Needing some advice for my Heteractis magnifica!

[Ticketyboo]

Hi everyone,

I have a Heteractis magnifica and introduced it to my new tank after cycling the tank for a month and all was well. A few weeks later it went walkabout and placed itself behind my live rock wall which is next to my power head and stayed there for a day or so. Trouble with that is that it shelters itself from the Lights and i only had CF lights and it withers away and all its tenticles shrink and turns dark green. Its done this twice in 5 weeks...

I have since figured out that it might have been bothered by the powerhead blowing sand near it as there was alot sand debris on its base where it was located initially.

Now i have MH 2x175 lights on there... and its still going walkabout... any advice from anyone?

I already lost one annenomie, a condylactis when it went walk about on the otherside of the tank straight into my skimmer pump intake. Do you think perhaps i shouldnt be using powerheads on the lower part of my tank? as it does disturb the sand and they are on a timer as part of a wave machine. I also have 2 power heads at the top of each side to generate current.

Its tenticles are not as happy as they were when i got it, my clowns took to it a few days ago and i was so happy, but then it went walkabout again.... help!!!

[Sushiman]

a surging flow might help alot. these are notoriously fussy critters. good luck.

[Joslyn]

I've had a heteractis magnifica for about 18 months now.

For the first 6-9 months it didn't look very healthy. The tentacles weren't full and it had a habit of walking around for the first couple months.
At that time nitrates were around 10ppm, and for lighting I had 4 X 55W T5 bulbs over it. (6 foot 180 gallon tank).

Then I put in 250W 12k metal halides. This made a big difference, but I'm not sure if it was directly as a result of the lighting change, or because the lighting grew algae in my tank, which removed the nitrate so that now my nitrate level is undetectable.

Is it eating? It's a good sign if it responds quickly to food and is sticky (stinging the food).

[Ticketyboo]

Yes i feed it once a week some krill and some shrimp along with the rest of the tank, and he takes it (sticks to the tenticles). I spoke to the chap at my LFS and he states they are well known for this and so just to keep moving him back to the same spot when he does move..... not very encouraging... but maybe i should introduce another annenomie... perhaps a buble coral? im just looking for my clowns to take to one....

[Joslyn]

Not sure how big your anemone is. Mine's probably about 10 inches across. I feed it a couple times a week. Make sure you're target feeding it, not just with the rest of the tank. Especially if it's not healthy it may not be catching much if it's just in small pieces.

I give mine a big chunk of frozen homemade food which has a lot of mysis shrimp, cyclopeeze, etc. in it. This chunk would be about half by half by 1 inch. I make sure it has caught it good and within a few seconds it balls up all around it, and it's finished swallowing it within about 20 minutes.

If you're moving it around be careful of the foot. It probably takes a good 15-20 minutes to pry it off something. Just bit by bit push it with a thumbnail until it lets go. Be careful not to tear the foot. Tentacles can get torn and it's able to recover, but the foot is more of a problem.

Generally I found it wanted to get up as high as possible in the tank, so if you put it at the top of the rockwork, and leave enough space between the rock and the wall so it can't sense the wall there and try to go up the wall, it should eventually stay in that spot.

[Ticketyboo]

Thanks Joslyn,

Mine is about 4 inch spanwise and i fed him today, turned all the power heads off and he grabbed the frozen shrimp chunk and the mysis that i hand fed him.

I also redirected my powerhead to give him more flow to see if that helps, so thanks for your advice and i will try this for the next few days and see how it effects him...

...... damn fussy critter eh?