Hello. I just bought a Sabae Anemone last night. What a GORGEOUS creature! It's probably 6 or 7" in diameter. I acclimated it for 2 hours, and placed him in shallow hole I made in the sand for him, and he hasn't budged from there. Seemed very happy last night. Went to bed a few hours later and he was still in the same spot. Woke up this morning and nearly panicked. He was all deflated and spewing out brown stringy stuff. I wondered if he was pooping, or if it was something bad. Thought that must have been his mouth, but than after reading some, found that their mouth is where they poop from too. I turned on the lights, and right before my eyes, his tenticles started filling out again. Below are two pics of him from last night, a pic from this morning 5 minutes after I turned on the lights, and another pic 30 minutes after I turned on the lights. Does he look ok? Do Anemones deflate at night when the lights are off like coral? If so, how long before they fill out again? I only have the T5's on right now. 150w MH is still off. Was the brown stringy stuff just normal pooping? Almost as soon as I turned on the lights, he stopped expelling the stuff. His mouth is still about 1/2 way open and the lights have been on for an hour now. Should his mouth normally be closed unless he's eating? He's definitely inflated more, but nothing like last night. My tank has been up and running for 8 months. Ammonia, Nitrates and Nitrites have been zero forever. Phosphates always 0 or .1 . PH is 8.3 Need a new Alk test as this red sea one is hard to read. All other test kits are salifert. Salinity 1.025. Calcium 390. Mag 1170. Temp is 80f. 53 gallon tank with 7 gallon sump. Clam and all corals look great. Here are the pics.
Anemone a couple hours after acclimating:
Anemone 5 minutes after turning on T5's in the morning:
Anemone 30 minutes after turning on T5's only in the morning:
Here he is 5 hours after turning my lights on. Definitely looks MUCH better than when my lights came on this morning, but not as nice as last night. His mouth is still open, but not all the way like this morning.
I do know that he is bleached, and will turn more brownish as he gets healthier. (although the white is SO pretty!) They both looked like that at my LFS (just came in a couple days ago).
When you feed them, how quickly do they grab the food? I did put a little piece of enriched Brine in his mouth, but he didn't do much with it, or at least it was really slow.
Do they normally shrivel all up when the lights are off at night like mine did last night? Or was that more getting acclimated to my tank?
It definitely looks better. I have a LTA and a RBTA, they both deflate at night, so that shouldn't be anything to worry about. I've never seen a sebae in a LFS that WASN'T bleached, but it should recover if given good conditions and food. I wouldn't be surprised for it to take several days to fully adjust to being in your tank. Keep us up to date on how it's doing.
I went out for a few hours tonight, and came home and the lights had shut off for the night in the tank, but the lights in the room were on, and the Anemone is fully inflated and back to his full glory !! Looks as beautiful when I brought him home yesterday. YAY!! When you feed them, do you put the food in their mouth, or in their tenticles?
Pam
He looks very beautiful!! I took mine back because I was too worries about my insufficient lighting, but I just got 500w in metal halides, husband just pput the last coat of paint on the new hood! Cant wait to be in sebae glory again too!
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55gl mixed reef pre-drilled
500w MH (120), 10 gl sump, cheap skimmer
tank est. spring '06 Is it wrong to love a clump? MACRO MANIA
My Anemone looks awesome today! Never deflated last night. I woke up and checked him out while it was still dark out, and he was inflated beautifully. His mouth appears closed too.
My clown is happy in his frogspawn and hasn't showed any interest in the Anemone yet. Should I just leave well enough alone, or move the frogspawn to a less desirable location to see if the clown moves to the Anemone?
Yep, it took my clowns quite a while to start hosting. I had a RBTA in the tank for a couple of months that they completely ignored. I added a LTA and they started hosting in under 24 hours. They have recently moved from the LTA to the RBTA where I wanted them.
My Anemone looks awesome today! Never deflated last night. I woke up and checked him out while it was still dark out, and he was inflated beautifully. His mouth appears closed too.
Sounds like its getting used to your tank's routine. Anemones typically inflate and do their whole "prey capture" routine for an hour or two just as the lights are coming on or going off (when the water on the reef, and in most mature tanks, is swarming with zooplankton) - coincidentally, those are the perfect times to feed your anemone!
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My clown is happy in his frogspawn and hasn't showed any interest in the Anemone yet. Should I just leave well enough alone, or move the frogspawn to a less desirable location to see if the clown moves to the Anemone?
As long as the frogspawn is happy (coral is expanding fully, no bite marks, no tissue recession along the base of the polyps) and the clown doesn't appear to be in danger of being eaten by it (a large Euphyllia sp. can easily eat a small clownfish) I'd leave it alone. Trying to force a clown into an anemone is an only slightly less fruitless endeavor than cat herding.
PS. If the anemone ever starts to wander around the tank I'd be prepared to yank that frogspawn and any other corals from the Euphyllia sp. family out of the display and into some sort of holding tank. They have powerful stings and could easily wreak havoc on a passing anemone. Keeping your anemone well fed and well lit will minimize the chances of it uprooting and looking for greener pastures.
When you feed them, how quickly do they grab the food? I did put a little piece of enriched Brine in his mouth, but he didn't do much with it, or at least it was really slow.
Probably didn't recognize or enjoy the brine shrimp, Heteractis crispa mostly eat small fish, not crustaceans. Pick up some frozen silversides or lancefish (your LFS should carry these), chop or dice the fish and feed the anemone several small portions rather than tossing a whole fish into it's tentacles.
If you ever see it spit out a portion of food, perhaps wrapped in a mucus-like cocoon, grab a turkey baster or forceps and remove the regurgitated food -- since regurgitated food is usually not digested and could foul your water if it rots or gets eaten (and excreted) by your cleanup crew.
Good luck with your anemone, it is indeed a gorgeous specimen!
great info Doc, as usual !! i would like to also throw this in there for a tidbit of info Pammy ... the Sebae Anemones are less likely to wander around the tank than most others. that is THE MAIN reason i decided on one for my "i will NEVER have an anemone" SPS tank.
__________________ Bobby
"I FORMERLY glued animals to rocks" NO TANK RIGHT NOW, but you never know when I might throw one together !! I have everything I need but the time!!
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