Sebae Anemone

[ShilohPSU]

I have had a giant sebae anemone for over 1 1/2 year now. Over the past 6 months, it has started to shrink significantly, and is now about 1/5 the orginal size. I heard that it is hard to keep an anemone for much longer than a year, because they tend to eject their internal algae and subsequently die slowly. I think that the shrinkage might be because my clownfish doesn't really feed it anymore. I am kind of lazy and did not start hand feeding it either.

It was huge when I bought it - about 12 inches across and 8-10 inches high. It is now about 4 inches across and 2 inches high. Is it possible to start hand feeding it meaty food and grow it back to size?


30 gallon: Coral beauty, damsel, lawnmower blenny, cleaner shrimp, 10 blue leg hermit and turbo snails, green fingerleather, 50lbs live rock, 192W PC lighting.

72 gallon oceanic: gold band maroon clown, koran angel, sailfin tang, lawnmower blenny, 2 cleaner shrimp, 3 peppermint shrimp, 20 blue leg hermits, 10 turbo snails, long-spined urchin, 6" electric blue crocea, 2" purple maxima, electric green mushrooms, horn coral, sebae anemone, yellow cucumber, 35lbs live rock, 40lbs live sand, 48" Outer Orbit 560W lighting combo: Two 150W 10k HQI MH and two 130W 460/420nm PC

[garygb]

Your information that "it is hard to keep an anemone much longer than a year because they tend to eject their internal algae and die slowly" is erroneous. If they are going to eject their zooxanthellae, they do that when stressed during shipment and transport. If a healthy anemone ejects its zooxanthellae in an aquarium, it's because something is off in the aquarium. It could be the lighting (if your bulbs aren't old, you have enough lighting and the right Kelvin, too), it could be water quality (ph, nitrates, temp., dkh, specific gravity, etc.), or it could be other inhabitants such as corals that are "bothering" the anemone and interfering with it thriving. What are your water parameters? How frequent are your water changes? What brand of salt are you using? Is your protein skimmer functional? I would be concerned about the combination of mushrooms and corals with the anemone--allelopathy.

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

yes, you should feed your anemone small pieces of shrimp, krill, or silversides. You should feed your anemone at least once a week but yours sounds like its not doing so well. So, you should try and feed it three times a week. Once it starts gaining size and color then go to once a week feeding. I wouldn't rely on a clown feeding the anemone.

[ShilohPSU]

Thanks for the advice, I'll try some feedings and see if it can recover.

Lighting is fine because my clam and horn coral grew during this time period, and the anemone always roams into the partial shade/light areas of the tank after i put it in the direct light.

There was a time were I had horrible alkalinity. Horn coral retracted for a week or two and then I fixed the problem with a big water change. I went a long time without one.

PH tends to be on the high side - 8.5 and sometimes 8.6, but everything else is always fine. Skimmer is fine. Specific gravity was normally 1.023 - 1.025. Temp around 80-82 range. Horn coral is far away out of sweeper range. My one mushroom did make contact with the anemone. It got stung a lot and almost died, until the anemone moved away. It eventually recovered and split into two mushrooms. It was not affecting the anemone at the time.

I think that the anemone slowly starved from lack of meaty food. My gold-banded maroon clown fed it frequently at first. Then he turned into a female and got a lot larger. I have noticed a decrease in feedings since the clown changed. The anemone also moved spots since then, so it was harder for the clown to drag cubes of brine/mysis shrimp into it. I would say it has only had tiny amounts of food for the past 6-8 months. The only reason it probably survived was because of its huge original size.

[garygb]

It would be wise to test nitrates, along with other parameters, just to make sure everything is fine, water-wise. It might just be that the anemone hasn't been getting fed enough. Regular water changes can also help when things seems to be wrong.

[garygb]

It would be wise to test nitrates, along with other parameters, just to make sure everything is fine, water-wise. It might just be that the anemone hasn't been getting fed enough. Regular water changes can also help when things seems to be wrong.