purple tipped sea anenoe

[macman7010]

I have a purple tipped sea anenome and its tetacles are all dark and starting to shrivel, I dont know much about caring for these so any help would be great.

[Satchmo]

How brave and admirable of you to attempt to keep one of the more difficult animals in the hobby without knowing much about them. What's the specs on the tank? Lighting? Flow? Feeding? Water params? How long have you had the anemone? How long has it been like this? Other tankmates? Maintenance?

 

Or did you want us to guess?

[Crakeur]

Satch, here's a towel to wipe off all that sarcasm that is dripping all over the place.

 

It amazes me how easy it is for fish stores to unload more difficult critters on unsuspecting buyers. My dad hit a store out on long island yesterday and he called me up to tell me about this beautiful coral that he picked up, real cheap. After listening to his description (one is red and one is yellow and the polyps come out when you feed them) I came to the conclusion that my father was swindled into buying two sun corals. He was told that they need direct feeding but he wasn't told to place them in a dark section of the tank and he certainly wasn't told that their survival rate is very low.

 

That said, there is no point berating this buy for buying something that he has no clue as to how to care for them. There are many people that have children that have no clue as to care for them and yet, nobody seems to go after these people. Wait, actually, we do have services that look after children being raised by unfit parents. Screw it. Lock this guy up.

 

Oh and Macman, I would keep a close eye on the anemone. Once it starts to decay, the tank could crash and burn faster than you can type help!

[technoshaman]

Macman, like satchmo said posting your specs especially lighting is important. I would not consider it a totally lost cause some anemones do this periodically and occasionally it happens right before fission/reproduction. Sounds like you either got sold a sebae or a condylactis. Are the tips pink dots or definitely purple spots and are the tentacles tapered or sort of chubby? Look up pics of those two anemones and find out which you have.

 

FWIW I kept Condylactis back when I was in high school (10 years ago) in my first marine tank with good success so they seem more forgiving but the sebae is defintely more challenging. Needs good lighting and you have to spot feed them a few times a week. If it will take food try cutting up a small 1/4" piece of shrimp, silverside or maybe clam and feeding it to them. Larger pieces may look like they get eaten but often as not I have seen them try and and swallow it only to puke it out later because it was too big. Keep us posted and pics would help.