Lighting question

[Leilani57]

I have an anemone I have not identified yet (neither could the LFS that sold it to me) so I attached a photo of it. I have had it for four days now, and it looks heathly and gobbled up some shrimp.

I have a 55 gallon, 48 inches wide, 18 inches tall. I have four CORALIFE 12 inch 28 watt bulbs-- two white and two actinic on for 8 hours per day, then it goes to four small nocturnal blue lights.

I am a newbie to anemone care, pleaes verify for me if this lighting is enough or I need to upgrade?

Thanks!

Leilani
Life is short. Race hard.
http://leilanimunter.com

http://leilanimunter.com/Images/personal/anemone.jpg

[Leilani57]

Also, is my flow alright? I have a 500 GPH pump going from my wet/dry bio ball filtration sump and also a MJ 900 in the other corner. Is that too much, too little, or just right for my anemone and fish? The anemone is hanging in the corner with the least flow and seems happy, he has been in the same spot for four days since I bought him.

Also, can anyone identify what type it is by the photo above? Thanks!!!!

[JamesJR]

the anemone you have possibly could be a long tentacle, macrodactyla doreensis. It looks bleached to me, which is not your fault. The fact that it is eating is a good sign and you should definately continue to feed it regularly. I would also upgrade your lighting to something stronger.

[Leilani57]

Yes, I was just looking at the anemone guide:

http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf

and on page 50 the photo of the Macrodactyla doreensis looks very similar...

This anemone FAQ just says moderate flow (is a 500 GPH pump going from my wet/dry bio ball filtration sump and also a MJ 900 in the other corner ok?)

what sort of lighting should I get? The anemone FAQ only states metal halide lighting. It is not very specific as to how strong that lighting should be...

[JamesJR]

yeah, chances are it is a long tentacle but there is a lot of variation in this anemone species. I had one for about five years in my home tank that grew over a foot in diameter under 4 VHO lights (should have never sold the anemone).
The main concern I have is that it appears to be a little bit bleached. This means that the anemone was stressed (probably during shipping) and expelled a good deal of it xooanthelae (sorry bad speller). What this means is that a good deal of its nutritional base is gone. it still has a tinge of brown (which is the color Xooanthelae has) so if conditions are good and you feed it well it can regain some of it's strength. The fact that it is taking food is a good sign.
Lighting? well There are many good choices. The reason they are not very specific is because the anemone can adapt to a broad range of lighting conditions. Really the main thing is whether or not the lighting provides the right intensity at the right spectrum. What were you wanting to keep in your aquarium?

[dantodd]

As James said it does look like a bleached LTA. It also looks a little starved (the short tentacles) since it is taking food and is holding his shape in the tank I suspect he has a good chance at survival as long as you upgrade to adequate lighting.

LTA will bury their foot in the sandbed and sort of wedge it under a rock. This mean you need a light that will penetrate the water fairly well.

For a 55 I think you would want either 4 T5 HO bulbs with individual bulb reflectors directly over the anemone (a 4X54 watt fixture should fit your tank), 4 VHO bulbs (4X110) in a standard fixture or a 175 or 250 watt metal halide. The metal halide is ideal followed by the T5s and finally the VHO bulbs.

The zooxanthellae that James mentioned are a type of plankton called dinoflagellates and they are photosynthetic so they need a lot of light in order to create food for themselves to live on, the anemone consumes any extra food the zooxanthellae create.

[Leilani57]

Thanks for being so helpful. I will upgrade my lighting, I want to nurse this one back to health! The LFS that he was at seemed pretty clueless-- not very knowlegeable-- they didn't even know what kind of anemone he was. He didn't look very happy in there and I wanted to get him out.

So should I feed him more often in order to speed the healing? I have read variations in instructions from once per week to once per day.

So do you think that my flow level is alright?

Here are couple more pics:


http://leilanimunter.com/Images/personal/anemone1.jpg

http://leilanimunter.com/Images/personal/anemone2.jpg

[Leilani57]

forgot to answer your question:

the other inhabitants of the tank include:

live rock with feather dusters
snails
hermits

3 fish already in the tank:

a small pseudochromis
a small clown (i think a ocellaris but he does not have full stripes except for one right behind his eye, the other two are just small little "saddles" on his back?)
a dragon goby

I will be adding one by one:
a small yellow tang
a peppermint shrimp (to get rid of the aptasias spreading)
a small butterfly, haven't decided what kind

I am going to get these other two fish very small and once they seem to be too big for my 55 gallon I will either buy or pass them to a better and bigger home.

[Marko9]

The small clown might be a saddleback clown, What color is it?

[Leilani57]

here is my clown, Jon Stewart :D :

http://leilanimunter.com/Images/personal/jonstewart.jpg

[JamesJR]

that is a cool looking ocellaris clown. The misbars are nice. That is a shame that your local fishstore was not so helpful. Find a good one and you will enjoy your aquarium much more.
I would feed your anemone small chinks of food very frequently, maybe every other day. The better your tank conditions and the more you feed the bigger and more beautiful they get. I always figured, if the anemone doesn't need to eat you can just remove whatever food it doesn't eat.

[dantodd]

You should have enough flow to make the tentacles to be moving a little in the flow but not being completely blown down. I can't really be a lot more specific. He is in a pretty good place physically in your tank is the sand bed atleast 4" thick? That is what they prefer.

The white stipes by his mouth should extend all the way to the edge of his oral disk once he's healthy. His tentacles will also likely get longer and start "cork-screwing" a bit. I would feed him some chopped up food every 2 to 3 days. Once a day can be too much. Give him silverside and shrimp cut into pieces about 1/4 to 1/2 inch and give him as much as he'll put into his mouth without throwing up. If he's already eating well for you I'd guess he can take 6 or so of these pieces. I personally feed my LTA 2-3 whole SF Bay brand silversides but it isn't usually recommended to feed them pieces that large.

[OrionN]

Your anemone seem to still have brown color in it. This is good because it will easy color up if good care is provide.
Just to let you know these LTA can eat clown fish like A. percula or A. ocellaris. Their reputaion of eatting clown is not as great as carpet but certainly not unheard. If you really value your clowns, maybe you should get them out of there.
I have luck in wedge the foot of LTA under a small rock and sand. This often get them to start digging. Current in my tank seem higher than your, if I don't do this they often get blow off to another spot.