Roaming Long Tentical Anemone

[MMM33732]

My LTA keeps roaming. I'm not sure why either. They require good lighting right? I have metal halides, so I assume the lighting is sufficient. The way my aquascape is setup, theres multiple pillars, not a heap of rocks. The LTA always moves around at the bottom of the pillars and will occasionally climb up about 1/3rd of the way up, then end up back down again under a ledge where it tucks its foot away. It really never has more than a few tentical tips in contact with the light.. I doubt its too strong for it. Only 2 175w halides and 80 normal fluorescents over a 55g tank. Any clue as to why it keeps roaming? I have a suspicion its looking for more light, but it never climbs out from under a ledge where it would be able to get more light. It mainly moves at night too. Also, its getting frustrating ripping off corals that are glued down near it since it keeps moving... What happens if it touches a softy or LPS? would the sting kill the coral or just barely phase it? Will the LTA ever settle down?

[OrionN]

LTA or M. doreensis is a sand drewling anemone. It is looking for a sand patch to put it's foot in.

[rama]

Yeah mine usually stayed on the sand, most of the time it planted itself between the base of the live rock and stuck its foot in the sand.

[rama]

Oh something else. If you have a lot of corals your worrying about, which you probably should, I would maybe trade it out for some frogspawn. Because they stay put and clownfish take to them pretty well too.

[garygb]

Wandering behavior could be several things other than light, e.g., water chemistry/quality, water flow, other irritating animals in the tank, etc.

[MMM33732]

if it touches a coral, do you think it would kill the coral or just temporarily irritate it?

[speeddemonlsr]

Mine was doing the same it ran into some zoas, and shrooms, didnt really hurt them at all. It roamed around the tank for a couple of days finally settled down in the back of the tank in the sand and propt against a rock. It stinks because I wanted it in front of the tank. Oh well.

[thegheco]

I have found that keeping them well fed will keep them in the same spot, when I forget to feed them , which is weekly, on Saturdays, they take their foot up and float around the tank.
Give that a try and see if it stays put, I bet it will.

[MMM33732]

I'll feed it tomorrow. Its so unpredictable when its going to be fully open or not. At least once or twice a day it just completely shrinks up inside itself.

[Jamie1210]

Do you have another tank? Like a smaller nanocube or something? What I would do is to remove corals and place them in there, while you wait for the LTA to get settled down ... and when it has (give it a couple days to make sure it really doesn't move around), then put the corals back in.

[MMM33732]

This thing will move about for a day, then settle down for 2-3 days, then move the next day, then sit for a day. Its so unpredictable. I think its done, but then it just moves again. Is the shrinking up a normal thing for LTAs?

[Lance M.]

My lta shrinks up at night to about the size of a dime then during the day it's ~3'' in diameter and usually fully expanded everyday.

[MMM33732]

I've had other anemones in the past and all have shrunk during night and opened during the day, but the LTA closes up usually right when the lights first come on. Then about an hour later it will open and stay open throughout the day and night until the morning when the lights kick on again. The lights are set so 80w of normal fluorescents come on at noon, then two hours later the halides kick on.

[MMM33732]

This thing still wont stop roaming. Slowly up and down the same 2 towers all day and night it seems. Ive tried feeding it, placing it, nothing worked to keep it put. Also, its bight white with pale green in the tentacles... is that bad or are some variations normally that color? its foot is still a nice red color with some tan....

[garygb]

"Bright with pale green" sounds bleached. With your lighting, however, you can expect the color to darken over the next several weeks to a month or so. The fact that it is still wandering could point to water chemistry issues. What are your parameters? Or, other inhabitants could be irritating it.

[MMM33732]

A clown keep hosting in it, so maybe thats irritating it. Parameters are:
Amm: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate 0-5
SG: 1.0245
Temp: 76-80
Ph: 8.2-8.3
Cal: 460
Alk: 9dkh

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

What kind of sand do you have and how deep is it?
What is the water flow in your tank?..It maybe too much. They don't like high current while trying to put its foot in the sand.

[garygb]

Water parameters look okay, so maybe it is the clown that is bugging it. Maybe you could temporarily detain the clownfish and see if it settles. They do like 4 or 5 inches of sand to bury in. Some people put a 6 inch wide pvc pipe in the tank, place the anemone in it and then (carefully) fill it with sand around the anemone.

[OrionN]

It will not settle down until it find some sand. Even when everything else is perfect, it will more around unless it can find some deep sand. Do you have any sand in your aquarium?
Reefers have construct a small sand box for their sand dwelling anemones.

[MMM33732]

I think I may have finally gotten it to settle down. I recently placed it in an area thats surrounded on 3 sides with rock, and have been feeding it every night, and thus far it hasn't moved in 2 days now.
Heres a picture:

So think its bleached huh? What color are they usually and how do I get it to become healthy again. I've been feeding it the last few days, but I'm not sure how much it actually gets since the clown and shrimps like to steal its food.

[OrionN]

You can feed it and keep the shrimp and fish away by feeding them first, then you can use a stick to keep the other animal away until the anemone swallow the food.
Some of the area on the anemone is brownish (have zooxanthellae). These are the healthier areas. They will get darker and spread to the white/clear area if the anemone is getting better

[Lance M.]

Yes that is super bleached.

I have a skunk cleaner shrimp that tries to steal food from my nems so I have to hand it a piece of food to eat while I feed my nems. Then for my lta, I also have to give decoy food to my large pistol shrimp that will try to steal from it. But it's not hard. Yesterday I acquired a very small lta (a little over half an inch in diameter fully expanded) so I have two lta's now

Yours will probably turn brown/dark green when healthy.

[garygb]

Definitely bleached, but with your light and feeding it will likely come back. Don't count on your LTA staying there because it is surrounded by three sides with live rock and has been there two days. Until it has its base buried in sand, I expect it's going to move every week or so. To remain stationary, long-term, your best bet is 6 inches of fine sand (oolitic would be perfect). As I and others have suggested, this can bed done by building a small sand box, such as in a pvc pipe.

[MMM33732]

Explain the sand box idea with the pvc....

[OrionN]

Originally posted by MMM33732
Explain the sand box idea with the pvc....

Just get a container anything that can hold sand and put it in your tank with sand it it and put your anemone in this container.
Get a reasonably deep container, 3+ inches. If your anemone is attached to a small piece of rock, then put this rock in the container and start to fill it up with sand. This anemone like to attach to something under the sand. It like really deep sand where it can completely sink under but IME, 3 inches or so will keep it happy.
You can hide this container behing some rock to cover it up.
Goodluck