Abused Anemone

ozyreefa · #1 01/04/2008, 01:40 AM

I have recieved an abused anemone from a friend getting out of the hobby, it is almost entirely bleached, my four occelaris have taken to it quite well. I think it may be H.crispa or H.malu. Any tips on rejuvenating this poor guy and an ID as well possibly. When completely open it is about 10 inches across.

nano mania · #2 01/04/2008, 01:47 AM

I've heard of bleached anemones and coral surviving a long time in an aquarium. Especially when there are clowns to feed it. If there is any color in it at all it should come back.

I had a BTA get caught in a pump intake for a weekend. When I got home I pulled the poor little thing out and it came back in about 2 months

garygb · #3 01/04/2008, 12:44 PM

H. crispa looks to me like. Aside from being completely bleached, it looks healthy. With your lighting (250 watt MH) it is very likely your anemone is going to regain its zooxanthellae in the next few months. In the meantime, you will want to feed regularly (every other day or so) small amounts (for an anemone that size start with a piece of food maybe 1/8 to 1/4 a teaspoon size) of silversides, squid, shrimp, scallops, mussel, whatever meaty foods of marine origin you can provide and that the anemone likes to eat. I've observed that my anemones prefer fresh to old food. It can be frozen, but just not sitting in the freezer for months on end.

As you certainly have heard, anemones do like very good water conditions: nitrates preferably undetectable, ph8.2-8.4 preferably, temp. 78-82, sg 1.025-1.026.

Are those little majanoe anemones in the background above the bleached anemone?

ozyreefa · #4 01/04/2008, 04:04 PM

That is actually a little duncanopsommia auxifuga frag that you can see in the upper left of the picture

garygb · #5 01/04/2008, 04:07 PM

Ah, good. All that poor sebae needs is an invasion of undesirables.

ozyreefa · #6 01/04/2008, 04:12 PM

Yeah them and aiptasias would probably be the nail in the head for this guy i think. I will keep you posted, Im assuming it should eventually change to a pale pinkish/brown colour if it regains it's zooxanthellae?

garygb · #7 01/04/2008, 05:54 PM

yeah, brownish/tan most likely.

asia102485 · #8 01/04/2008, 07:45 PM

WOW, that is one bleached anemone... hope it gets its color back. It looks healthy other than its color

ozyreefa · #9 01/05/2008, 12:30 AM

Yeah the guy i got it from was actually really anal with everything in his tank(except of course when it came to lighting), his water params used to be perfect, never ever lost any live stock as far as i can remember. He used to feed it a 1/2 inch section of green prawn once a week. Im not really sure why he got out of the hobby, perhaps the anemone beat him.