Anenome Question

[J Feez]

So I've officially taken the plunge into the reef keeping hobby :biggrin: . I bought myself a small sebae anenome and two little tank raised false percula clowns to go with it on monday.

My question is, is there such a thing as too much water flow? I've placed my anenome at the top of my live rock (kind of goes up in a pyramid shape) and it's sitting almost directly under the flow from my hang off the back filter. It doesn't look like my clowns are having trouble getting to the anenome, but I want to make sure that this isn't just going to stress the anenome out along with the clownfish.

Originally I had the anenome off to one side of the tank and it looked like it was a little unhappy (it's tenticles weren't fully extended). I figured it probably wasn't getting enough light which is why I moved it to the top of my LR.

Anyways I'm rambling now. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[J Feez]

Anybody? :)

[deep6er]

im not a pro but from what i know they can move around the tank till they like a spot. and well it found its own home..

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

No matter where you or anybody else thinks is best, the anemone will move to where it wants to be. Sometimes its right in front or right on top, where you can enjoy them. Other times they will be a PITA & lodge themself in the back where you can't see it. Some seem to like flow, others like calmer waters. Sorry, anemones don't seem to read from the same page, so there's no way to really tell where it will finally end up or be happy.

Anthony

[danny zubot]

In another thread a while back I found out that Sebae's usually dwell in the sand. They typically don't extend their foot into the rockwork because their foot is much larger and less sticky than other anemone's that prefer to reside on rocks, like BTA's. Sebae's rely on their disk more for stability, so high flow might not be desirable. Ultimately it will move to where is feels most comfortable in your tank.

If it helps, I bought my sebae about 3 months ago and placed it in the sand where the rocks form a kind of bowl around it, it has stayed in that very spot ever since. There isn't exactly a tonne of light where it is, so I feed it a bit of mysis once or twice a week. It took about a week for my clowns to make their home in it. Their tenticles are quite sticky so it must have taken some getting used to for them.

[J Feez]

You reminded me of my next question. I was just curious what you feed a sebae anenome? I see you are feeding it mysis. How do you feed them?

[OCDP]

Joel,

You can feed your anemone a variety of foods (meaty foods) . You can feed him silversides, shrimp, mysis, brine, etc.. (you can catch my drift) What I usually do is:

In a container (that you use for feeding) put some tank water with some food (thawed) in it. Then take a turkey baster and suck the food up, turn off all your pumps (dont forget to turn them back on) And slowly blow the food onto it's tentacles. It will go from there... You don't need to feed it every day also as a note.. maybe once or twice a week should be sufficient.

HTH,

[danny zubot]

dethawed??? -double negative, this means it's still frozen!

[OCDP]

Oops... like we all didn't know what I meant anyways, eh :razz:

[Beverly]

Short video on how we feed PE mysis to our RBTA....

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/v-rbta-feeding-mysis.wmv
(320 x 240 pixels, 5.7 MB, 1:28 minutes)

[J Feez]

Thanks so much for the video Beverly! :) That was very helpful. Did your RBTA move around on you when you first placed it in the tank?

[J Feez]

Help!

Ok so I haven't been home in a couple days because of work and when I got home just now I noticed that some of the tenticles in my anenome were green. I'm really hoping that this means new tenticles are coming in but I suspect that it is not good news. Can anyone help??

[OCDP]

Does the anemone itself look good to you? (like it used to) If so, then I'd say it's just the colouration of your anemone and your lighting. Sounds harmless. Could be new tentacles.. not exactly sure how they grow new ones though ahah!

Scott

[Beverly]

Thanks so much for the video Beverly! :) That was very helpful. Did your RBTA move around on you when you first placed it in the tank?

You're welcome, Joel :)

We started out with a GBTA in our 37g in early November and learned a lot about water movement requirements through much trial and error with the GTBA. So when we got our RBTA for our 67g, we pretty much had the perfect spot picked out for the RBTA. It only moved a few inches to get a bit more water movement.

Overall, I'd say our BTAs both need low, indirect water flow, just enough to very gently move their tentacles.

[J Feez]

Well it looks like everything is going to be ok!

My tank just underwent some major renovations. My two little damsels, who were in there to cycle the tank, have now made their way back to the fishstore. Both of them were just way too aggressive and were stressing my new clownfish out. When I came back from the fishstore, both my clowns looked completely relaxed and my anenome is looking better than I've seen it. I had to take out all of my LR to get those fast little buggers. I have a completely new aquascape and everything is looking extremely happy so far :)
I never imagined salt water fishkeeping would be so enjoyable. Compared to a freshwater fishtank, it seems like absolutely everything has a personality. It really is quite amazing! This website has been an incredible advantage because of the very friendly and knowledgable people who frequent it :) Thanks so much to everyone so far (so far because you know you'll be seeing my name on these message boards a whole heck of alot more times, probably even today! haha).

I took your advice as well Beverly and I've moved my anenome to a much more indirect water flow vantage point. She seems to be doing very well!

[seadooer21]

:question: I got a bubble anenome yesterday. I got him in the tank and put him in a rock where we wanted him. I turned the filter off so he could attach. fter several hours I thought that he was ok and turned the filter back on. Several hours later he till seemed ok. The next morning he was not where we had him. He was down on a bottom rock right next to my green plate coral. He was very small. I moved him back to the orig. spot we had him, turned the filter off again but he i not attaching. What is wrong?? What do I do??
I hope that some one can help me. I am very new to all of this.
Candy

[Beverly]

Candy,

Did you turn off all the water movement in your tank when you first got your BTA?

[seadooer21]

Beverly
yes... I turned off the water flow. He just moved again. I hope he will stay there. How long can I leave the water flow off with out problems to the tank???
Candy

[Beverly]

Personally, I would leave the water flow on at all times, except perhaps when feeding the BTA, or doing water changes.

If the water flow is too great for the BTA, it will move. If you want the BTA in a particular location, reduce water flow there, but prepare for it to move if it still doesn't like the location.

It can take weeks of adjusting water flow so an anemone will be happy in the location you like, and the anemone will move to where it likes it in the tank.

[seadooer21]

Well, My anenome finelly attached to a rock and he is moving around the tank. But he is against the tank glass. I don't really want him there because I don't think he will be able to open all the way. How do you move them????

Candy

[OCDP]

If this is your first anemone. I would personally leave it be. Moving them will only make it more angry and make it want to move around the tank. Because they have no brains/eyes, etc.. any kind of irritation or stress will only cause it to move more to find a spot where it can be left alone and where it receives proper light and flow.

However, if done very carefully.. they can be moved (you take the risk of it moving around on you even more though) You want to very gently pry the foot (the base that sticks to the glass/rock) And pry it off very slowly and very carefully. After doing so.. I would find a nice crack in the rockwork to place him and in an area there is good light, and moderate flow. If this isn't possible I personally would adjust flow and rocks to accomodate (sp?) the anemone. I have always had good luck with my anemones not moving. I simply pick out a spot in advance where I think there is a nice crack it would like to suck himself into, receiving a good amount of light ,and a gentle flow. Only one of the MANY I have kept decided to move around on me.

Sorry for the long post, good luck. And be careful if you decide to move it! :)

[Beverly]

Candy,

Before replying further, I would like to know more about your tank...

- what are the tank's dimensions?
- what kind of light do you have?
- what do you use for water movement and where is it/are they located in the tank?
- can you move the powerheads or whatever you use for water movement?

I have pried my BTAs off the rock, but it takes a long freaking time to do that. And I'm ALWAYS afraid of hurting the foot when doing so.

An even slower way of making an anemone move is to increase the water movement in the spot where your anemone is and making sure water movement where you want the anemone to be is lower.

Our first GBTA took at least six weeks of water movement experimentation to get the anemone in the place we wanted it with the right amount of water movement. It was frustrating, to say the least. However, I did learn a lot about the water movement requirements of that GBTA, so I chalk it up as a (long) learning experience :smile:

When we got our RBTA for our other tank, I had a pretty good idea where to put it in relation to the water movement issue. I was pretty close, too, as the RBTA only moved a few inches up toward the light and into slightly more water flow :biggrin:

[seashells]

Hi Beverly,

So what kind of plastic tubing do you use? Looks like freezie tube.

Shellie

[Beverly]

Got the rigid plastic tube at a lfs that specializes in fw fish and fw planted tanks. It comes in 3' lengths. We cut it so there was a shorter piece and a slightly longer piece, and made the cut on an angle to make feeding in awkward places a little easier.

Don't know what a "freezie" tube is, but I don't think that's what we've got :smile: