New Purple Long Tentacle Anemone--care, behaviors

[Mahoney]

Tank Details--

Had about 2 years now
55 gal
T5HO lights
Fish-Yellow Tang, 6 line-wrasse, mated pair clown fish x 2 (black with orange face--name?), green clown goby.
Others--peppermint shrimp x 3, lotsa hermit crabs, several snails, feather duster x 1, various small sponges I picked up on live rock purchases.
Yellow polyps, green star polyps, lots of hammer coral, green-eyed zoas.

Full tank:



(everything is kinda small--i took the pic right after I turned the light on)



Question-- Just got a purple long tentacle anemone. It's small... maybe a few inches in diameter when fully opened.

I placed it in my tank yesterday afternoon, in the sand, in the area my clowns call "home" because ideally, I'd like them to host in it if possible. If not, oh well, they are cool to have . So, it had good lighting, good water flow, etc. But i looked this afternoon (before the light was on) and couldn't find it anywhere! So, I turned the light on and frantically searched for it thinking, oh great, something ate it... just my luck. But, low and behold, I found it on the OPPOSITE site of the tank, stuffed up under one of my pumps of all places.... totally shrunken up. I turned off the pump right away so it wouldn't do any damage... but now it seems to like that place and might set up camp there... under rocks, and under a pump.... And now that the pump is turned off, he's expanding his tentacles and setting up shop! What a crappy place to live! Hardly, if any, light.... and unable to fully open (yet).

I realize that they will crawl around to find the right place eventually.... and that I should move stuff away so that it doesn't sting my other soft corals and stuff.

So, in this picture below, you can kinda see the orange "stem" of the plta wedged under my pump.


(and here it is a little further away so you can get a better idea)


I tried to read up a bit on them too thru different websites, but what is some "real-life" advice for caring for these creatures? Should I try to pluck him out of that little spot and place him elsewhere? Just let him do his thing? What about feedings? I read so many different ways for feeding them, what's the most common?

And then any other advice you can think of in caring for this guy... or my tank in general, would be greatly appreciated!

Amanda

 

[Mahoney]

Aaaaah! Now he's really setting up shop!

I can't turn my fan on because of where he's at.......

 

[N1Husker]

Try to move your powerhead up a few inches and see if it moves itself.

 

[Mahoney]

Try to move your powerhead up a few inches and see if it moves itself.

My only thought with that, was that it moved itself there with the powerhead on......
I'm afraid I might damage it somehow..... :/

I'll try moving it tho Thanks!

 

[user 26995]

Leave the powerhead off and set it in the rocks. It will most likely move off onto the rock and you can put your powerhead back.

Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk 2

 

[N1Husker]

Leave the powerhead off and set it in the rocks. It will most likely move off onto the rock and you can put your powerhead back.

Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk 2

I was under the assumption that it was in the rocks and not on the powerhead. If it is on the powerhead, then do what Lorrie (IPisces) said to do. If it is on the rocks just move the powerhead out of the way and see if it will relocate.

 

[Mahoney]

It was moreso on the rock next/under the power head.... but nestled right up in it so I couldn't turn the head on. I did move it up a bit and turned it on again so we'll see what happens. It's definitely still getting blasted around a bit.... so maybe it will relocate... but then again... it moved there while the power head was on to begin with.... what a goofy creature.

Anyone's thoughts on special feeding? I was reading on one source about using a pipette? Thoughts?

Thanks guys!

 

[N1Husker]

You can also use a turkey baster and get some frozen mysis shrimp or any meaty fish food, mix it with a little aquarium water and shoot it at the anemone. What I do is to let the mysis shrimp or what ever I feed frozen, I let it thaw out on the top of a piece of plastic canvas that I got at JoAnn's Fabric. I put the canvas on top a glass and let it thaw so most of the extra juice fall into the glass. It keeps the excess phosphates and garbage out of the tank. Take some tank water and mix it with the food. Suck it up with the turkey baster or pipette and lightly shoot it at the anemone. If the clown wants some maybe they will get the idea. Good luck, this is just what I do, others may have a better idea.
Oh, by the way, Welcome to Reef Frontiers!

 

[user 26995]

You could use a turkey baster. Your nem is still small though, so a pipette should be fine. Cut the end off so you can get larger pieces in it. I also use a pair of long tongs and just pick the food up and put it in the anemone's tentacles. It will grab the food off of them. I feed my fish mysis, table shrimp and scallops and formula 1 frozen all chopped up together. Then the clowns feed the anemone.

 

[Mahoney]

Well, my anemone is no more.... sigh...an epic failure. And it was so cool looking! Thanks for everyones help! I moved up the powerhead and it kinda stayed there persistently for a few days, and then finally moved out toward the front of the tank. I found it balled up in the middle of the sand (not by any rocks or attached to anything), so I scootched it over next to a rock and it seemed like it grabbed on and I even tried to stick a piece of food in it's center. Well, the next day, when the light came on, I found it back in the middle of the sand, and hermit crabs and some of the fish were shredding away at it's outer "skin". It looked like i had rubbed it on a cheese grater. So, I quickly picked it up and set it on a rock up high in the tank to see if it was salvagable. It kinda moved around a little for a few hours I thought it might make a come back (tentacles were sorta poking out), but by morning, the hermit crabs had found it again and it was truly shredded to pieces, dragged in shreds over several inches of rock. I felt so bad.

I'd like to try again. Any suggestions on placement in the tank so I don't kill off another creature?

Thanks!
Amanda