Anemone Anchor

[JustDavidP]

What? An anemone anchor!?!?!....that's it, Dave has SURELY had far too many mouthfuls of siphon sewerage! Right?! Maybe not.. read on.

IF you've heard the latest and greatest TR Podcast, you would have heard Rob mention some KEY issues regarding the keeping of anemone. More specifically, his notes on keeping Bubble Tipped Anemones or "BTAs". In that podcast, Rob mentions that BTAs are more prone to "wandering" than other anemones. I agree whole heartedly with that. It is for good reason. They are particular about water flow, lighting and the placement of their "foot". Just because YOU think that your new Rose BTA looks good in the center of the tank, and the lighting and flow seems just perfect, doesn't mean that "Mr. Tentacles" thinks so.

It is a little easier to figure out the water flow that your BTA needs. It should sway, gently, in the current. It should NOT be blown like a bad hair day in Chicago. Nor should it be so low that the BTA is motionless, or it will not be fed properly, and will literally sit in its own waste. We can all create that happy medium with powerhead or any other flow adjustment.

You can also predict the proper spot for lighting, in order to meet the photosynthetic needs of your BTA. However, as Rob rightfully noted in the podcast, while the BTA needs light and prefers to have its tentacles exposed to said light, they prefer NOT to have "hot foot". They really do need some nook or cranny to hide their foot in and keep themselves both secure and comfortable. This is probably why you note that while the BTA is green, red, or other color, the foot is often pink, light red, or creme colored. It lacks the same density in zooxanthellae and therefore reflective qualities etc. So, bottom line is, they want to bury that foot and you have to help them do so.

I had major problems with nomadic BTAs for months and couldn't figure it out. Again, the flow, lighting, etc. could all be found to be "compatible", but the darned things just kept moving...So....I made "anemone anchors". I didn't have enough smallish nooks and crannies in my rockwork for the anemone to find a decent, well lit, and proper flow, home! I built them.

If you are lucky enough to find a nice piece of Fiji, that has a natural hole in it, you are golden. Otherwise, I simply took a hole cutting drill bit (have used both 2 and 3 inch versions) and drilled a hole in the rock. I rinsed the rock and put it in the center of the reef, where I WANTED the BTA to be, but it refused to stay and viola...it LOVED it. It stuck its fat foot right in the hole, and stuck there for the life of the reef. (I actually sold the anemone and its anchor).

Drilling into dense rock like Fiji is pretty easy. I'd not want to try this on the lighter density rock out there (ie. Caribbean). I did blast apart a good 3 lb chunk of rock doing this, but if you take it slow, use light pressure and wet the rock from time to time, you can make a great cut. Your BTA will thank you for it.

Dave

[hardtwist]

I will definitely have to give this a try. Thanks for the information Dave. One question. How deep should the hole be?

Jim

[gwen_o_lyn]

Great info Dave- thanks!!
How about a pic of your fancy rockwork??

[JustDavidP]

Jim,

Depends on the rock and the size of the anemone's foot. They REALLY want their foot protected, so a "Cave" of sorts, (not going entirely through the rock), is the best. However, on thin rocks, where you almost have to go through, you could stack the one with a hole, against another without hole. Remember, if it is a little deep, they will always stretch their foot to "crown" into the light. Better deeper than too shallow.

Gwen.. I have to find the piccies. I had ALL of this on a site I used to frequent/help out called Reef Freaks. When they went away, so did my pics. I have volumes of images on CD at home. I'll look for them.

D

[Reefbaby]

don't you hate when you can't find something on the web that you've seen before and it doesn't matter what kind of conglomeration of words on a google search...you just can't find it?

Well...that's whats happened to me. I remember once having seen some cone-shaped cups that were made out of that fake reef material, especially for anemones to attach to. They weren't that expensive and the perfect size. But, for the life of me, I can't find the site again!

[Rob]

great tip dave..
another one that i wanted to mention, but totally forgot about was the use of a 2-3" dia. PVC tube that is about 3-4 inches long (depending on the size of "Mr tentacles".. wait is that squidward from spongebob??? any who...
you can mount the tube where you want and the anemone will use that as its "cave".
it should be mounted in a vertical or preferable an angles position, and not horizontally..

[kj_yoda]

Dave, thanks for the awesome info. I will have to take a picture of my BTA b/c it has decided (after years) that it needed more light and pushed the crown through a small crack between a rock and my overflow box and now sits 1/2 on the rock and 1/2 on the overflow, looks cool, and you can see it's stalk