Coldwater nube questions esp re strawberry and jewel nem care

[Tribe1l]

I'm not new to the reefing hobby in general but I am to the cold water arena. I've currently got a ten gallon set at 61 degrees with a catalina goby and elegant blenny as my fish and several aggregating anemones, moonglow anemones and a true strawberry (like a beadlet) anemone and all of the above are doing fantastic. I purposefully have the lowest lights possible just the stock 10 gallon hood with two five watt 50/50 micro compact flourescents. However, what is NOT doing well are my plumose or my "fake" strawberry and jewel "anemones". I feed them twice a week with filter food but the plumose seldom come out and the strawberries and jewel corallimorphs are not spreading. Over six months they are ever so slowly dying off about one per month or so. I've got probably 20 jewels and 40 strawberries left but they are NOT doing well and certainly not taking over the tank like I want them to. So what do I need to do differently?

[AquaticEngineer]

What foods are you feeding them?

 

They may actually want slightly larger particles than most filter feeders accept.

 

I've seen the best results with corynactis by spot feeding them Cyclop-eeze with a turkey baster when ever you see the polyps open. To encourage them to open before feeding try putting a little dab of food with a really strong scent into the water, something like the thawed juice from mysis shrimp. That usually gets them to open up, then power feed the cylopeeze

 

You can do that as frequently as your filtration will allow since you dont want all the food just building up in the filter.

 

Hope that helps

[Tribe1l]

Thanks for the response. I typically have been feeding them a freeze dried filter food from Reef Cleaners that is a mix of particle sizes (mainly different size ground bits of seafood but there's a substantial amount of oyster eggs in there). I've also tried "reef snow" and "zooplankton-M" from Brightwell with no real apparent luck. The plumose are only rarely out and the jewels and strawberry "anemones" are usually only about half out at a time. My water parameters are fine and my temp is set at 61 degrees F. The light is the only thing I can think to blame but it's a 10 gallon with two small 5 inch micro compacts so it would be low light for freshie planted tanks let alone a reef tank.

[AquaticEngineer]

Might try bumping the temp down a few degrees, my corynactis always seemed to do better in the mid 50's.

[Tribe1l]

Thanks for the info. My chiller will handle it as I'm overpowered at the moment as it's intended for up to a 50 gallon but I've kept it at 61 as my aquarium gets condensation around 60. I will have to look into getting a thick acrylic tank if I want to drop it lower.

 

How often are you feeding them?

[AquaticEngineer]

I would feed them as often as you see them open if you want to maximize growth. I'm going to start hatching large amounts of brine shrimp and feeding them that along with the live tigriopus and thawed mysis.

[Maniu]

I'm not new to the reefing hobby in general but I am to the cold water arena. I've currently got a ten gallon set at 61 degrees with a catalina goby and elegant blenny as my fish and several aggregating anemones, moonglow anemones and a true strawberry (like a beadlet) anemone and all of the above are doing fantastic. I purposefully have the lowest lights possible just the stock 10 gallon hood with two five watt 50/50 micro compact flourescents. However, what is NOT doing well are my plumose or my "fake" strawberry and jewel "anemones". I feed them twice a week with filter food but the plumose seldom come out and the strawberries and jewel corallimorphs are not spreading. Over six months they are ever so slowly dying off about one per month or so. I've got probably 20 jewels and 40 strawberries left but they are NOT doing well and certainly not taking over the tank like I want them to. So what do I need to do differently?

Is elegant blenny considered a coldwater specie? And what do you feed it? Thanks for info in advance.

[AquaticEngineer]

Is elegant blenny considered a coldwater specie? And what do you feed it? Thanks for info in advance.

Yeah it is, its caught off the northern coasts of Japan. Mine would eat just about any frozen food.