Name that anemone!!

[rebekwl]

YAY!!! I was finally able to resize one of my pics. Wish I could remember how I did it!! Anyhoo, here is a pic of my anemone. Any clue what kind he is??

[Cougra]

It looks like a very bleached out Condylactis sp. coral. Whatever it is, it isn't in very good condition and really needs to be fed on a very regular basis. Anemones should not be white in colour, they should have a nice tan base. It MAY be possible to nurse this anemone to health, but it'll tank good water quality, good lighting and many feedings of foods such as silversides.

Even with good care, it may be too far gone to recover, especially if it expelled too much of it's symbiotic zoxanthellea algae. Without this algae it will most likely starve to death.

[rebekwl]

It was white when I bought it, so I had no clue there was snything wrong with it. I have been feeding it brine shrimp every 3 days, I have read that was ok. How often should I be feeding it??? Thanks for the info, it looks fine to me, but only because I am new to this hobby and don't know any better. Thanks!!

[lcstorc]

Skip the brine. There is almost no nutrition in it. It is the fish equivilant of popcorn. Fine as a treat but not as a primary food source. Use mysis instead. Much better nutrition in mysis than in brine.

[rebekwl]

Ok will do!! I think I'm going to talk my hubby into taking me to the LFS after work anyways, i will pick some up!! Do you think I'm making a huge mistake by keeping it instead of trying to see if the store will take it back??

[Dragon Wrasse]

Originally Posted by rebekwl

Ok will do!! I think I'm going to talk my hubby into taking me to the LFS after work anyways, i will pick some up!! Do you think I'm making a huge mistake by keeping it instead of trying to see if the store will take it back??

Looks like a Condi....answer to your question is, depends on what you are going to keep in your tank....I have a Long Tentical Anemone (LTA) aka cork screw anemone, that I have in my Softy tank, it was 4 inches across when I bought it and now it is over 12 inches across in a 75 gal. tank....if it wasn't home to my two Clarkii Clowns I would have gave it back to my LFS long ago. Anemone's like to up root and move around the tank every now and then and they usally have a greater STING than my softy corals, so the possibility of my LTA killing one or more of my corals is pretty good...also the larger they get the better chance of a prized fish or shrimp getting caught and eaten increases.....my LTA can eat large silver sides with no problem.

[rDr4g0n]

Originally Posted by lcstorc

Skip the brine. There is almost no nutrition in it. It is the fish equivilant of popcorn. Fine as a treat but not as a primary food source. Use mysis instead. Much better nutrition in mysis than in brine.

just curious if the nutritionally enhanced frozen brine shrimp are a good diet? i feed them to my button polyps every few days.

[Dragon Wrasse]

Originally Posted by rDr4g0n

just curious if the nutritionally enhanced frozen brine shrimp are a good diet? i feed them to my button polyps every few days.

Never tried it.....I use mysis, krill and blood worms and feed my anemone pieces of clam, squid and silver sides......

[lcstorc]

Personally I would take it back. Your tank is just not established enough and you don't have the lights for it. Particularly since we are talking about a save instead of just keeping it alive. If that is the color it was when you got it then it was already in trouble to begin with and you are just not equipped to try to save it at this point.

[cheeks69]

Originally Posted by rDr4g0n

just curious if the nutritionally enhanced frozen brine shrimp are a good diet? i feed them to my button polyps every few days.

Alot of the brine shrimp recently available in the frozen form is fortified but I wouldn't suggest it as a staple food for fish, now for corals they'll eat anything even detritus...

Alot of people don't realize that the Condylactis demands strong lighting, what type of lighting do you have Rebekah and how many watts ?

[Saltwater Noob]

HUMM........ I have a Condi also and it is white and was white when I bought it I feed it a good size chunk of shrimp every 3 days seems to be doing great but is white in color also???

[cheeks69]

These Anemones also appear to come in white as a natural color although the one's I'm familiar with are usually tan with purple tips. If the Anemone is sticky, responsive and eating well with appropriate lighting then it should be fine.

CondyAnemones

[cheeks69]

Originally Posted by lcstorc

Personally I would take it back. Your tank is just not established enough and you don't have the lights for it. Particularly since we are talking about a save instead of just keeping it alive. If that is the color it was when you got it then it was already in trouble to begin with and you are just not equipped to try to save it at this point.

Saving the Anemone in this case may not necessarily mean taking it back to the LFS from which it bleached in the first place. If Rebekah has the apropriate light levels and the tank is in good health I would leave it be IMHO.

[lcstorc]

Unfortunately the tank is still cycling and she doesn't have the lights.

She got very bad advice from an lfs. They sold her 2 anemones and a bunch of fish for a brand new uncycled tank. At this point everything has died except the one anemone. She has added rock and is cycling a qt as well as the display now. I believe she has just NO Flourescents though it may be PC. I'm not sure if we ever figured out her lighting for certain.

[Cougra]

Originally Posted by rebekwl

It was white when I bought it, so I had no clue there was snything wrong with it. I have been feeding it brine shrimp every 3 days, I have read that was ok. How often should I be feeding it??? Thanks for the info, it looks fine to me, but only because I am new to this hobby and don't know any better. Thanks!!

From what I’m reading on this thread, it seems like you don’t have the lighting for this anemone. I am sorry to hear that the LFS gave such bad advice but at least you have the courage to ask for help. I personally recommend that you try to bring the anemone back to the LFS or if possible give it to someone with a matured tank and good lighting. I also recommend that you do a lot of reading about anemones in the mean time.

One of the good and bad things to understand about anemones is that they have a very slow metabolism. Due to it's slow metabolism it can take weeks and sometimes months for an animal to show signs of illness or trauma. This means that they can look and react fairly normally for a while even after some types of trauma. It also means that they heal slower that can then lead to secondary infections and complications when something goes wrong. This is one of the main reasons they need pristine water conditions.

As for feeding anemones, that really depends on the lighting available. Even with a very good lighting system, they should have occasional possibly weekly feedings because they don't get 100% of their nutrients from their symbiotic algae. However when they are bleached/white they require very frequent feedings, possibly daily depending on the condition it is in. Yours currently looks like it's still robust, but that can slowly start to deteriorate without supplemental feedings. As for what you feed it, a variety of foods is best. Don't just rely on one type of food such as brine or mysids, but change it on a regular basis. The wider the variety you feed you anemone, and any other animal you have in the tank the healthier they will be. Silversides are good for feeding as well as you can easily feed them a good chunk rather then a lot of small pieces that can easily float away.

When feeding the anemone, gently place the food on it’s tentacles and allow the anemone to bring the food to its mouth. Don’t force any food into their mouths as you can easily damage the flesh around it.