Long Tentacle anemone moving

[SaltyJZ]

I purchased a lta and put in the tank. Situated it nice and next to liv e rock and sand. This morning o woke up and it had positioned itself between rock and glass. Any suggestions. What is going on. Do I need to move it back. ????? Also I have these tiny little white moving things on the glass and floating in water. Some people said copecods. What are they. Us it good. Levels good. Temp good. All fish happy. Any help??

[Original Fin]

I've moved this thread for you to the Reef Aquarium forum.

Anemones pretty much do what they want, and it's best to leave them alone. If you try grabbing it, poking it, or pulling it off of rocks, you'll stress it, or damage it, and they die pretty easily from acclimation stress.

If it does alright acclimating to your tank, it will move it's tentacles more towards the light, and hopefully it will be better displayed. If it attaches to a rock, and you just don't like the way it's facing, you could simply reposition the whole rock, but the chances of it staying put after that are slim, especially if light level and flow are different in the new position.


You must be new to saltwater if this is your first pod sighting...Welcome to the world of reefkeeping. and welcome to Reefland! Pods are good, by the way.

If it is a new tank, I would say that you're kind of rushing it with the anemone though. They are some of the most difficult tropical marine invertabrates to acclimate and keep alive for very long. The usual advice that experienced folks give is to wait at least a year for your tank to mature before trying to add a nem. That's not to say it can't be done sooner...If you're on top of your waterkeeping skills, and everything has been nice and stabile for a while, that's what really matters. I added a BTA at 6 months, and it was doing great until the 10 month mark when a rogue hitchiker crab came out of the live rock and started tearing it up. The crab didn't kill it directly, but the stress did.

I don't think nems are very beginner friendly, especially if you're trying to keep corals too. If and when they start wandering, they can do a number on your corals as they pretty much sting anything they come in contact with.
I did the same as you and got my first BTA within 2 months of starting my tank. He lasted about three weeks. I think if I really had to have one again, I'd try to do it specifically as an anemone tank, or at least if I was going to mix it in a reef tank, I'd go with a much larger tank than my current 55.

Are you all set on how and what to feed it?

[Original Fin]

They also require intense reef lighting. What king of lighting do you have?

[Reefing Madness]

Try to get him into light water flow with alot of light, put him into a lil crevice and then.....Cross your fingers. If he doesn't like where you put him, he' pack it up and move around the tank until he finds a spot he does like.

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

I vote to leave it. Nems will go wherever they want, until they find a spot they like. After that, they will stay put as long as they are getting what they need ( light, flow, food, etc...). Moving it might do more harm than good ( to the nem, or other livestock). It might even move on its own again after acclimating so try not to worry about it for now. The only time you want to physically move a nem, is when it's directly in harms way ( like near a power head). I got lucky when first got my nem. It stayed where I put it. After I swapped my tank out, I put it on it's own rock, separated from the rest of the rock work.it's still there but moved down to the base of the rock and against the glass. Not my preferred spot but it's happy so that's good enough for me. If it continues to wander and won't settle in, it usually means you're not providing the proper environment and that's not a good thing so keep a close eye on it.