[reefmack]

i have a small bubble-tipped anenome that my marron clown has bonded with... should i be feeding it in some way?

[tendar]

I have the same thing a bubble tip anenome that has a pair of gold striped maroons. I feed my bubble tip 2 times a week with 3 pieces of krill. So with a smaller one I would feed at least 2 pieces a couple of times a week. If you give it to much it will just drop the food so you dont have to worry about over feeding it. If anything you have to worry about under feeding it.

[GregD]

Reefmack,

You should definitely feed your bubble tip anemone at least twice a week. I feed mine 2 or 3 times a week.

I try to vary the diet a little bit by feeding a small piece of squid, silversides or shrimp at each feeding.

What I normally do is buy a pack of frozen (uncooked) squid rings at the grocery store (the unbreaded kind used to make calamari) and will just cut up small pieces and thaw them to feed to my anemones. I find this to be pretty convenient when I don't have fresh food handy!!

Also the following linkis a good reference for the types of foods that different kinds of anemones tend to accept.
http://www.reefscience.com/Archive/A...s/anemones.htm

Greg

[RudeBoy]

I recently bought a 3 lbs. piece of LR that had a Bubble Tipped Anemone attached to it. It's been 2 weeks and the only thing it's done is moved itself to the back portion of the rock.. out of view. When all of my lights are off, it seems to stretch itself like it wants to open but it has NEVER fully opened since I've had it. What should I do? Should I move it to my smaller 10g tank that I use for spawning my Clowns?

[GregD]

Rudeboy,

Are you sure that what you have is a bubble tip anemone?

The reason I ask is often hitchhikers on live rock tend ot be nuisance types of anemones or algae (example=aiptasia). If it is aiptasia, it is probabaly a blessing in disguise that it is "on the outs"

I do not mean to question your question but it may help to provide a better solution.

If it is a BTA, in general they will move around the tank to find what they belive to be an optimal spot for lighting, water flow, place to anchor etc. If a suitable spot cannot be found they may continue to drift or anchor in a spot and shrivel up as you describe.

If a BTA is shriveling up with the lights on, then extending in the dark this would indicate your lighting may be too strong, however, I do not think the PC's listed in your profile would cause this?

Sorry this isn't much to go on but maybe with some more info I can be of help!

Greg

[RudeBoy]

That's very helpful info Greg. I took pictures last week in hopes of posting them to get some opinions, but, they came out looking like crap. So, I'm gonna retake them and see if I can get better shots. This 'thing' is brown in color and it's white around the tip. At times, it will extend itself and very small bubbles can be seen at the very end. When it extends itself, it's usually un a spherical shape and the small bubble are at the tip. Does that make sense? Since this thing has been in my tank, it hasn't left that particular piece of raock. I have about 15 different pieces of rock that it could've chosen from but it didn't do much exploring.

[GregD]

Cool... a picture or two would definitely help!!

In the meantime here is a link to a site by Bob Fenner about aiptasia (identification and removal).

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/aiptasia.htm

This may help you in your diagnosis in the interim. Hopefully you have a bubble tip anemone.

Greg D.

[RudeBoy]

I checked out the site and found this photo but it's really hard to tell if this is what I have. The thing has never opened up and it's only stretched a little bit. I'm gonna make it my mission to get a picture up some way today so you can see what I'm taking about. The pest in this photo has the similar color to what i have , BUT, it has not spread in my tank, and the color of mine is more tan than brown and it's is not streaked or spotted in any way. And, when it does show the little bubbles at it's tip, the are white/almost clear. I know I'm being a pain but I want this thing out of my tank if it's gonna cause problems.

[reefmack]

my bubble tip anenome does the same thing!! when the lights are on it's somewhat subdued - but when they are off it stretches out nearly twice as much... what causes this? i'm running 4x 96w PC's...

[GregD]

I'll be glad to help if I can!

A couple of things you may want to keep in mind are:

There are 3 primary reasons people wish to rid themselves of Aiptasia:
1) Look/Appearance
2) Can sting harm fish
3) Can spread "weedlike" in tanks

So far it sounds like you are ok with #1 and you don't seem worried about #2 (which is generally the symptom with any anemone). So really it comes down to #3. It is my understanding that Aiptasia really only starts to spread as people try to kill it and wind up breaking it up instead resulting in it spreading and reproducing.

Since it sounds like it is attached to a smaller piece of live rock you may wish to avoid the potential problems and just pull the piece of rock and either boil it or place it in a Kalkwasser mix. Boiling the rock will kill of all living life on the rock, but this will not matter as the rock will be re-seeded with life when re-introduced to the tank. Soaking the rock in Kalkwasser will do pretty much the same thing with the added benefit of providing a burst of calcium when re-introduced.

Really this is just a long way of saying it is a matter of personal preference what you do. I would try to positively identify it as some other sort of anemone other than aiptasia and if successful keep it. Otherwise I would nuke it.

From your description below if it is not aiptasia it could also be a long-tentacled anemone (LTA) or some variation. (Sorry I am at work so I can't look it up in any of my books). Most (I say most because there are always exceptions) bubble tip anemones (entacamaea quadricolor) have shorter more bulbous tentacles with bubbled tips at the end. Frome the pic and description below what you have sounds like it has longer more slender tentacles with clear tips (bubble in shape) at the end. Many of the LTA's have the coloring you describe although I cannot recall seeing ones with clear tips. You may wish to take a trip to your LFS or good book store and see if you can find a pictoral match.

Hope this helps a bit in your decision to zap it or not!

Greg

[GregD]

Reefmack,

Bubble tips will generally extend in the dark or after lights go out for 2 reasons

1) When the lights are on the BTA is feeding through a combination of filtering water and photosynthesis. When the lights go out the BTA no longer has a light source for photosynthesis so it will extend its tentacles to increase it's surface area to provide more feeding from water filtering

2) If the tank has too much...really too strong lighting for a BTA then sometimes it will retract to find a shaded spot when the lights are on and extend itself at night.

Hope this helps!

Greg

[reefmack]

an even easier way to get rid of Aiptasia is to (if you can get your hands on one) take a medical syringe and fill it ever so slightly with white vineager - stick it in the Aiptasia anenome's gut and give him a very, very small squirt - game over. cruel and unusual and i hate to do it but if you have to you have to... hope that helps.

[reefmack]

gregd - thanks! it always helps to confirm that your inhabitants are acting "normal" (whatever that is) when you're worried... i'll keep an eye on him but what you say makes perfect sense and i think that's what i have going on

[RudeBoy]

Hey Greg, thanks again for the help. When I actually got the rock from my LFS, who is extremely reputable around here, the guy who runs the place id it as a Bubble Tipped Anemone. He said that a goes he knows well brok down his tank and gave the rock to the store and told him that there was a BTA on the rock. Me being new to the reef game (5 months and counting), I got excited about it but then disappointed because I have never gotten a look at this thing. I've been to Petco, where they have poorly maintained tanks with extremely sh*tty lighting, and have seen Anemones wide open in those tanks. It blows my mind! I have prestine water conditions and my Anemone won't do squat! If you can, can you help me with a little more info from your books? Thanks.

[GregD]

Rudeboy,

Cool...glad to hear it is a *good* anemone and congrats. In general, the bubble tips are the hardiest of the many anemone's kept by reefkeepers (Although I will insert the standard caution here that anemones are very difficult to keep, have extremely high mortality rates in captivity, etc).

The first two anemones I kept were and (good news remain alive) are bubble tips. People are still trying to identify the keys to successfully and consistently keeping anemones in captivity and this is the part of the reef hobby that I find most interesting.

In my experience, BTA's like moderate current, preferrably inconsistent or pulsing current. I use a power head directed off a rock to achieve this in my current setup and this seems to work well. They also thrive with varying lights. I never had success with Power Compacts alone due to the depth of my tank (72G bowfront) and needed Metal halide lighting to achieve the correct intensity of light at the lower levels of the tank where most BTA's tend to find a home. BTA's seem to like to grab on to a rock near the edge where the rock meets the sand.

Also, it has been my experience that the BTA's will wander if they don't like or cannot find a suitable spot in the aquarium. If yours has not wondered and it has only been in the tank a short period of time it may be just be retracted as it gets used to its settings.

I would do the two things in the short term if it has recently been introduced to the tank-
1) Let it be for a week and see if it starts opening up and retreats less

2) Feed it manually some silversides ( I but the frozen packs from Petco...this is about the only thing I buy from them as you are DEFINITELY correct about their quality, lack of knowledge, etc.). Just break off a small section and thaw, then place a pice or two on the tentacles of the anemone. If the anemone is sticky and holds on to the pieces naturally this is a VERY good sign of a healthy anemone. If it isn't very sticky this can be an early warning of trouble (don't panic at this point) I would keep this feeding routine up and feed it once every three days. Make sure that other fish in the tank do not steal the food away from the anemone. (even my Clarkii will do this periodically and I have to guard the food and anemone from pick-pockets)

An excellent book about anemones is Joyce Wilkerson's book about Clownfish (Anemonefish). Although it is more to do with clowns she includes some great information and knowledge about anemones.

HTH
Greg

[RudeBoy]

I bought that book last Saturday right before I took my fiancee and kid to Chuck E. Cheese. I read 90 pages of that book before I left that place. I finished it by the next night. She has some very good views on Anemones. She is also the reason why I set up a 10g reef tank this past weekend for my Clowns who are the bid 'lovebirds' of my 29g. I also read an article about Anemones that someone here on Reefland posted a link to. The doctor actually destroyed the myth that Anemones are hard to keep. He said that some Anemones have live 20 + years in lab tanks and that sometimes the myth of them being hard to keep causes 'reefers' to overdo their care and attention. This sometimes makes the tank's water quality flucuate too often and the Anemones never really have time to get use to a moderate and stable tank environment. I heed the advice, don't get me wrong.

I took better pictures of what I have and it definitely appears to be a BTA. when I turned the rock around and pointed it more toward the light, it tried to open more and more. When I took it out of the water (the LR) the Anemone closed very slowly, but, opened back up to it's very short length hat I mentioned earlier. I will post the pictures tomorrow.
I will try and feed it like you said, but, it never opens to a circumference bigger than a nickel. But, I will place food on it and see what it does. I can tell you this, it definitely LOOKS sticky.

[GregD]

Cool....I too couldn't put Joyce's book down when I first bought and still use it as a frequent reference!

I also agree with the other idea that many people believe that anemone are impossible to keep, etc...

The true gauge of success seems to be if you can keep an anemone for a year or longer. If an anemone makes it through this phase you are doing things correctly (intentionally or otherwise). I am currently in the process of trying to breed a carpet anemone to see if it can be done (I have had success in the past with BTA's splitting).

In my opinion I think the key element to my success is I DO NOT use RO/DI water. I use dechlorinated tap water. I think that in my area the water from the faucet is fairly good and provides the correct trace elements naturally that are key to anemone survival. This concept is referenced in Joyce book where she talks about a survey of anemone keepers and reproduction/successes.

There is another thread on a different reef bulletin board where people were discussing tap water vs. RO/DI. I believe that two people who both swore by tap water exclusively were from the upstate New York area so it may something you wish to consider given your location.

Also, please let me know how your clownfish breeding goes...I have always wanted to try this however I have never had a calm tank with just a pair of clowns to ensure the right "privacy" needed for breeding. It is my understanding that the hardest part is having rotifers on hand to feed the newly hatched larvae/fish. Someone told me that rotifers don't keep very well so you have to constantly hatch them (similar to brine shrimp) so as to have them on hand when your clownfish spawn (which may be whenever they choose and not by any apparent schedule!)

Greg

[RudeBoy]

Many people don't believe this but upstate New York (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse area) has been rated as having the 3rd best tap water in the United States. Can you believe that? I couldn't. I never use anything other than tap water and my tank has taken off in it's first 4 months. What's more is I don't use pumps to aereate my water after mixing my salt and I can top off straight from the tap with no issues. Our water has too many nutrients and it sometimes causes instant algae blooms on the glass.

As far as the Clowns, I will definitely let you know how the breeding goes. I bought my Clowns at two different places but I made sure they were the only ones in the tank. They have bonded greatly and I can even tell that my larger one, who I named Vince, has made the switch to a female. He's become very aggressive towards his mate. He mate sometimes fights back but most gives in. Soon, I'll be moving them to the 10g in hopes of a spawn. I just want to wait until the right time to do it. How much light do you think I'd need in my 10g to keep a BTA? Just curious to know. My LFS has a 10g tank in a custom cabinet that you wouldn't believe. There's a very small Torch coral, Frogspawn and BTA in it. Not sure but I think the guy uses the same PC kit I have. What's your take on it? BTW, even though my Anemone isn't opening, should I still attempt to feed it something by lying the food on top of it?

[GregD]

I think that PC's should be fine for a 10G tank. I would make sure to use 1 50/50 bulb and 1 actinic.

I would also definitely feed the anemone even if it is closed. Just lay a small pice of silverside across it and gently place it between a tentacle. If it doesn't stick to the anemone it will probabaly just float away. In this case you may have to give it more time to open up before attempting feeding.

Good luck!

Greg

[RudeBoy]

Thanks a lot Greg, it's been a pleasure. Have a great weekend and I'll keep you posted!