carpet anemone not looking good

st9z · #1 08/27/2007, 09:35 AM

Hi I just bought this carpet anemone yesterday. Can you tell if it's okay? Its starting to look like a toadstool coral? My parameters are on the money but the anemone just doesnt look like what i bought at the LFS....

Also how do you get the clowns to come to the anemone?

pic of anemone

pic of its mouth

another pic

CHARLIE AGUILAR · #2 08/27/2007, 10:00 AM

At this rate you don't want the clowns near it cause they will only stress it out. Need a bit more info on your tank how long has it been set up how long did you acclimate the anemone?

st9z · #3 08/27/2007, 10:01 AM

the tank has been setup for about 8 months now. I acclimate the anemone for about 1hr 45 mins

st9z · #4 08/27/2007, 10:01 AM

does it look like its dying or just stressed out?

CHARLIE AGUILAR · #5 08/27/2007, 10:11 AM

It look stressed to me but not an expert! How much light do ya have it under? and what knind of flow?

st9z · #6 08/27/2007, 10:13 AM

i have 4 54w T5 and right now i have one Maxi Jet 900 and 1200 on the other 2 are off

CHARLIE AGUILAR · #7 08/27/2007, 11:37 AM

Im not a carpet ex but i dont think you have enough light for this guy! They prefer more intence lighting such as mh! Also like lots of flow enough to fluff the outer parts of the body. Again I dont even have a carpet but have been doing some reading cause i m going to get one soon

Good luck with this guy and hopefully some one else will chim in tha has more experence w/ carpets.

st9z · #8 08/27/2007, 11:57 AM

in that case i am going to try and turn on all my power heads hopefully that will cheer him up

I just feed it some frozen formula 1 i guess that its a good sign if he is eating

Mr Stomato · #9 08/27/2007, 12:28 PM

Definately not enough lighting. Most carpet people run 10-12 watts per gallon of halide, but I think you might be able to get away with 8-9 watts per gallon. 250w halides on the low side and 400w halides on the high side. You are currently at 4 watts per gallon non-halide. Being as how most of these carpets live on the tank bottom lighting needs to be pretty intense and increasing depending on the depth of your tank. You would be suprised at how much light is lost in just 2 feet of water.

Flow needs to be surging or turbid enough to move it around. Non-linear.

st9z · #10 08/27/2007, 12:47 PM

t5 with individ reflectors is equal to mh also i am moving about 22x the water movement (is that still consider low i have 2 more power heads that are 300gph each that i can add)

Mr Stomato · #11 08/27/2007, 01:14 PM

Is that linear flow or surging flow. I tried the flow from multiple directions method and this did not work well for my nem. So I bought a Tunze multicontroller and heads to time them and create turbulent surging flow. As long as your nem moves in multiple directions, not just one direction then you should be good.

Back to the lighting.....I've not seen proof of T5 being as strong as halides. I use T5 for my mantis tanks and supplemental lighting for my reef system. They are bright but none of my T5 fixtures are near as bright as my 75w halide on my nano.

Aside from that though, T5 or Halide you're still at 3.9w per gallon. In my opinion and many others is simply not enough.

MarinaP · #12 08/27/2007, 01:16 PM

Try making a hole in the sand, place anemone's foot there and cover the foot with sand. This animal is not happy - its' mouth is gaping. S. haddoni are sand dwelling creatures - this one is attached to the rock, which is not good. Once it is settled, give this nem good flow.

Read Anemone FAQ sticky at the top of this forum. Good luck.

st9z · #13 08/27/2007, 01:26 PM

hmm i thought it was bad to try and deattach the anemone? Is there a safe way to remove him from the rock

phender · #14 08/27/2007, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by st9z
hmm i thought it was bad to try and deattach the anemone? Is there a safe way to remove him from the rock

Its not that hard to gently move your finger nail around the edge of the foot. Once you get underneath its not difficult at all.

Marina gave you good advice.

The rest of the advice would be good if you had a gigantea carpet, but you have a haddoni.
You have plenty of light for a haddoni carpet. The current should be enough to move the tentacles, but not enough to lift the disk (skirt) very often.

If it ate a Formula 1 cube(hopefully it was fully thawd), that is a good sign. If its mouth doesn't close in a day or two, try gently squirting some mysis directly into the mouth.

st9z · #15 08/27/2007, 09:30 PM

i tried putting the anemone on the sand he didnt like it at all and kept moving back to the rock... i guess he likes it there

jer77 · #16 08/28/2007, 06:31 PM

I also believe you have enough light for a haddoni, I've kept ones under PC's before. I kept one under high wattage MH's in a shallow water frag tank before and it didn't like it very much.

st9z · #17 08/28/2007, 07:04 PM

thats good to hear