Anenome Placement Control

[newfish]

Okay, may be a dumb question but is there any way to control where an anemone settles down and stops moving. Mine so far has either stopped behind my LR and facing the Back of the tank. or now it is up by the outtake of my filter. (keeping an eye on it to make sure it stays away from intake)

Any suggestions of how I can keep it to the front or even away from the top part of the tank.

[flowerseller]

tagging along......

 

otherwise,

 

Aquascape so your tank to be viewed from all four sides.

It will always be in one of them at one point or another.

[davelin315]

Here's an educated guess, but could be very wrong. I am making some assumptions here.

 

I think that they gravitate towards where they will receive the type of flow that they want and also to where they will receive the lighting they want. I think that if you have an area where the flow is regular and not turbulent, they will gravitate towards there. They are filter feeders and so place themselves where food will drift into them. I think this is why they move towards overflows and bulkheads. This is where the water is always passing by at a steady and non-turbulent flow. I would think that when they crawl in back, it's actually got more to do with the fact that they are trying to find a place where they can establish their base and then reach out towards what they need. The fronts of our reefs are typically MUCH more turbulent than anywhere in the back. Mine have found areas where they can either stretch out towards areas of higher flow but then pull back into areas of lower but steady flow, or are in areas of lower flow in general. The bases of powerheads and suction areas allows them to accomplish the former.

[lancer99]

newfish,

 

If you have any kind of changing currents in your tank (wavemaker, scwd etc.) I would suggest you turn them off. With the current steady, the nem will be able to find a place it likes & settle. Once settled, you can switch the changing current back on, and it's likely to stay.........at least that worked for me, although it still took my LTA 12 days to anchor itself

 

-R

[jamesbuf]

I would also be careful with any powerheads in the tank until the anem finds a spot it likes. I made the mistake of thinking that my GBTA couldn't migrate all the way to the other side of the tank in an overnight period. Man was I wrong. I woke up to a half-diced anem. Luckily I had over 200 gallon of water back then to dilute the effect. My skimmer went nuts. I'd be careful of those canister filter intakes as well.

 

I've found luck with looking through my Liverock and finding a piece with a nice groove or hole in it. Then try to plug the anemones foot into that hole. I would turn off all the flow in your tank so the anemone can attach itself into the hole. I've found that if the anemone has its foot really deeply attached, its less likely to migrate. Then give the anem a few days to see if it'll stay put, and if it does, place the rock wherever you want in your tank.

[gastone]

tagging along......

 

otherwise,

 

Aquascape so your tank to be viewed from all four sides.

It will always be in one of them at one point or another.

 

 

Chip, have you ever tried toothpicks or skewers to keep them in place?

 

G.

[lancer99]

How about aquascaping putty?

 

James makes a good point...I put those intake screener thingies on all my powerheads, then foam sleeves over the intake screener thingies. There wasn't much I could do with my modded MJ1200, so I rubber-banded some fiberglass window screening around it.

 

Ten seconds after I placed the 'nem in the tank, it was stuck to the side of the MJ1200...but seems to be no worse for the wear....now that it has settled I've removed the foam sleeves.

 

Don't follow James' advice if it's an LTA, it won't like that

 

 

-R

[newfish]

How about aquascaping putty?

 

James makes a good point...I put those intake screener thingies on all my powerheads, then foam sleeves over the intake screener thingies. There wasn't much I could do with my modded MJ1200, so I rubber-banded some fiberglass window screening around it.

 

Ten seconds after I placed the 'nem in the tank, it was stuck to the side of the MJ1200...but seems to be no worse for the wear....now that it has settled I've removed the foam sleeves.

 

Don't follow James' advice if it's an LTA, it won't like that

-R

 

Its a GBTA, here is where it is right now and In my opinion it doesnt look as good as it did when it was at the bottom of the tank.

 

 

[FishWife]

We found that our anem wanted to go to the back, too. I was afraid I'd not be able to feed it, so for a few days, we just rotated the rock to the front. Every night, it moved. Eventually, though, it anchored where 1) there was a crack for it to retreat into and 2) it could expand out into the light. I purposefully put rock around it such that these two requirements were met, and it seemed to be fine with that.

 

HTH

[newfish]

We found that our anem wanted to go to the back, too. I was afraid I'd not be able to feed it, so for a few days, we just rotated the rock to the front. Every night, it moved. Eventually, though, it anchored where 1) there was a crack for it to retreat into and 2) it could expand out into the light. I purposefully put rock around it such that these two requirements were met, and it seemed to be fine with that.

 

HTH

 

 

I will have to give that a try probably, I need to get a couple more pieces of LR though, The current setup I dont have an Anchor.

[traveller7]

Its a GBTA, here is where it is right now and In my opinion it doesnt look as good as it did when it was at the bottom of the tank.

Looks like a 3" clay flower pot with good sized chunk of live rock in it would do the trick.

 

Place flower pot on the sand(BTAs prefer not to let go of hard substrate and tend to avoid sand unless something is wrong), place chunk of LR inside(wedge it so it does not move easily), handle the anemone a bit so it deflates, place it foot down into the pot as low as it can go without smashing it.

 

The idea is to give the anemone place to extend the base of it's foot and attach in a protected location. It should then reach toward light during the day and contract slightly over night. During the settling in process it may wander in and out of the flowerpot, but should find it's way back in as long as the pot is full surrounded by sand and the lighting/water conditions are not so irritating it lets go of the pot to go tumbling.

 

fwiw: Nice benefit of a flower pot, you can relocate it, bury it in the LR pile later, clowns breed well in flower pots, etc.

 

btw: You mention it does not look as good, is it losing color or getting lighter brown? It appears a bit bleached from the pictures.

[newfish]

What is the easiest way to get the anemone off of the glass. It seems to be onthere pretty good.

I am trying right now to put the current flow at it to see if it will move from that spot.

Any other suggestions

[traveller7]

What is the easiest way to get the anemone off of the glass. It seems to be onthere pretty good.

I am trying right now to put the current flow at it to see if it will move from that spot.

Any other suggestions

Glass? Old credit card held at a 30 degree angle to start, once an edge releases slip a finger under the foot and tickle the areas it is attached until it releases completely.

 

A BTA on the move will already be "loosely" attached at the leading edge(the direction it is moving in) if you move quickly you can even get them off rock with such a start.

[newfish]

That worked. Now if I can just get it to stay put.

[traveller7]

That worked. Now if I can just get it to stay put.

Ah, mistaken expectation. The goal is to get it to wander continually in the area of your choosing ;>)

[rsaavedra]

I'm getting a little off track here and I don't want you to be offended by what I'm going to say but your tank is way to young for you to start doing things of certain high levels of expertise. I mean: 1. your tank says is 30G and you have a hippo tang there wether is 1/2" or a little bigger that is no place for a fish that requires at least 75G of tank room and that it will rather sooner than later outgrow your tank, 2. you have a BTA in a tank that isn't mature, 3. you don't have an adequate skimmer to keep your water in the pristine conditions that an anemone requires, 4. you have a clam that follows the water quality rule mentioned above and is that clam epoxyied to the rock? (no, no, no your damaging that clam), 5. you keep ignoring and blowing off the advice in other threads from people who have been in the hobby for many many years and are trying to help you through establishing a healthy tank, we are not trying to hold you back, we just want to make sure your tank becomes solid as a rock so you can create an awesome enviroment for your critters. This hobby takes alot of patience and is for a reason, remember "nothing good happens on a reef tank when you rush it". Remember that this hobby is not about a wow effect or to impress the people but more like creating, understanding and more importatntly conserving the reef eco-system through propagation.

 

As I said before I'm not trying to hold you back or insult you, I just want to help you understand and help you create a solid eco-system and then you can make it as bad-arse as you want. Once you got the knowledge the sky is the limit. If you have any questions or need help feel free to let me know and I'll do my best to answer and if I don't have the answer I know who the right person to ask will be.

 

Raf

Edited February 10, 2008 by rsaavedra

[newfish]

I'm getting a little off track here and I don't want you to be offended by what I'm going to say but your tank is way to young for you to start doing things of certain high levels of expertise. I mean: 1. your tank says is 30G and you have a hippo tang there wether is 1/2" or a little bigger that is no place for a fish that requires at least 75G of tank room and that it will rather sooner than later outgrow your tank, 2. you have a BTA in a tank that isn't mature, 3. you don't have an adequate skimmer to keep your water in the pristine conditions that an anemone requires, 4. you have a clam that follows the water quality rule mentioned above and is that clam epoxyied to the rock? (no, no, no your damaging that clam), 5. you keep ignoring and blowing off the advice in other threads from people who have been in the hobby for many many years and are trying to help you through establishing a healthy tank, we are not trying to hold you back, we just want to make sure your tank becomes solid as a rock so you can create an awesome enviroment for your critters. This hobby takes alot of patience and is for a reason, remember "nothing good happens on a reef tank when you rush it". Remember that this hobby is not about a wow effect or to impress the people but more like creating, understanding and more importatntly conserving the reef eco-system through propagation.

 

As I said before I'm not trying to hold you back or insult you, I just want to help you understand and help you create a solid eco-system and then you can make it as bad-arse as you want. Once you got the knowledge the sky is the limit. If you have any questions or need help feel free to let me know and I'll do my best to answer and if I don't have the answer I know who the right person to ask will be.

 

Raf

 

1. I just got a better skimmer today to set up. So no worries there.

2. The clam is NOT epoxyied to the rock. It is attached to a disk that i have placed on the rock.

3. Yes I know that the tang is SUPPOSED to be in a bigger tank and as I have told many others, It is doing great right now and if it gets to big or if I notice that it is having troubles I will gladly rehome it to a bigger aquarium.

4. What do you mean by the anemone doesnt look "Mature"

 

I appreciate all the concern and I reallize that I made some inpatient mistakes. I am trying to fix as many of them as I can. Everything is doing great so far with no problems yet(not saying that there wont be any).

As you guys are asking me to be patient, Please be patient with me as I try to correct some of my things.

 

Thanks again for all the suggestions and I appreciate all the help

Josh

[trble81]

4. What do you mean by the anemone doesnt look "Mature"

 

 

Josh,

 

I think what Raf means is that the tank that the anemone is in isn't mature, not the animal itself.

[zotzer]

 

3. Yes I know that the tang is SUPPOSED to be in a bigger tank and as I have told many others, It is doing great right now and if it gets to big or if I notice that it is having troubles I will gladly rehome it to a bigger aquarium.

 

Josh,

It only becomes a matter of "IF" because the fish could very well die from stress before it gets too big for the tank. It WILL get too big for the tank if it survives, and as Raf said, that will happen sooner rather than later. As attached as you are to that fish now, imagine how hard it will be to give him up two or three months from now.

 

That's all we are trying to say. Seriously, I am not normally the fish police....but this is a bad situation for both you and that hippo, whether you want to agree with it or not.

Tracy