[Ronald]

I have a new sebae anemone that keeps wandering around the tank. I'm worried he'll get caught in the intake of my filter. I think he's getting carried by the current of my two powerheads. Should I be trying to get him to stay put in one place or let him drift around? Should I try to get him to anchor onto the live rock or let him stay on the bottom? Any suggestions on how to get them to stay in one place?

Thanks.

[zhenya]

Ronald,

Heteractis crispa ( sebae anemone) prefers sandy bottom in most cases and will most likely try to dig up a spot in the sand and attach to the bottom glass or to the lower section of the rocks. I would try cutting off power heads for a while and give your anemone some time to settle in and attach.
How long have you had it and how does it look physically?

[Ronald]

It looked good at first, but has since shrunk. I've tried to relocate it a few times but it keeps on floating/drifting along. I'll try your idea of turning off the powerheads. Thanks.

Originally Posted by zhenya

Ronald,

Heteractis crispa ( sebae anemone) prefers sandy bottom in most cases and will most likely try to dig up a spot in the sand and attach to the bottom glass or to the lower section of the rocks. I would try cutting off power heads for a while and give your anemone some time to settle in and attach.
How long have you had it and how does it look physically?

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ronald

It looked good at first, but has since shrunk. I've tried to relocate it a few times but it keeps on floating/drifting along. I'll try your idea of turning off the powerheads. Thanks.

Was it attached at any point to anything? The fact that it shrunk is a bit of a concern and that it is floating/drifting is not a good sign. It only happens(in my experience) when the animal is under stress. What color is it? The reason I asked is becouse most of the time this particular anemones come into the stores already bleached( having expelled their zooxanthellae ), white in color and under stress already. It takes some time and very devoted husbandry for them to recover and regain their symbiotic algae. If it lives you'll have to feed it more often than you would another anemone as it will depend on you for providing bulk of its nutrition.

Good luck!

[conda]

My buble tip did the same thing. He was doing great, then one of my snails dies and two clearners, due to my stupidity during a water change, that spiked the nitrates. He was on the move for a few days and then went into a crevace and would not come out. He shrunk real small and I thought he was dead.

So I decided to get him out and removed all the rock and moved him to the bottom. He rolled around for a while so I decided to place him. After I did that I have been feeding him by hand every day, now he is much better.

Don't know if that helps, but moving and placing him, then hand feeding him seemed to really help. My cleaner shrimp keeps stealing his food, so I have to watch and make sure he really gets it.

[Ronald]

He's white in color (could be bleached, I didn't think to check on what their natural color should be). He's attached himself upside down to a cave in my live rock. He's regained some of his original size. Being in the hard place that he is, it's going to be hard to try to feed him. Should I try to move him again or leave him and hope that he comes out eventually?

[conda]

Is he open? Can you snap a pic?

If he is attached and open I would not touch him, but try and get some food on his tenticles. Just put on a glove and reach in with your arm. That is what I did when he was in a hard to get place. Once the food touches him, it should stick and he will eat it--unless you have shimp like me that steal his food.

Mine is doing so much better since I moved him out of his crevace and started feeding him by hand. I feed him every day now, and will until he is all better. But I only moved him because he was closed up into a ball and wedged between rocks and just looked like he was dying.

Keep us posted on how he is doing.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ronald

He's white in color (could be bleached, I didn't think to check on what their natural color should be). He's attached himself upside down to a cave in my live rock. He's regained some of his original size. Being in the hard place that he is, it's going to be hard to try to feed him. Should I try to move him again or leave him and hope that he comes out eventually?

Hi Ronald,

I would leave it be if it were my animal. Instead of moving it I would've looked for the ways to reach it with some type of long tongs or such device, in addition to that I would've tried to perhaps move a rock or two( hence why I said that caring for already stressed anemone may take quite a bit more dedication ). By the by, if it is attached, I would just try any way I could to entice it to eat, it may start to accept food now that it is attached.
All anemones like to hide their attachment point some place that will be safe, it may be sand or rock crevices. H. crispa anemones found mostly on the sand bed but they are found on some other substrates as well, just not as often... So, I wouldn't worry too much that it is attached in the cave/overhang, since it expelled most of its zooxanthellae it does not need whole lot of light at the moment, I think the food will play majority role in its recovery and it will be up to you to get it there.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by conda

Mine is doing so much better since I moved him out of his crevace and started feeding him by hand. I feed him every day now, and will until he is all better. But I only moved him because he was closed up into a ball and wedged between rocks and just looked like he was dying.

Well, crevaces is where E.quadricolor prefers to be in the first place. They like to attach in such places to protect its pedal disk and they prefer feeling of rocks touching their foot, at least in my observation it holds true.
I'll post a picture to illustrate how the foot of my anemone is hidden and only oral disk area is out in the open. I think the second or last image shows very well that the foot is nicely protected by rocks.

[conda]

Zhenya,

Mine curled up into a ball and smashed itself into a crevace and would not move, eat, or anthing for a long time. So I decided to remove him and see what he looked like--it wasn't pretty, he looked like he was on his last leg. When I placed him on the sand he just rolled around in the current. Actually, I almost tossed him because he was all pale and looked dead--didn't want the tank polluted. I'm glad I didn't.

What I ended up doing is placing him upright on the sand where two rocks meet, then the next morning he attached. His foot is under the rock in the sand and all you see is his disc.

I started feeding him every day, then he started opening. He's looking good now. He is now green again and glows in the moonlight like he used to. He just is not open as big as he used to be.

I hope he survives. I love anemones.

What I did change in my tank was the water current, and added a canister filter. Now my water is crystal clear. I'm guessing he did not like the hang on only setup I had.

[Ronald]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. He has opened up again and other than being a little smaller, he looks normal. I'll try to get some food to him with my tongs. Since these guys are pretty free roaming, is there any risk of them being sucked into the filter intake? The cave he's in right now is not to far from my filter intake. Should I look at raising it higher or building a larger screen around it so that he doesn't get sucked in so to speak.

Originally Posted by zhenya

Well, crevaces is where E.quadricolor prefers to be in the first place. They like to attach in such places to protect its pedal disk and they prefer feeling of rocks touching their foot, at least in my observation it holds true.
I'll post a picture to illustrate how the foot of my anemone is hidden and only oral disk area is out in the open. I think the second or last image shows very well that the foot is nicely protected by rocks.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by conda

I hope he survives. I love anemones.

I hope so too. By your description it sounds like it's out of the woods for the most part and it is on its way to recovery. The size of the anemone will return if you feed it enough food. And, if you feed it enough food it may some day reproduce for you.

Originally Posted by Ronald

The cave he's in right now is not to far from my filter intake. Should I look at raising it higher or building a larger screen around it so that he doesn't get sucked in so to speak.

I would definately look into making some sort of screen to prevent anemone from getting stuck in the intake of the filter. Far too many of them got polverised by power heads and pumps in tanks not to pay attention to this, lets learn on other peoples mistakes...
As far as them being free roaming, yes, they will move if they are not happy at the curent spot. I had noticed in case of my E.quadricolor that if i don't feed one clone for more than three- four days it will get moving. I suppose it moves in hopes to find a better spot for capturing some food. I can't make much of it as yet becouse it is just an experiment I did in my aquarium and it probably never happens in nature due to the fact that food is always abundant. But nonetheless, it happens without fail in my tank.