ratherbediving
New member
I bought a Green Bubble Tip anemone three weeks ago. When I went to the LFS, I didn't go thinking I was going to pick up an anemone, but I had read the anemone FAQ and felt like I was ready for one. My tank has been up for year, and the readings were pretty good. The only reading that was a bit low was alk-- at 7 dkH this was a little lower than what I read you should keep alk at, but my ph seemed pretty steady (using Milwaukee pH meter) and I figured this would be okay. I drip kalk daily and have been adding B-ionic a couple times a week as well.
First of all, I had trouble acclimating him. I used an airline that I had tied in a knot to drip water into a bucket previously. I found that it worked well, but for some reason this time I wanted to use a pastic valve to more closely control the drip rate; I figured I'd start out slow, then increase the rate of the drips.
Unfortunately, the airline fell off the valve
and poured water straight into the bucket for a couple minutes, probably equalling the volume of water that was in the acclimation bags from the LFS. Good way to shock the corals. I waited for another 15 minutes without adding water, then continued to drip (making sure the line was more secured to the valve). After about 2 hours total, I tried to move the anemone to the main tank. It had secured its foot to the bottom of the bucket. I don't have long fingernails and really didn't feel like I could easily get underneath the anemone very well. I eventually got it out of the bucket, but I am pretty sure I stressed it out really badly in the process.
Once I got it in the tank, it stayed where I wanted it to-- then later that night it moved underneath the rock I put it on. The next day it popped up again, this time on the other side of the rock, where I have a sizeable frogspawn. I knew about the risks of the anemone stinging other corals, so I was a bit worried but figured I could take the anemone back if it became too much of a problem.
The anemone looked pretty much like it did at the LFS at this point:
The next day, it moved back to the other side of the rock. However, it had lost its bubble tips, and had an inflated base and much longer tentacles.
This is a picture of how it looks now, but it has pretty much looked this way since...
This is almost where I wanted it to go; this is further to the back of the tank, right under my (partial) manifold, so some of the light is blocked. I thought it would appreciate more light.... but it would move if it felt it wasn't getting enough, right?
Sorry for all the long background/ post-- I have a few concerns. The first is I want to make sure the picture above doesn't indicate that the anemone is having problems.... one thing I have read recently is that anemones can be affected by the secondary metabolites of certain corals. I don't have any leathers (sarcophyton?), but I do have the following corals:
Frogspawn
Hammer coral
Bubble coral
Zoanthids
Xenia
Green star polyps
Button polyps
Galaxea
Mushrooms
Chilli Coral
Plate coral
Open brain
I did read that the zoanthids can be a problem... is this something I need to be concerned about?
Also-- it has deflated twice that I have seen, both times were pretty alarming, even though it recovered pretty quickly. I know from reading the FAQ that they do this do equalize internal water chemistry and flush out wastes, and it sounds like once a week or so isn't too bad, as long as it recovers quickly. Still, I'd like to post what this looked like. It recovered to its full size by the next day, and was almost back to normal a few hours after it deflated.
About an hour later:
Finally-- last question/ concern. I have three rock boring (echinometra) urchins in my tank. They hitchhiked on my live rock, and have grown pretty big. One was feeding on coraline immediately behind the anemone. It was poking at the anemone in the process. I haven't seen any damage, but is this something I need to be concerned about?
Thanks for any help/ advice. I have been reading all I can, and I know these can be demanding animals. I have been feeding mysis, which it accepts readily, about every three to four days.
First of all, I had trouble acclimating him. I used an airline that I had tied in a knot to drip water into a bucket previously. I found that it worked well, but for some reason this time I wanted to use a pastic valve to more closely control the drip rate; I figured I'd start out slow, then increase the rate of the drips.
Unfortunately, the airline fell off the valve
and poured water straight into the bucket for a couple minutes, probably equalling the volume of water that was in the acclimation bags from the LFS. Good way to shock the corals. I waited for another 15 minutes without adding water, then continued to drip (making sure the line was more secured to the valve). After about 2 hours total, I tried to move the anemone to the main tank. It had secured its foot to the bottom of the bucket. I don't have long fingernails and really didn't feel like I could easily get underneath the anemone very well. I eventually got it out of the bucket, but I am pretty sure I stressed it out really badly in the process. Once I got it in the tank, it stayed where I wanted it to-- then later that night it moved underneath the rock I put it on. The next day it popped up again, this time on the other side of the rock, where I have a sizeable frogspawn. I knew about the risks of the anemone stinging other corals, so I was a bit worried but figured I could take the anemone back if it became too much of a problem.
The anemone looked pretty much like it did at the LFS at this point:
The next day, it moved back to the other side of the rock. However, it had lost its bubble tips, and had an inflated base and much longer tentacles.
This is a picture of how it looks now, but it has pretty much looked this way since...
This is almost where I wanted it to go; this is further to the back of the tank, right under my (partial) manifold, so some of the light is blocked. I thought it would appreciate more light.... but it would move if it felt it wasn't getting enough, right?
Sorry for all the long background/ post-- I have a few concerns. The first is I want to make sure the picture above doesn't indicate that the anemone is having problems.... one thing I have read recently is that anemones can be affected by the secondary metabolites of certain corals. I don't have any leathers (sarcophyton?), but I do have the following corals:
Frogspawn
Hammer coral
Bubble coral
Zoanthids
Xenia
Green star polyps
Button polyps
Galaxea
Mushrooms
Chilli Coral
Plate coral
Open brain
I did read that the zoanthids can be a problem... is this something I need to be concerned about?
Also-- it has deflated twice that I have seen, both times were pretty alarming, even though it recovered pretty quickly. I know from reading the FAQ that they do this do equalize internal water chemistry and flush out wastes, and it sounds like once a week or so isn't too bad, as long as it recovers quickly. Still, I'd like to post what this looked like. It recovered to its full size by the next day, and was almost back to normal a few hours after it deflated.
About an hour later:
Finally-- last question/ concern. I have three rock boring (echinometra) urchins in my tank. They hitchhiked on my live rock, and have grown pretty big. One was feeding on coraline immediately behind the anemone. It was poking at the anemone in the process. I haven't seen any damage, but is this something I need to be concerned about?
Thanks for any help/ advice. I have been reading all I can, and I know these can be demanding animals. I have been feeding mysis, which it accepts readily, about every three to four days.
Seems like anemones are a lot more 'dramatic' (stressful) than corals are 
