Sand Anenome - Help

[lavan]

hi,

new to your site, i was given a sand anenome for my birthday on last thursday, i acclimitised him in my tank for about 2-3hrs.

then put him in, he seemed happy, think he was shocked from the journey and his tentaclsed were getting to be a normwal size again, came back from work on friday couldn't find him anywhere, looked under my rocks and he was hiding looking really limp.

last night i put him in substrate and he looked okay but this morning he's hiding under my soft corals, is he dying, i've looked at other posts and they've said when they die they start turning themselves out and start smelling really bad, took him out and gave him a quick smell and he smelled okay.

not sure what to do, my tank readings are as follows

temp 26C, salinity 1.023, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 20ppm, amonnia 0ppm, ph 8.2.

all my other inverts okay and feeding normally and so are the dish.

many thanks in advance

lavan

 

[leanne]

Don't quote me on this but I'd heard that they can "sulk" for around a week. When I got my leather mushroom coral he wouldn't put his "tentacles" out fully for about 3 weeks and was completely in for at least a week. Not sure how it is for true corals though.

 

[lavan]

hi,

i've had a look at him now and his column is ripped, is he dying?

feel so bad, cant belive it's happening.

 

[leanne]

I don't think that sounds too good...

You know how you said you acclimitised him for 2-3 hours? Some people recommend 20 minutes and not over 30 minutes due to the stress of actually being bagged. Not sure how true this is but I tend to put the LFS water and "item" in a bucket and add the same again of my tank water, leave it 20 minutes and then net the "item" and put it straight in my tank. I know people say that this could shock things but I have never had anything die on me yet. With freshwater fish I don't even do this - they go straight in.

To all - does anyone else do it like this or have I just been lucky?

 

[lavan]

hi,

thanks for your info, he died this morning, smelt really bad!

i might do what you do, so you add the lfs water in a bucket with fish, then do you put in your aquarium water in as well, or do you do it over a period of item, also how about tank temperature, even if it's lower than your tank do you put them straight in?

thanks

lavan

 

[Navarre]

I personally would aclimatise anenomes over a period of 2 hours or even higher. What are anenomes ? Bags of water at its basic level. So making sure its slowly aclimatised is very important.
I didnt see what type of lights you had the anenome undre (sorry if it was in your sig as i didnt check).

I would not recomend anenomes for anything other than a halide to be honest.
Anenomes require 2 things to make their life complete, excellant light and perfect water quality. If you give them both of these then they will sit happily enjoying themselves. However, if your nenny starts to wonder then its gong in search of better conditions. Either it was not happy with the light or water conditions in this area and was searching for better conditions.
Im no expert on sand anenomes so i am not sure how tollerant they are to nitrate but 20ppm might have been partly the cause as its quite high for housing inverts IMO.


Nennys are trouble to be honest, i know many on here will probably jump in and say that they keep anenomes successfully but all i can say is that when the lifespan of nennys in the wild is in access of hundred of years (some scientists are not sure if they do actually age as they can find no evidence).
When a hobbiest clams to have kept them sucessfully for 10 years we must ask ourselves is this really successfulk when these cratures will outlive our lifespans, our childrens and probably their childrens chldren. )
For each nenny that survives an aquarium, over 100 die in transit (probably more) and yet shops still sell these as they can make money from the unsuspecting.

Im not trying to flame people for keeping them, i have kept some until recently myself but i would strongly advise that people fully research the requirments of these creatures well before they purchase them. These are creatures with very special needs and we simply cannot control these in our tanks. We cant place them on a rock and expect them to stay there. They will go wherever they want to go in search of their needs so having a nenny nicely poised in a lovely focal point in your tank is more likely to have your nenny around the back of the tank as close to the top of the liverock as possible to get more light and in doing so, they are dangerously close to their fatal nemesis, the intakes of powerheads.

Going back to your anenome, you mentioned that it was split near the base? this might have happened when it was being moved from location, perhaps in the shops when being captured or maybe when you tried moving it when it was moving around the tank. Removing nennies once they are attached is dangeruos and you can easily split them by applying force. The best way i have found to remove a nenny is with icecubes. gently place an icecube on the foot of the nenny, it wont like the coldness of the ice and it will try to retract from it. Simply keep doing this around the base and it should eventually come free from the rock or glass.

lastly

Sorry for your loss of the nenny. Its always hard when we lose a creature from our tanks.

Navarre