Anenome Hangs Upside Down

dhardy · Mar 6, 2010

Was curious if anyone has experience this and if I should worry or try to reposition it or not. I know they move alot but it has been in this spot and hanging for a few days now, he has been in the tank just over a week. I am not sure if maybe its getting annoyed by the recent outbreak of hair algae. Any insight would be great, thanks in advance.

ficklefins · Mar 6, 2010

Is it a BTA and do you have a picture? Is it still healthy looking? Hanging isn't really a description that provides a lot of information.

dhardy · Mar 6, 2010

It's a sebae and it seems healthy, it ate when I feed it this morning and seems t stay expanded most of the time.

Sorry the pictures are not great quality, I couldn't find our camera so I used my phone.

ficklefins · Mar 6, 2010

Where to start:

- Your Sebae might be a Condylactis. Sebaes are normally sand dwelling anemones and normally do not reside on rocks. Sebaes also have dimple like dots on their stalks.
- Whatever it is it looks very unhappy. Unfortunately it looks like it is bleached, and the fact that the foot isn't staying on the rocks leads me to believe it isn't happy.
- What lights do you have in the tank?
- What is causing your hair algae plague?
- Do not move the anemone, it can change it's location on its own.

You will want to find out what is causing your hair algae problem because your water quality might be causing this anemone to be unhappy.

Here is a good article about anemones:
CarlosReef.com

dhardy · Mar 6, 2010

After looking at images on google it does resemble the Condylactis except it's white, I assume thats where the bleaching comes into play. When I purchased it at one of my local fish stores it was labeled sebae (guess I won't be gong back there.)

As for the algae problem, it is going away fairly quickly with my recent skimmer purchase. I believe my sand sifting starfish has passed as I havnt seen it recently. I seached for it everywhere except deep in the sand for fear of causing to much commotion and releasing all the excess nutrients that the sand holds.

I have four power compacts for lighting currently, I am in the process of upgrading to mh but having trouble locating one that will fit my tank.

ficklefins · Mar 6, 2010

It sounds like you are on your way to turning things around. If I were you, I would take that anemone back to the LFS and ask for your money back or for store credit.

Your clowns may or may not take to a condy, mainly because those anemones are from the atlantic and not a natural clownfish host. But that doesn't at all mean that they won't go for it. I would personally focus on getting your tank in a better state before buying an anemone. Your clowns can live without one and once your tank is clean and stable things will be a lot easier.

dhardy · Mar 6, 2010

Unfortuneately the LFS won't take it back, it states on the receipt no returns/exchanges.

As for not needing the anenome and waiting till the tank is stable. I had thought it was stable like I mentioned in a prior post the algae outbreak happened after I added the anenome.

Do you have any suggestions on what I can do to help it during this rough time?

ficklefins · Mar 6, 2010

Condys are really hardy anemones so I would leave it alone and focus on the tank. Can you provide some information about your tank, filtration system, and anything else. Off the top of my head the most important thing would be to get your water quality in good shape and possibly add some carbon to take care of any issues with a dead starfish in the tank.

knucklehead · Mar 6, 2010

i suggest going out and getting a two little fishes reactor and run some phosban to suck up them nutrients to starve out the algae

dhardy · Mar 6, 2010

37G Tank with a 20G refug. About 50 pounds of live rock, and a SeaStorm 75 protein skimmer. Im not sure which types of plants/algaes are growing in the refug it wasnt labeled when I purchased it from a different LFS (the one I usually go to).

Also now that I am on my comp and not posting from my phone I went back to google and searched for Condylactis and Sebae images, based on some of the photos they can be hard to tell apart any insight on a way to distinguish the two?