Help with Sabae Anemone

[pammy]

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:

[kar93]

The brown stringy stuff is probably just poop he should go back to normal soon

[Toddrtrex]

Honestly, it is very bleached. The mouth open like that isn't a good sign, but it could still be acclimating itself to your tank.

I would suggest giving it a couple of days to let it try to settle in, then start to feed it small portions a couple times a week. Hopefully in time it will regain is zoan.... ( I can never remember how to spell it. ; ) -- the algae that lives inside it. You should notice it taking on a more brown hue once it begins to get health again.

[pammy]

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?

[kar93]

Originally posted by pammy
I did put a little piece of enriched Brine in his mouth,

Put it into his mouth?

i wouldnt put food directly into an anemones mouth just drop them onto the tentacles. With brine just do the same with a syrine or turkey baster and he will take what he wants.

[garygb]

It is normal for the anemone to deflate, etc. as it acllimates to your tank. It can take a while (weeks) for it to settle in. Try food like silversides, squid, shrimp to see what it likes. Small pieces a few times a week will be helpful in supplying the nutrition it's not getting now because of the lack of zooxanthellae.

[pammy]

OH.....I didn't realize you're supposed to put the food on their tenticles and not in their mouth. THANKS!! 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!!
Pam

Originally posted by kar93
Put it into his mouth?

i wouldnt put food directly into an anemones mouth just drop them onto the tentacles. With brine just do the same with a syrine or turkey baster and he will take what he wants.

[pikelk]

Mine looked the same way when I brought it home. It actually deflated a lot at first. I started feeding it 1/2 a silverside every couple of days for the first few weeks. Now it eats a whole silverside (about 1 inch long) every 2-3 days. All you have to do is put the fish close to it's tentacles and it'll grab on all by itself. Mine's really healthy now and has gotten huge. Here's a picture of it...along with my gold stripe maroon clown that's claimed it as HOME, lol.

[pammy]

Wow....awesome looking clown and anemone pikelk. My Anemone looks great today. I looked at it early this morning when it was still dark outside, and he was inflated beautifully. Didn't deflate at all last night. His mouth appears to have closed too. So is small mysis or brine that you'd feed your fish too small for these anemones?

My Clown is happy with his frogspawn, and hasn't shown any interest in this anemone. Should I just leave things alone, or maybe move the frogspawn to a less desirable location to see if the clown will move to the Anemone?

Pam

[Toddrtrex]

What type of clown is it?

But, for now, I think it is a good thing that your clown hasn't shown any interest. It will give your anemone time to settle in and recover.

[garygb]

It's not really that brine is too small, it's just not particularly nutritious food. Mysis is a better choice, along with the other foods previously mentioned. If you have selcon to soak the food in for a while prior to feeding, all the better.

[pammy]

I do have Selecon. I have Hikari Ocean Plankton that none of my fish seem to like. Maybe he'll like that. My Coral Beauty spent some time trying to steal food from him last night. The Anemone is looking beautiful again and I haven't seen him deflate like that since that first night.

[garygb]

My anemones don't seem too fond of plankton, but try a little and see how it reacts. Glad it is looking good again. Sounds like you are providing the anemone with what it needs to make a recovery. Has it eaten anything since you added it to your tank?

[NirvanaFan]

I would not try to get the clown to go into the anemone yet. Give it a few weeks to acclimate to your tank. Some clowns can be rough with their anemones so you should give yours time to recover and acclimate.

[pammy]

I'll take your advise NirvanaFan. Thanks!

Originally posted by NirvanaFan
I would not try to get the clown to go into the anemone yet. Give it a few weeks to acclimate to your tank. Some clowns can be rough with their anemones so you should give yours time to recover and acclimate.

[pammy]

What is fond of Plankton? None of my fish seem to like it. Bought it on my LFS's recommendation. Even my piggish Coral Beauty doesn't seem to like it. I did put some brine and mysis on the Anemone last night, and It stuck to the tenticles and I could see the tenticles bend towards the center of the Anemone, but didn't see it put it in it's mouth. He looks good though.

Thanks, Pam

Originally posted by garygb
My anemones don't seem too fond of plankton, but try a little and see how it reacts. Glad it is looking good again. Sounds like you are providing the anemone with what it needs to make a recovery. Has it eaten anything since you added it to your tank?

[garygb]

I would suggest you get a piece of silverside, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inches long and put it on the tentacles near the mouth. A piece of food that size is easy to watch and remove if the anemone doesn't eat it. You might put a few drops of the thaw water from the silversides, as this stimulates the feeding response. The anemone can "smell" the food in the water. Wait 10 minutes or so after putting a few drops in the water, then try to feed it. Again, put the food on the tentacles nearest the mouth of the anemone. If the water flow is going to knock the food off, then turn the flow off for a few minutes until the anemone starts to take it into its mouth.

[pammy]

Do you buy Silversides at the grocery store or LFS?

Thanks!
Pam

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

I buy silversides at petsmart they sell the San Francisco Bay Brand silversides in the fish section of the store. There is a freezer full of krill, enriched brine shrimp,mysis shrimp and silversides at petsmart. I am told bait shops might have some silversides if you can't find it at petsmart. The lfs I go to has ocean nutrition silversides. For some reason, my anemones don't like those silversides. The anemones will put ocean nutrition silversides in their mouth swish it around and then spit it out. With the san francisco bay brand the anemones eat them like there is no tomorrow.

[pammy]

Thanks Christina. I'll give the SF Bay brand a shot. What type of Anemone do you have? Do you give them 1/4, 1/2 or a whole silverside? Pam

Originally posted by wicked_NaCl_h2o
I buy silversides at petsmart they sell the San Francisco Bay Brand silversides in the fish section of the store. There is a freezer full of krill, enriched brine shrimp,mysis shrimp and silversides at petsmart. I am told bait shops might have some silversides if you can't find it at petsmart. The lfs I go to has ocean nutrition silversides. For some reason, my anemones don't like those silversides. The anemones will put ocean nutrition silversides in their mouth swish it around and then spit it out. With the san francisco bay brand the anemones eat them like there is no tomorrow.

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

I have a purple LTA the one in the picture and I use to have a bta but sold it. When the lta was smaller I fed it a 1/4 of the silverside twice a week. Now that its a 6 inch LTA it gets a whole small silverside once a week.

[pammy]

Thanks Christina!
Pam