Anenome vs Powerhead

[z6joker9]

ok, this isn't exactly a nano, and anenomes aren't coral, but i noticed anenome questions seem to be placed here and i thought it was pretty interesting.

 

we visted a pet shop a month ago, a real hole in the wall place two hours away from us with very little selection, but it's the closest salt shop to us. anyway, they had an anenome with no ID, selling for $6-7, and whether it was a good choice or not, we decieded to get it for our 120gal.

 

it has a pink-red base and long tenticals that start whitish at the base and turn pink-red as they get to the end. when fully extended, his base is around 2" long, close to an inch in diameter, and his tenticals are maybe 3-4" long. can anyone ID it from this description?

 

anyway, the original story, about two weeks ago he decieded to move and ended up in the plastic catch of a 600gph powerhead. much of him was pulled through the slits. i know he was there for less than an hour as i had been feeding and topping off eariler and noticed he was moving. i turned off the powerhead and pulled him from it. he hit the sand and i assumed him dead, but left him in just in case. later i noticed he was gone, so i assumed my cleanup crew had done the job.

 

well, two days ago i was looking over the tank and i noticed he was back... with MUCH shorter tenticals. aside from that, he still has great color and a good looking base. the "stub" tenticals he does have seem to be in great shape.

 

i've always heard that anenomes are hard to keep and very picky, but this little guy doesn't want to die. i dont spot feed him, though i do dose the entire tank with photoplex twice a week. it even seems like he snags the fish food i throw in and eats it. is this usual?

 

i'll try to get a picture of him now, he's kinda cute with the little stubs.

[supernip]

Originally posted by z6joker9

...they had an anenome with no ID, selling for $6-7, and whether it was a good choice or not, we decieded to get it for our 120gal.

 

it has a pink-red base and long tenticals that start whitish at the base and turn pink-red as they get to the end.  when fully extended, his base is around 2" long, close to an inch in diameter, and his tenticals are maybe 3-4" long.  can anyone ID it from this description?

 

...he hit the sand and i assumed him dead, but left him in just in case.  later i noticed he was gone, so i assumed my cleanup crew had done the job

 

...i dont spot feed him, though i do dose the entire tank with photoplex twice a week.  it even seems like he snags the fish food i throw in and eats it.  is this usual?  

 

i'll try to get a picture of him now, he's kinda cute with the little stubs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are totally asking for an ass whoopie posting this. but here are the answers

1. sound slike a Condy anemone

2. If you thought it was dead, you coulda isolated it. It can poison your whole tank and I doubt your clean up crew would eat all of it. Fish-understandable, anemone-not so much.

3. Please feed it shrimp. It isn't a filter feeder. and yes, it is normal for them to east meaty particles in your tank.

 

and I hope this isn't in your galaxy 5 tsk tsk someone is naughty naughty. Davey gonna come for ya.. and Abs if he sees this.

[Physh1]

1) sounds like a atlantic anemone to me.....very hardy usually

2) supernip has it covered here

3) again , supernip covered it here

 

I would highly recommend that next time you impulse buy you try not too. Buying something you don't know hardy anything about isn't the smartest move and not knowing what they do to tanks when they die is almost worse.

 

Do yourself and us a favor and do some research on critters before you buy.

 

Cameron

[z6joker9]

this isn't in the galaxy 5, we dont plan to keep an anenome in that tank. i did not figure chemicals from a dead anenome in a 120 with a skimmer and clean up crew would affect water quality, but feel free to correct me if i'm wrong. i did not isolate him because the quarientene doesn't have light and was, at the time, curing 50 lbs of live rock. i did not feed him large meaty foods because i noticed he ate the sinking flake foods we give the fish. if this doesn't provide the nutrition he needs then let me know. the photoplex is for other filter feeders in the tank, but i thought it might be relevant as i thought he might be able to eat it as well(more bad info from a different salt shop that closed down recently).

 

an anenome was one of the first items i wanted, but i researched them for around 6 months before i got one. the only thing i didn't look fully into was the exact specimen i got, even though i had a good idea of what kind he was.

 

i appreciate the concern and i understand it, but i wouldn't really consider it an impluse buy.... more like a two hour drive to find the exact anenome i was looking for, though without a nametag, with a sub-$10 price tag.

 

this is my reasoning at least, whether it was right or wrong. i didn't want anyone to assume that i just went out, bought an aquarium and threw a bunch of stuff in it, because i can see how they could think from my first post.

[chele]

I had 2 anemone2 hitch hike on a LR I bought.. Looks like and has been identified by several ppl as a bulb tip anemone. Anyway, one of them got sucked into a aquaclear 500. Got scrubbed in tap water (filter maintinance) before I noticed the little bugger was in there.. Didn't know what to do and didn't figure he'd mess up the tank too bad if he dies so I dumped him back in my tank.. He sat still looking dead for about a week then I saw one tentacle sticking up.. And before I knew it all of his tentacles were out (except two that got sheared off by the impeller) and he started eating and growing again. Stays near the bottom of the tank now.. But all in all, no worse for the wear..

 

Moral of this is: Anemones as a whole are delicate critters ( killed 2 condy's) but each critter is an individual and some have a will to live that exceeds our equipments ability to destroy.

 

Congrats on the cheap buy. Glad he survived his run in with the powerhead.. Feed him whatever he likes.. If he's eatting and growing on the flake food he catches, don't sweat it..

 

CheleB)