Set my mind at ease: new Malu

It's gotta be a crispa: Look at his foot!

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After a week he still hasn't attached anywhere. Today I got another case of "gotta fix-it-itis"

I gently as I could fished him out of his crevice at the end of the tank. I build a rock "fence" section at the other end of the tank away from the pistol shrimp's hizzle.

Then after he rolled around for a bit I put his foot in a yogurt cup. Notice how big his foot is...hopefully now he's putting his foot down.

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I was going to keep this in a 50 gal. I'm on the fence about calling liveaquaria and telling them they sent the wrong nem. I'm worried if I send him back he won't survive another trip. Maybe so. I'll call them and see what they say.

I know crispas can get awfully big - which is why I wanted a Malu. I have a 155 build coming and I guess I could put him there. Was rather thinking my 155 would be a coral garden as I'll have plenty of room for all kinds of support equipment when/if/as needed.
 
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Oh, yeah. Also I pulled out the sea cabbage and 2 pieces of chalice (I think it's echinopora) from the water. It's awfully slimy. Aaaaannnnddd..found out my GAC reactor was really down on flow so I cleaned it out.

Maybe all this will work to make him happier. We'll see. I'll leave him be for another couple days.

I'm tempted to change the water in case the chalices or sea cabbages left any chemical trails, but since his color is OK and he's not bleaching I'll leave the water be and see if the GAC running more flow will make him happier.
 
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How did your nem fair? im so tempted to order a colored malu from LA, but from what ive seen im not very trusting in there nem IDs.
 
I doubt it will stay attached in a yogurt cup. the best bet would be a hole in the liverock slightly larger than the diameter of the anemones column. I've had one a few years and it never attached and stayed up until I put it's foot in a hole in the liverock.
 
Hmm. Will try that. He's still just hanging out. There is a rock with an indentation that might work but I was hoping he'd move into it.

Honestly I'm not sure I'd do this again.
 
So I have a rock with a hole in it. I made little cubby hole with differing positions of the rock/hole and the nem. He wasn't having any of it.

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He moved around for abit and still drifted off.

So Sunday I got frustrated and just unsure what else to do. I shut off the main pump totally. Just the powerhead was on. He rolled around on the sand kinda putting his foot here and there.

I moved rocks in front. I moved rocks behind. I moved rockes to the left side, to the right. I dug holes. I filled them up. Then I just left him be after putting his foot in places (testing?) then pulling it out and rolling around. I turned the main pump down to almost a flippin' trickle. I've removed more little pieces of coral (chalice and birdsnest frag - would up dropping and breaking the birdsnest). He wound up rolling around on the sand and face down around supper time. Fine. I'm done - if that's where he wants to be, so be it.

Late last night I just couldn't stand it and got up @10. he was still face down in the sand. Dug a hole in the corner of the aquarium, moved him over there and plotted my next move.

I was contemplating what the heck is going on and thinking of another water change (this being Sunday I had done my weekly change the day before). Then he started to put his foot on the back wall of the tank. So I decided not to do anything - that's more than he's done since the almost 2 weeks I've had him.

But now he just has a portion of his foot on the wall. He's kinda hanging there and it aloso appears now that he's damaged on his underside (where he meets the sand). Almost like a scraping something. I do have a pistol shrimp that meanders around - I wonder if he had a rolling-over with Pisty. ????

So he's actually held on the back wall - rather by a "toe" - for a few hours now. I'm rather waiting to see what he does once the lights come on. I'm tempted to change the GAC (2 weeks old) and maybe a water change again - but since he's holding on I'm rather loathe to do anything else.

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Does he have a damaged foot? And now...to watch him disintegrate???
 
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Nope.

Nope.

tassy said:
How did your nem fair? im so tempted to order a colored malu from LA, but from what ive seen im not very trusting in there nem IDs.
Click to expand...

As of now - it's going to be a long time before I attempt this again. My tank was all together, running, stable - low maintenance with good parameters. After messing with it, rearranging, changing flow etc. to see if I'm making the nem happy I've thrown everybody off.

Heck - even Toby the Goby has been in the overflow box 3 times since Thursday - he's never been in there before. I've dropped a birdsnest frag and shattered it. I've broken a light into the tank.

Yeah, so right about now after this is over with I don't see doing Jack Squat for a while.
 
Yet another update:

Liveaquaria gave me a credit for the nem. Apparently they agree it's a Crispa. While my tank meets the MINIMUM tank size, I indicated that this guy gets so big he'll fill the tank up (rather) and is exactly why I wanted a Malu - so I'd be able to have other critters.

Nonetheless at one time he had his foot fully attached to the back wall, but as of now is rolling around again.

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I just hope he can settle down and be happy (well....don't we all wish we could do that?)

I'd guess I just figured out what "Too much flow" is for this guy....much less than I expected. My frog spawn is the happiest he's been in a while, though, I have to say.
 
You've certainly provided it with both sand and rock. The fact it's grabbing to the wall sometimes seems like a positive sign. About all you can do is make sure your water parameters are in check be patient.
 
So yesterday he grabbed on to the wall and I put a rock behind him in that corner. He climbed up just a bit on the rock, came back down and was rather attached to the rock and the wall. His tentacles were really longer on the outside than they've ever been and he's beginning to put down his vesticles on the sand.

YAY! He's making progress!

This morning: Nope. Not attached at all. But he's in the same flippin' place. Not quite balled up, but all floppy.

*sigh*

There's a straight little bitty ditch in front of rock where he is back to his foot. Now I don't know if the pistol shrimp did that looking for a snail for more building material, a crab or what. Or if that was left over from me straightening out the sand.

*sigh*

I've kept the screens where they are and upped the photoperiod an hour and changed out the GAC. Maybe he's gonna like that.

*sigh*
 
Any progress on the anemone attaching? Cripas can be a pain at first, but once they find a spot they tend to stay put.
 
I love crispas and would prefer one over a gig. But unfortunately they are hard to find in stores - especially healthy ones that are not completely bleached.

I had one in the mid 80s. At first it couldn't make up its mind where to settle. I think the reason was that it never could find a good crevice to put its foot, because as soon as I "planted" it into a flower pot it stopped moving and grew big.
 
Well he attached in the same general area again and has stayed attached for a few days now. I upped the flow a bit today from being really low. I may need to turn it back down or move the frogspawn again.

But some progress. He hasn't eaten as far as I can tell. Not interested in mysis, shrimp. I'll try squid tomorrow.
 
I would hold off on trying to feed it until it is attached and has stayed that way for a day or two. Then, try a small piece and keep an eye on whether the anemone takes it in or lets it go. I would say a fresh piece of squid or shrimp, but small like a pencil eraser, would be good choices. Once it starts eating, sebaes can get large quickly--mine is now about 18 inches across and I have cut back on the feeding a lot and it still maintains its size.
 
Bit of follow up. He's been attached in the same general area for a while and hadn't really been interested in eating anything (squid, shrimp, clam). I let the water changes go in the tank as I got distracted for a while and he detached.

got tank back on track and he's reattached in the same spot.

I also have a pistol shrimp that roams around a lot so I wonder if he digs around the nem. Dunno.

Anyway he's looking fine and ate a bit of clam.

I introduced an orange skunk clown late last week and he swam right to the nem. Actually the nem looks a bit bigger now that the clown has been swimming around inside.

So far so good!
 
Thank you for the update Jon. So glad it has thrived for you. A beautiful crispa and the skunk looks great in it. I have an orange skunk in my crispa as well as, a natural combination.
 
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