Anemone moved

Steph and I purchased a long Tentacle Anemone at the frag swap in Lancaster Pa, two weeks ago. We were told he was 5 years old and had been attached to the same rock for a very long time. We brough him and his rock home and placed him in our tank. He seemed happy from the start.

Yesterday I decided to install a glass lid on our tank because I was tired of constantly replacign water due to evaporation and splash. I hung our light above the glass lid at the same distance from the tank that we had it originally.

Today, when we turned on the lights we realized that the anemone had moved from his rock and relocted himself in between a few rocks close by. This new location does look like it will provide better protection for his foot but it worries me that he moved.

We use test strips for measuring our params and I've been monitoring it quite closely since we added him last week. To verify that our test strips were accurate I took a water sample to That Fish Place and had them test the Nitrates, Phosphates, and PH, everything was zero or very close to it, which is what my test strips have been indicating. Sorry my PH was around 8.2, it seemed to drop a little the other day, so I did add some PH buffer.

So, all this being said, should we be worried that this guy decided to up and move off of a rock he's been attached to for several years? Otherwise he looks pretty happy. Are there other params we should be checking, in addition to nitrates, PH, and phosphates?

We really like this guy and our Clowns keep getting closer and closer. I don't want to kill a 5 year old animal.

thanks,
Stan

I wouldnt be worried that it moved. Its pretty common for something that can move to move when its environment is changed. Just make sure that any pump intakes are covered in case it moves again.

Also be very careful with PH buffers. Any time you try to adjust PH what you are actually doing is raising Alk so if your not careful your going to slowly skyrocket your Alk

Yup moving around every once in a while is just normal for a nem, especially a new one...

A couple of things could have motivated him to move
- he finally got comfortable in your tank, so decided it was time to find the perfect flow/light combination
- adding the glass lid changed the lighting just a little bit, but enough for him to notice

Be sure you have a good amount of surface agitation in your tank that way oxygen levels stay up. Often people with lids on their tanks get "bound up with CO2" as not enough gas exchange occurs at the water's surface. Pointing a powerhead up towards the surface of your water and using your skimmer helps reduce the risk of this happening.

I'd also be interested to know how much a glass lid will affect light penetration and PAR.

Remember that although it's a PIA to have to top off every day or every other day - evaporation is a good thing for our tanks. It's how they displace heat. Montir your temp carefully with the lid as you're probably going to notice an increase in overall temp now.

As far as the nem moving it's really quite common. It may not have moved in 5 years in the previous owners tank but that's probably because the flow, the light, and the food supply didn't change in the old tank either. it's just trying to find the perfect spot to set it's foot and call it home.

This is Stephenie. Im also concerned about the bas of his tenacles. They have been white for several days now and it was before we put the lid on it. I just wanna make sure he is ok.. So here is a pic and you can tell me if he looks fine from it.

I wouldnt be worried about the white. It could be that that part of it gets shaded from the light. Everything else looks fine with it.

To me that looks more like a Haitian/condy anemone. Is it rooted on the rocks or in the sand? Are your clowns showing any interest in it/do you have clowns?

I agree with everyone's suggestions/tips - - it's perfectly normal for a nem to move until it finds the perfect spot for lighting, flow and food.........are you reconsidering the lid?

I think it looks just like my Haitian nem. The only nem that hasn't moved on me is my seabe, that one has just grown HUGE.

Do you guys use lids? it seems to block some light, due to reflecting it back at the light. I'm not sure. It does significantly cut down on the water we're losing. We don't have a sump, instead we're using hang on filters and a hang on protien skimmer. we get alot of surface agitation and a splashing, both increase water loss. It's a 45 gallon tank and without the lid we lose at least a gallon a day, sometimes more.

I'm not sure that is a long-tentacle anemone. It looks much more like a Condylactis anemone. A condy will not host clowns (other than rare exceptions).
LTA's are sand-dwelling anemones and should have a 4" substrate to bury their column. The fact that this nem is living in the rocks is another clue that it might not be a LTA.

Check the underside of the oral disk if possible. It this anemone is a long-tentacle then it will have obvious patterns of white spots/bumps called verrucae. A condy will not have these spots.
I hope you have the LTA that you wanted, but I would be surprised. Hopefully you didn't pay too much too for it.

Originally Posted by SandS

Do you guys use lids? it seems to block some light, due to reflecting it back at the light. I'm not sure. It does significantly cut down on the water we're losing. We don't have a sump, instead we're using hang on filters and a hang on protien skimmer. we get alot of surface agitation and a splashing, both increase water loss. It's a 45 gallon tank and without the lid we lose at least a gallon a day, sometimes more.

We dont use lids on any of our tanks. They will block a lot of light.

We have to replace about 7 gallons a day.

Originally Posted by SandS

Do you guys use lids?

I don't use a lid on either of my tanks. I lose about 2 gallons a day in my 75 (which has a 30g open sump and a 20g open fuge). evaporation is your tanks way of keeping cool. Putting a lid on to reduce evaporation means your tank temperature will increase as it has no way of dissipating the heat.

IMO, it's better to have evaporation than it is higher heat, lower oxygenation and lackluster lighting ......if you're worried about possible jumpers, then a screened lid will take care of that! ........did you check the bottom of the anemone yet?