Anenome advise

[Mike Mumma]

Seeking advise from some experienced amenome people. Last week, I
bought a long-tentacled from my LFS. As far as I could tell, it
looked healthy in the store. But since is my first anemome, I'm not a
great judge. From my research, long-tentacled were supposed to be one
of the easier species to keep (along with bubble tip).

The anemone looked fine the first three days. A Claki clown took up
residense right away. Howerver, about the fourth day, it started to
shrivel. I noticed some tears in the base, and it started to lose
some of the orange color. By the sixth day, it was completely dead.

As far as I can tell, all my water parameters are in check (pH=8.2, no
ammonia, temp around 78). ~4 watts of power compact per gallon. I
have fish and hammer corals, and they seem to be doing fine. I
acclimated the anemone using the drip method, and placed the anemome
in the sand.

Can anybody think what I did wrong? Or did I just get a sick
specimen? I took him back to the LFS, but they refused to even give
me store credit. Is this standard on anemomes?

Anyone have any suggestions for future purchases? Of course, I really
don't want to have any more die on me. Do you tend to get healthier
specimens via mail-order (e.g. liveaquaria.com)? Or is there some
other parameter I overlooked?

Any help appreciated.

M


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[Susan]

Hi Mike! Sorry to hear about the loss :( Sounds to me like maybe it was a
sick anemone when you purchased it since it perished so fast. Lighting for
these are very important. I currently have a rose bubble tip anemone with 4
watts of power per gallon that is doing great though. I have purchased from
Liveaquaria.com and love their 2 week guarantee. I lost a starfish within
the two weeks and they were quick to refund my money. Their livestock is
very nice also. I also have purchased from petsolutions.com and have found
them to be great too. They have a week guarantee though. Personally because
of the guarantee I like mail ordering through these guys. My LFS has a 3 day
guarantee which isn't so good. Good-Luck and don't give up :)

Susan
"Mike Mumma" > wrote in message
...
>
> Seeking advise from some experienced amenome people. Last week, I
> bought a long-tentacled from my LFS. As far as I could tell, it
> looked healthy in the store. But since is my first anemome, I'm not a
> great judge. From my research, long-tentacled were supposed to be one
> of the easier species to keep (along with bubble tip).
>
> The anemone looked fine the first three days. A Claki clown took up
> residense right away. Howerver, about the fourth day, it started to
> shrivel. I noticed some tears in the base, and it started to lose
> some of the orange color. By the sixth day, it was completely dead.
>
> As far as I can tell, all my water parameters are in check (pH=8.2, no
> ammonia, temp around 78). ~4 watts of power compact per gallon. I
> have fish and hammer corals, and they seem to be doing fine. I
> acclimated the anemone using the drip method, and placed the anemome
> in the sand.
>
> Can anybody think what I did wrong? Or did I just get a sick
> specimen? I took him back to the LFS, but they refused to even give
> me store credit. Is this standard on anemomes?
>
> Anyone have any suggestions for future purchases? Of course, I really
> don't want to have any more die on me. Do you tend to get healthier
> specimens via mail-order (e.g. liveaquaria.com)? Or is there some
> other parameter I overlooked?
>
> Any help appreciated.
>
> M
>
>
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[George]

"Mike Mumma" > wrote in message
...
>
> Seeking advise from some experienced amenome people. Last week, I
> bought a long-tentacled from my LFS. As far as I could tell, it
> looked healthy in the store. But since is my first anemome, I'm not a
> great judge. From my research, long-tentacled were supposed to be one
> of the easier species to keep (along with bubble tip).
>
> The anemone looked fine the first three days. A Claki clown took up
> residense right away. Howerver, about the fourth day, it started to
> shrivel. I noticed some tears in the base, and it started to lose
> some of the orange color. By the sixth day, it was completely dead.
>
> As far as I can tell, all my water parameters are in check (pH=8.2, no
> ammonia, temp around 78). ~4 watts of power compact per gallon. I
> have fish and hammer corals, and they seem to be doing fine. I
> acclimated the anemone using the drip method, and placed the anemome
> in the sand.
>
> Can anybody think what I did wrong? Or did I just get a sick
> specimen? I took him back to the LFS, but they refused to even give
> me store credit. Is this standard on anemomes?
>
> Anyone have any suggestions for future purchases? Of course, I really
> don't want to have any more die on me. Do you tend to get healthier
> specimens via mail-order (e.g. liveaquaria.com)? Or is there some
> other parameter I overlooked?
>
> Any help appreciated.
>
> M

I have raised many long tenticled anemones, and have never lost one so quickly.
I'd say that you probably got a sick one, though it is hard to judge by the
information you've given. It doesn't sound like there was anything you did that
could have caused its death. I am somewhat concerned about the tears. Do you
have any brittle stars? The reason why I ask this is because if you have a
large one like mine (18"), it will attack anemones if it gets hungry enough, or
if the anemone is sick. Also, some corals and anemones don't get along, and
will actually wage chemical warfare if they get too close to one another.
Perhaps if you list all the invertebrates and vertebrates you have, someone here
could determine if there was some incompatibility amongst them. It may be a
long shot (most likely, it was simply sick), but one that might save you trouble
in the future.

[Mike Mumma]

George and Susan,

Thanks for you response and words of encouragement. I agree; I think
it must have been sick to begin with. I will take your advise, Susan,
and get a bubble-tip from liveaquaria. I will wait until I get some
metal halides before I get another long tentacle, as I have read they
do better with that.

George-nope,don't have brittle stars,etc. I think 'tear' was a bad
word choice. I think the tissue just started to weaken and ripped.
But I will keep that in mind in the future.

Thanks again!

Mike





On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 01:03:09 GMT, "Susan" >
wrote:

>Hi Mike! Sorry to hear about the loss :( Sounds to me like maybe it was a
>sick anemone when you purchased it since it perished so fast. Lighting for
>these are very important. I currently have a rose bubble tip anemone with 4
>watts of power per gallon that is doing great though. I have purchased from
>Liveaquaria.com and love their 2 week guarantee. I lost a starfish within
>the two weeks and they were quick to refund my money. Their livestock is
>very nice also. I also have purchased from petsolutions.com and have found
>them to be great too. They have a week guarantee though. Personally because
>of the guarantee I like mail ordering through these guys. My LFS has a 3 day
>guarantee which isn't so good. Good-Luck and don't give up :)
>
>Susan
>"Mike Mumma" > wrote in message
...
>>
>> Seeking advise from some experienced amenome people. Last week, I
>> bought a long-tentacled from my LFS. As far as I could tell, it
>> looked healthy in the store. But since is my first anemome, I'm not a
>> great judge. From my research, long-tentacled were supposed to be one
>> of the easier species to keep (along with bubble tip).
>>
>> The anemone looked fine the first three days. A Claki clown took up
>> residense right away. Howerver, about the fourth day, it started to
>> shrivel. I noticed some tears in the base, and it started to lose
>> some of the orange color. By the sixth day, it was completely dead.
>>
>> As far as I can tell, all my water parameters are in check (pH=8.2, no
>> ammonia, temp around 78). ~4 watts of power compact per gallon. I
>> have fish and hammer corals, and they seem to be doing fine. I
>> acclimated the anemone using the drip method, and placed the anemome
>> in the sand.
>>
>> Can anybody think what I did wrong? Or did I just get a sick
>> specimen? I took him back to the LFS, but they refused to even give
>> me store credit. Is this standard on anemomes?
>>
>> Anyone have any suggestions for future purchases? Of course, I really
>> don't want to have any more die on me. Do you tend to get healthier
>> specimens via mail-order (e.g. liveaquaria.com)? Or is there some
>> other parameter I overlooked?
>>
>> Any help appreciated.
>>
>> M
>>
>>
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>> News==----
>> http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+
>> Newsgroups
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>> =----
>


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[RicSeyler]

In my experience Anemones are like that, sometimes
they just don't make it past the first few weeks. And you
can scratch your head trying to figure out why, and feel bad to boot. :-)

And if it had a "tear" in the foot area, in my experience that can have
a fairly big effect on it's survival. LFS people can sometimes be impatient
about getting them out of the tank or moving them and tear the foot area.

And they do better under adequate light, but you might of purchased
a guy that really didn't have a good chance to begin with. So don't beat
yourself up too bad over it. :-)

Mike Mumma wrote:

>George and Susan,
>
>Thanks for you response and words of encouragement. I agree; I think
>it must have been sick to begin with. I will take your advise, Susan,
>and get a bubble-tip from liveaquaria. I will wait until I get some
>metal halides before I get another long tentacle, as I have read they
>do better with that.
>
>
>

--
Ric Seyler

[George]

"Mike Mumma" > wrote in message
...
>
> George and Susan,
>
> Thanks for you response and words of encouragement. I agree; I think
> it must have been sick to begin with. I will take your advise, Susan,
> and get a bubble-tip from liveaquaria. I will wait until I get some
> metal halides before I get another long tentacle, as I have read they
> do better with that.
>
> George-nope,don't have brittle stars,etc. I think 'tear' was a bad
> word choice. I think the tissue just started to weaken and ripped.
> But I will keep that in mind in the future.
>
> Thanks again!
>
> Mike
>

Sounds like it was injured (bruised?) to begin with, so you likely didn't have a
chance with this animal. I've kept long tenticled anemones, and have found them
to do very well with proper lighting and the right combination of water quality
and current (they don't seem to like a lot of strong direct water flow, but so
appear to like a mild current flowing over them).