coral compatibility

[vio]

its been a while since my last post and since then i have come a long way. I have a 55 gallon with a pair of false percs, sailfin tang, green hammer coral, frogspawn, star polyp, some purple shrooms and today i added a green bulb tipped anemone. everything is going great all of my levels are perfect (n03 <10, calcium 430, po4 0) i am just wondering on the compatibility of the frogspawn, hammer coral and the new anemone. Will the softies be the death of this anemone or the other way around? how far should i place them apart? right now the frogspawn is far out of reach of the anemone but the hammer (larger of the two (about 2 or 3 heads)) is within about 8 inches of the anemone. should i move him farther away? the anemone seems to have found a spot it likes in a crevice in a rock. i am hoping that chemical warfare will not ensue. any opinions are appreciated. also the anemone appears to have mucous stretched between its tentacles across its mouth. Please tell me this is not my worst fear (chemical warfare) happening already.


ps i am very aware of how large the sailfin tang gets and have all intentions of getting him to a larger home when he outgrows my tank.

[Parrothead]

Vio,

First off thank you for recognizing the limitations of you tank and the sailfin tang, good job

Just one piece of advice, research everything you would like to add to you tank before you buy them, you did not list the sp. of your anemone so it is kinda hard to say, but alot of anemones sold in the trade need quite large aquariums themselves as they can become quite large, quite quickly and most will make a snack of any small fish thats gets to close. Also the mucus type stuff you are seeing is probably normal discharge, anemones let you know when they are expiring, it ain't pretty, also with the hammer and anemome I would move the hammer and hope that the anemone has indeed found it's happy place, they can and will travel till they are happy.

[Steve McKay]

Vio,long time no hear.Can't really offer any advice on this subject,but I'm glad to hear the tank is doing well.

[vio]

sorry i did not specify but the species is entacmaea quadricolor. and more specifically the green bulbs with a reddish brown foot. he is on the move since i added him and i moved the frogspawn and hammer coral out of his path. the only thing in his way is some pulsing xenia which i cannot move. i doubt the xenia would be the end of this anemone and i am not even sure he will reach the xenia. wish me luck and post any opinions or suggestions on anything that relates to this.



ps thanks steve, the tank is doing great. reeflands helped instill the patience in me required for this hobby. this is the ultimate resource.

[Steve McKay]

Photos,please.

[Parrothead]

sorry i did not specify but the species is entacmaea quadricolor. and more specifically the green bulbs with a reddish brown foot. he is on the move since i added him and i moved the frogspawn and hammer coral out of his path. the only thing in his way is some pulsing xenia which i cannot move. i doubt the xenia would be the end of this anemone and i am not even sure he will reach the xenia. wish me luck and post any opinions or suggestions on anything that relates to this.



ps thanks steve, the tank is doing great. reeflands helped instill the patience in me required for this hobby. this is the ultimate resource.

I wouldn't worry about the xenia, it's a noxious weed and pretty much impossible to kill

[vio]

well guys i have some horrific news. i woke up this morning and turned the actinics on to see where my new bta had moved too. i never thought of turning off my koralia2 while he was wandering and he was pretty shredded face first into the koralia. not only did i kill him but i probably killed 5sq feet of reef around him just to get him. this makes me want to quit.

[Parrothead]

Sorry to hear that, hang in there we've all had mishaps that knock us back a bit in this hobby, hang in there.

[twisted]

well guys i have some horrific news. i woke up this morning and turned the actinics on to see where my new bta had moved too. i never thought of turning off my koralia2 while he was wandering and he was pretty shredded face first into the koralia. not only did i kill him but i probably killed 5sq feet of reef around him just to get him. this makes me want to quit.

dont get to down on yourself. not too long ago i shredded a beautiful rose bta...one of the most important things ive learned in reefkeeping is this- fish and inverts arent cheap, niether are corals. sometimes when adding new stuff, its quicker and easier to just hold a couple franklins into the air and take a lighter to them. oh, not to make wise cracks but trust me, it wont be the last accident. we are trying to house life that in a way, needs a whole ocean to sustain it

[Parrothead]

we are trying to house life that in a way, needs a whole ocean to sustain it

That is also why it's very important to research each addition to make sure we can care for it as best we can before adding it to our tanks, not saying you were wrong here vio, accidents do and will happen. It's just always good to research and plan ahead.

Don't give up over this mishap

[Steve McKay]

well guys i have some horrific news. i woke up this morning and turned the actinics on to see where my new bta had moved too. i never thought of turning off my koralia2 while he was wandering and he was pretty shredded face first into the koralia. not only did i kill him but i probably killed 5sq feet of reef around him just to get him. this makes me want to quit.

Sorry,to hear about the BTA.You can't quite now,everybody has had accidents.You just have to pick yourself up and keep going.

[Parrothead]

Sorry,to hear about the BTA.You can't quite now,everybody has had accidents.You just have to pick yourself up and keep going.

Yeah, Look at me, I blew up 90 lbs of gulf aquacultured cement

Now my 55 is in sump trianing for a 180, #$it happens. You'll be fine

[zhenya]

well guys i have some horrific news. i woke up this morning and turned the actinics on to see where my new bta had moved too. i never thought of turning off my koralia2 while he was wandering and he was pretty shredded face first into the koralia. not only did i kill him but i probably killed 5sq feet of reef around him just to get him. this makes me want to quit.

Hi vio,

Sorry to hear about your accident with the anemone. Perhaps you didn't kill it? If anything, these anemones are quite resilient, and one of the methods of propagation of this particular anemones is cutting it and letting the cuttings heal. I wouldn't just toss it as yet. Remove it from the powerhead slowly and place it in a clean plastic jar with holes in it (so it sinks) and place this jar somewhere in the tank (bottom preferably). This should give your anemone a chance to heal without being blown off alover the place. If it attaches afterwords to the jar, just let it be until it is healed completely.

HTH.

PS. It may take some time for the anemone to heal, providing that foot was not damaged badly, and some of the tentacles remained. If all of the tentacles were cut off it may take a real long time to regrow them back. Plus you would need to feed this animal by hand in this case, making sure that the food can reach it's mouth.

Oh, and do not give up on your reef tank. We all had mistakes and killed animals because of it. As long as you learn something from it then it is not a total loss.

[vio]

well my tank is doing good still. no nitrate nirite or ammonia spike after the death all my coral looks good and the fish are lovin life. i dont think i will be quitting this time. i couldnt let all my creatures down o and the resale on equipment sucks lol.

zhenya i laid the anemone to rest his foot took the brunt of the accident. it was cut in half as well as his tentacles shredded. about one fourth of him was turning to a clear goo.


i will need to turn that koralia off on the next (if there is one) anemone try.