anemone standing on its "face"

[k8edid]

This the first anemone that I have had. It is a bright yellow sebae with purple tips and it has a buddy shrimp. Yesterday evening it moved (and it hasn't moved since I got it a couple months ago after choosing its spot) out from its crevice, stuck its "face" in the sand, and leaned up against the rock. The "butt" is looking a bit bizarre now, kind of like a funky balloon and all sort of pebbly inside.

Do you think it is getting ready to divide or is it just behaving neurotically?

I tested the water and it is all within good parameters, though the nitrates are at about 80ppm which is a bit higher than I would like. I had to add some water the day before it did its headstand and it was a little cooler than it should have been, but nothing drastic.

Thanks,
k8edid

[mathias]

not a good sign..... maybe it needs a lil nudge to get turned around so it can plant its foot again?

[lhoy]

Even worse there are no yellow anemones and that means it has been "dyed". Unfortunately, this happens to make people more interested in buying an anemone (it happens overseas, not at your local fish store). It has no hope. I would remove before it does a lot worse in your tank.

Lee

[k8edid]

It curled up and died. Its shrimp buddy is distraught now that I have removed the dead anemone. Going to do a water change this evening to bring down those nitrates as far as I can.

I saw an undyed sebae anemone at the FLS today. Do you think I should replace the one the that died to replace the host for the shrimp buddy? Or do you think the shrimp buddy will be ok on his own for awhile? Will the other shrimp in the tank bother the anemone shrimp?

The tank is 90 gallon reef tank, all peaceful occupants, about a dozen fish, half a dozen peppermint shrimp, and half a dozen corals, plus the tank cleaner assortment.

Thanks,
k8edid

[seatrueblue]

I use to have a sebae, I got it from Divers Den on Liveaquaria. These anemones don't ship well and some don't make it past a few months. The Divers Den H. Crispa (sebae) died in less than two weeks. The second one I bought from them seemed like it was going to make it then three weeks later, things went down hill. The anemone lasted for 3 months.
When you say the sebae is not dyed, is it white with purple tips? If its white then its unhealthy as well.. White means it has lost all of its zooxanthella(any of various symbiotic green or brown algae in the cytoplasm of certain radiolarians and marine invertebrates). Some recover from losing all their zooxanthella but most slowly die in a couple of months. If its brown,green, purple or gray with purple tips then that one might have a chance. I personally think it is best to stay away from sebaes unless you have years of experience getting anemones to recover from losing all of their zooxanthella.
If all you want is a home for your anemone shrimp insted of a home for a clown fish. Then why not get just a very nice looking condy anemone? I wouldn't put these anemone shrimps with an anemone that is meant to be with clownfish. These shrimp are known to be parasites to anemones that host clownfish. The shrimp eats bits of the anemone while using the anemone as a host. The Condys seem to tolerate the shrimps eating habits better.

[k8edid]

I spent a bunch of time researching salt water anemones, ones that resembled the one that I had in particular, and there is a ton of info on the internet once I started digging. What I found is that yes, this anemone was most probably dyed, and it might have survived if I had been just a little more careful with it.

It required a fairly specific lighting and exposure plus more water flow over it than I was providing. If I had provided the specific lighting needs, it MIGHT have recovered its internal bacteria enough to survive as it was not a "pure" yellow even after the dye, which could indicate that it had some of the needed bacteria.

One site gave instructions on how to pick out a healthy anemone, do a search on Shanes Quality Marine of Los Angeles and you can find it too. Once I read it, it was one of those "duh" moments, because of course the advice that they gave made perfect sense once I read it.

Another interesting thing I found is that it might even have been some sort of hybrid between the beaded (h. aurora) and the normal (h. crispa) "sebae" anemone. It had a beaded look to its tentacles but the "beads" were much more uniform than those that were in any of the pics that I found.

So, I went back to the LFS and carefully inspected the specimen available there, and decided to let it die on them and not on me - it was too white and looked to me like it was languishing as it was down in a deepest part of their tank in almost dark, laying on the sand and not attaching to anything. They also told me that it had been like that since they got it a couple of weeks ago. My diagnosis based on my research and their info is that it is going to die in the fairly near future.

I haven't given up, I am just still looking for a fairly healthy specimen to try again. I also found some interesting do-it-yourself plans for building a cheap but effective denitrator.

Thanks,
k8edid

[Bill S]

Unfortunately, the only reasonably easy to keep anemones are condys and BTAs.

[tony]

. . . and tubes

[seatrueblue]

If I was going to get a condy for an anemone shrimp..this is the one I would get.
http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/produ...id=1143&cid=74

[lhoy]

The best anemone is a "split" bubble tip from someone on the board because that means it is has been in there tank, doing well, and already acclimated to "tank life." Bill above has one (I think) that usually splits as do several others.

Lee