Wandering ritteri anemone

asylumdown · #1 03-31-2013, 08:00 PM

Alright, I had hoped I'd be lucky with this guy and have one that stayed relatively put, I even went to great lengths to rearrange my rock-work so that it was on it's own little island. No such luck, and I'm looking for advice -

I was in Mexico all week, and according to my roommate, there was no where on the north side of my tank that the anemone didn't go, it was apparently moving every single day and I came home to several dead frags as a result. It's now parked itself right up against one of my favourite corals which has so completely encrusted to the rocks I can't break it off to save it. The best I can hope for it is to frag it. I know these things are the hardest anemone to keep, and I know that a moving anemone equals an unhappy anemone, but I'm having a hard time figuring out if constant moving is a trait of this anemone species in general, or if it's really just unhappy in my tank? Can anyone who's kept one long term before offer some personal experience on how regularly a happy ritteri anemone moves?

The way I see it I have two options:

1. Allow the anemone to keep doing what it's doing and try to move/save what corals I can until it settles down

2. Try and create a spot in the tank it likes better and move it there. The only thing I can think to do is to create a much taller spire against one of my overflows so that the anemone can climb as close to the lights as possible. I'm not sure if it's a lighting issue or a flow issue that's making it want to move, but at the moment the highest it can climb in my tank is about 2/3 the depth of the tank. This would require prying the anemone off the rock it's presently on though, which makes me nervous.

any advice? The anemone itself still seems incredibly healthy. It's accepting food, it's a beautiful dark purple, it's firmly attached to the rocks...

fishoholic · #2 03-31-2013, 08:46 PM

Not sure about this anemone but most will move if there was to much flow on them. Although some just move for hell of it so who knows. The rbta at my work moved recently and got close to a zoa frag I had putty'd down. I found it easier to move the anemone to the other side then break off the frag.

I find if you can create a low flow spot with a tall rock cave/cavern area they can climb up when the lights go on and go down when the lights are off, they'll stay there and be happy.

asylumdown · #3 03-31-2013, 08:50 PM

Ya I'm worried that it's a flow issue. These guys are supposed to like the highest flow of all the anemones, so I thought it would be fine in my tank. Strangely, it hasn't moved today. It's like it knew I was home. Thankfully it only seems to move when the lights are on. I'm going to try fragging the coral that's in imminent danger off the rock today, and if it moved again tomorrow, I'm going to intervene more directly. I have some extra rock in the sump I can use to build a spire for it to live on in a corner. The problem will be convincing it to stay there.

kole · #4 03-31-2013, 11:46 PM

They do like flow I had a large Ritteri years ago and the only way I could get it to stay put was to blast it with flow from a powerhead. It also liked to be on the highest point in the tank. I have one currently that is on the side glass of the aquarium right at water level its not at good viewing level but it doesn't move much.

Delphinus · #5 03-31-2013, 11:53 PM

They want to be as high as possible to be as close to light as possible. You need a bommie far enough away from anything so it can't sense a path 'up' so to speak. Lots of flow. If you can get a light to put overhead that will help a lot. As soon as they can sense light 'over there' they will move that way.

I kept this anemone for 9 years. Beautiful animals but very particular/uncompromising in their needs.

Good luck!

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asylumdown · #6 04-01-2013, 01:08 AM

hmmm, Tony you've given me an idea. I've been looking for an excuse to buy an LED spotlight canon like the Kessil for a while. Maybe I'll pick one up and put it right over top of the hem to see if I can make it stay put

Delphinus · #7 04-01-2013, 05:26 AM

I was thinking after I posted that I bet a Kessil would do the trick nicely. :-)

daniella3d · #8 04-01-2013, 01:25 PM

Is this not the one that can grow to 3 feet in diameter? Good luck keeping any coral with that monster. I would sell that thing and get a sebae instead. they grow to only about 1 foot and stay in the sand. Mine has never moved from her spot, she remains in the sand at the bottom of the tank and there is not a lot of current there but she seems happy with it. She eats every day PE mysis and other meaty food.

Very well accepted by clownfish too.

Delphinus · #9 04-01-2013, 04:57 PM

Depends on how well it's fed and how often but yes it is a large anemone. Mine was 24" around fully extended although the base was more like 12" diameter. The thing was huge, but I loved it... I regret having sold it.

asylumdown · #10 04-01-2013, 09:33 PM

A Sebae was my first choice, and I tried one before this, but I have yet to see a Sebae anemone in a store in Calgary that either wasn't so bleached it was beyond recovery, or had been artificially dyed. Sebae's generally don't fare very well in the collecting and transport process, and the overwhelming majority of them show up at stores bleached to within an inch of their life, and I would assume that the majority of those don't live very long after they make it to people's tanks. The one I got looked to be the least bleached of all it's comrades under store lighting, but once I put it under my lights... it was practically glowing white. It was incapable of attaching, so I spent two weeks babying it, doing my best to try and bring it back, but after 14 days getting blown around the tank any time a current hit it, it finally turned itself inside out and died. If I ever find a sebae anemone in a store that's in as good a condition as this ritteri, I might consider it selling the ritteri, but in the past 2 years I have yet to have seen one that I would consider healthy.

As of today the nem still hasn't moved, so that's 2.5 days in one spot. It's also an ideal spot for me in terms of visibility and overall aesthetic, so I'm hoping it stays there. The two corals that I had to break off the rocks for it to be in this position were about to start fighting with each other anyway, so they needed to be moved or heavily trimmed. Now only the encrusted base of one coral is within tentacle distance, and even then only one small area. If it stays here, I think I'm going to be golden. I also know how large these things can get, but my tank is 6 feet long by 3 feet wide. Even if it grows to it's max size I still have plenty of room for the rest of my corals. The key is it staying put.

I picked up a Kessil A150 today. I was going to mount it right over the nem, but I liked it so much I swapped out the lights on my pico tank. I just wish it dimmed, I think it's too powerful for a 4 gallon tank. I may have to ditch the gooseneck and find a more creative way to hang it higher up.