Carpet Anemone Question

[ErYn]

i just read an article that said "A moving anemone is an unhappy anemone, and will eventually die unless it can find a place that it can call home." i have a green carpet aneome he's pretty big-about 9 or so inches across.. and he has moved several times since i've had my tank. which has been about 6 months. (i bought my tank fully established-it had been up and running with all the same critters for about 2 or 3 years, and i havent added anything) so i'm wondering if there is anything i should be doing to make him "feel at home" so to speak.. and advice/suggestions would be very helpful!! ;;

[romunov]

Does it have a hiding place to hides its foot?

[vtec si]

i just read an article that said "A moving anemone is an unhappy anemone, and will eventually die unless it can find a place that it can call home." i have a green carpet aneome he's pretty big-about 9 or so inches across.. and he has moved several times since i've had my tank. which has been about 6 months. (i bought my tank fully established-it had been up and running with all the same critters for about 2 or 3 years, and i havent added anything) so i'm wondering if there is anything i should be doing to make him "feel at home" so to speak.. and advice/suggestions would be very helpful!! ;;

Hello ErYn,
I have had my green carpet for almost 10 years now. The only time that I have ever seen mine move is when he is looking for more light, the right water flow and/or food. If you are feeding him then I would take a look at your lighting or water flow. If he is climbing it MAY be a good sign that its time for new blubs. If it is a water flow then I would take a look at how much water is flowing on him. Mine like a steady flow but not alot of flow. If he is getting pounded with water flow then they try to tuck in or even close up. Try some of these things. Remember a Happy CARPET is a FEED CARPET! JME!
Good Luck,
Martin

[ErYn]

i guess he has a place to hide his foot. lol that sounds funny! i think all 3:water flow, lighting, and feeding are good. i feed him silversides about everyother day.. which is what i was told to do when i bought the tank. i've not had any problems with him, except when he ate my yellow tang!! he could have ate the mean little damsel, but nooo he had to go for the expensive dinner. also i've seen a couple pictures of other peeps carpet anemones and they are almost always drawn up and look almost flower like. but mine is always open, and sometimes lays flat.. (duh.. CARPET anemone, maybe it sould be flat) but noone else's that i've seen looks, or i guess i should say acts like mine.. thank you for the suggestions! i will look into my lighting and water flow more! also i just read that someone said that a 90g tank is too small for a carpet anemone??? is this true??? i have a 55g that my carpet calls home.. is this not good??

[reggiepe]

I have had a green carpet now for about 3 months, approximately the same size. The first two weeks I had it, it moved constantly (a nightmare with powerheads and softies in the tank) I upgraded about 3 weeks ago from a 38 to a 75 tank. With that I didn't have enough rock. So, I have everything thrown in the tank in no particular way (I am waiting on another 50 pounds of rock to cure) It moved the first two days and then settled dead center and front in the tank with it's foot hidden underneath a rock. I feed a mix of silversides and shrimp every 3 - 4 days. I am hoping it stays there since it is the most colorful addition to the tank and my Clarks clown has her first host in over 13 years. She wigged out when I put it in and hasn't strayed more than a foot away from it since. I believe when I aquascape, that rock that it is attached to will stay undisturbed, as it seems to like the light, flow and feeding that takes place right where it resides. I hope yours settles in soon.

reggiepe

[chrisbrph]

Sorry for going back to the basics- but, what is the current water quality in the tank? How much and how often do you conduct water changes? How old are the bulbs and what type of bulbs are on the tank (wavelength and type?)

Silversides can be a very "dirty" food- water parameters can go south rather quickly based on the breakdown and expulsion of their waste from the carpet.

[Ninong]

also i just read that someone said that a 90g tank is too small for a carpet anemone??? is this true??? i have a 55g that my carpet calls home.. is this not good??

There are three species of carpet anemones. Their adult sizes range from ~2' across to more than 3' across. This is why I said that a 90-gal tank is inadequate for these animals. We did have a picture here on Reefland of someone's carpet anemone in his 90-gal tank but I can't find it now. It was probably lost a few years ago in one of our software upgrades. Anyway, his anemone was already way too big for his tank and he only had it a couple of years. I believe he managed to give it to someone with a much larger tank.

You might find this thread interesting. Several hobbyists discuss their experiences with carpet anemones in that thread.

When I visited the Waikiki Aquarium a few years ago, I took this picture of two carpet anemones. The larger one is more than 30" across.

It is unfortunate that carpet anemones are collected in the first place and even more unfortunate that they are sold to hobbyists who do not have tanks large enough to house them. Whenever we purchase any animals, we should have the goal of keeping them in good health for as long as possible and that means that we should be aware of their potential adult size, especially when buying an animal with a potential lifespan of two or three hundred years. It would be nice if the vendors would act responsibly and inform potential customers of the needs of the livestock they are trying to sell them but that's not going to happen.

[ErYn]

Ninong: i hope i didnt sound offending, i really didnt mean to.. i just read what you wrote, and being new i didnt know all the diffrent types of carpet anemones, i freaked out a little!! i just want to make sure i'm doing the right thing. i bought my tank fully established, like i said before, thinking it would be easier just starting out to maintain an already stocked tank, rather than starting from scratch.. the person i bought it from said she bought the tang and the carpet anemone at the same time, so she had them both together for at least 2 or 3 years and never had a problem. so i'm learning as i go, with out any major problems yet! also now that i know about carpets i wont be adding any other fish until i decide either to get rid of the carpet or put him in another tank.. thank you for the advices and the picture!

[Ninong]

No, you didn't sound offending.

I just wanted to let you know that your 55-gal tank will be too small for a carpet anemone because it doesn't have enough room front-to-back for them to spread out as they get larger.

The real problem is that the industry continues to collect anemones that are unsuitable for the average aquarium. The best host anemone for captivity is Entacmaea quadricolor because it readily clones in captivity and these captive-bred clones can reduce the need for wild-collected specimens.

[ErYn]

i guess for now my 55g is fine, my carpet seems to be very healthy, so i guess he's not too big for the tank, yet! when it gets too big that's when i will either get rid of him (which i dont want to!!) or move him to another tank. if i want to move him out of the tank, how do i get his foot up off the bottom of the tank? also this may be a silly question, but you mentioned "Entacmaea quadricolor" is there a common name for that anemone?

[Ninong]

Entacmaea quadricolor is commonly called the Bubble Tip Anemone or the Bulb Tip Anemone -- BTA for short.

One way to cause an anemone to release it's foot is to hold an ice cube against the column, or so I've heard. I don't have any anemones.

[ErYn]

hum... an ice cube?.?.? sounds interesting!! actually this weekend i was at the lfs and i they had some BTA's and i was going to buy one, but i looked in another tank they had, and 3 yellow tangs were laying on the bottom of the tank gasping, and the tank just below that had a regal tang and it said "sorry i'm sick" written on the tank!! so i decided it would be better off NOT to buy from there.. now i'm worried about buying anything from there ever! also on the fresh water side, on one of thier tanks it said "sorry we have ich, well be better soon" so i just left... how can a fish store do business that way?? the only problem is the only other lfs that carrys saltwater stock is about 45 miles away from me!! and figuring i live in FLORIDA that there would be more places who sold saltwater stuff!!!

[BubbaWPB]

Better that they write "sorry, I'm sick" on the tank than not to and try to sell them! Because LFS's have so much in and out trade of fish, they inevitably get a tank with sick fish from time to time. They cannot afford to quarantine all their purchases for 6 weeks before they sell them. And, yes, it is good not to by anything from a tank with sicko's.

[ErYn]

i would have to agree, it is better they let everyone know rather than sell the sickos! but now everyone is going to be very cautious from buying anything there... eek! although i have bought stuff from there before and everything turned out ok.... i guess everyone is allowed to have a bad day.. ;;

[BubbaWPB]

I haven't seen a LFS yet that didn't have a sick tank at one time or another. With the high rate of turnover, it's bound to happen. I wouldn't have a place to get fish from if I quit going to places that have had sick tanks....

....on the other hand, I avoid the LFSs like the plague that don't label a sick tank AND sell fish out of a tank with a sick fish. Those places are scary!

[Irish]

I just bought a beautiful purple carpet, I've had him for about 2months now and all of a sudden this morning he swelled up in the center and looks as if his internals are on the outside and getting bigger. For the most part his color is holding other than one spot on him that has turned brown. What has caused this, and is there anything I can do?