken tonight
april2408017.jpg
 
High nitrates huh? 40% weekly water changes, WOW. My nitrates stay around 20ppm too, I only do 25% water changes once a month. You must have a lot bigger bio-load than I do, probably feed more too. I just put a skimmer back on my tank 4 days ago, that will probably help me with nitrates as well.
 
For nitrates you might find chaeto to be helpful and/or a remote deep sand bed. I can say from experience, chaeto grows like a weed. I need to prune it every week. It is a nice green color and looks like cotton candy. You can keep it in your sump (if you have a sump on the tank) if you don't want it in the display tank.
 
I do not have a sump, my set-up is about as basic as it gets. 30 gallon long, 400bio-wheel, 156watts of light 10k/actinic, 2 wave maker power-heads, 150watt heater, 16lbs live rock, 2.5" substrate, nano skimmer, 2 clowns, 5" carpet, cleaner shrimp. My goal (now that I have so much more knowledge) is to have a 60 or 90 gallon tank, sump (fuge), skimmer, MHs, 3" substrate, 90lbs live rock, heater etc.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12402841#post12402841 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Massengill
I was looking at your signature and roughly converted your set-up. How do you get by with only 90watts of lighting on a 55 gallon aquarium? Are we talking about a standard 48"X12"X18" tank? Do you have more than one bulb, or just the one T-5? I only have a 30 gallon/110ltr (36"X12"X16") and I am running 4 bulbs, two 10k and two 460actinics, 156watts total. I have about a 2.5"/6.5cm sand bed and my lights are sitting directly on top of my tank. They are only piercing about 14" of water and a glass canopy, and I worry my anemones aren't getting enough light. Please elaborate.

its a Rio 180, so it about 40" long, not so deep. I have 2x45w t5s with individual reflectors. The canopy prevents me adding anymore lights. I did have an arcadia luminaire with 4 tubes like you but it wont fit on this tank. I feed my anems alot, feed the whole tank quite heavily and do water changes (25ltr) once a month and my nitrates are <5. All my anems are doing really well, the RBTA and tulip too well as i have a plague of them now, actually in the process of selling off all the clones! I just cant keep corals at all no mater what i try so i have to make do with a tank full of nems, annoys the mandrin though :P
 

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