Haddoni Anemone

[JGoslee]

Looks like I have a new haddoni carpet anemone. I came home yesterday and my girl told me to look in my fish only tank. Apparently when she was at the lfs buying some supplies she decided to buy a 6" teal haddoni and a 3" yellow stripe maroon clownfish. So now I need to learn everything I can about taking care of anemones. If someone could help me out with basic info and advise that would be great. The tank is a 120gal 4'x2'x2'. The lighting is 4x54watt HO t5's with independent reflectors. Inhabitants are 8" lunar wrasse, 28" zebra moray eel, 5" sailfin tang. Thanks

 

[ahayes13]

very cool. i think the carpets are really neat.
heres a lil general info. i dont have any experience myself or i would offer it....

Stichodactyla haddoni

Difficulty: Medium to difficult
Lighting: High, metal halides strongly suggested for long term success.
Aggression: Can be very aggressive, capable of catching and eating fish
Size: Can grow to 24" or more in diameter
Hardiness: medium, hardy under proper conditions
Growth Rate: medium overall, rapid growth spurts
Availability: common although semi-expensive

moderate indirect water flow. if they are not happy where they are they will move.

Krill to large shrimp can make a meal - some aquarists use the length of the anemone's mouth as the upper limit for food particle size (e.g. if your anemone's mouth is 3/4" wide you should chop the food into chunks no larger than 3/4". The more they are fed, the more they grow

 

[gflat65]

Watch smaller fish with a carpet (mandarins, etc.). They tend to get gobbled up. Find a spot yopu like it to be and take a picture in case it decides it doesn't like your choice. No personal experience with a carpet, but other anemones walk when they don't like the location. You can feed krill, or just let it use light.

 

[JGoslee]

Thanks for the info guys. So far it looks healthy. The mouth is sometimes open I'm not sure if that is bad.
It ate a crayfish that Steve the eel missed the first night I had it which was pretty cool to watch.

 

[Ladipyg]

A mouth open or gaping is not a good sign. Are the tentacles "sticky"? If it ate, that's a good sign. Did it catch the food and move it towards it's mouth or did the food just land in it's mouth. It will probably move up in the tank if you are using T5's. How old is your tank? Most people don't put nem's in a tank until its a least a year old, 18 months is better. I have rescued many, many anemones over the years in this hobby. Once you get them settled in, they do fine. It's finding a healthy one in the first place that can be difficult.

 

[JGoslee]

A mouth open or gaping is not a good sign. Are the tentacles "sticky"?

The mouth isn't always open but it has been a few times when I walked by the tank this weekend. Yes the tenticles are sticky.

If it ate, that's a good sign. Did it catch the food and move it towards it's mouth or did the food just land in it's mouth.

It did catch the crayfish and move it to the mouth.

It will probably move up in the tank if you are using T5's. How old is your tank? Most people don't put nem's in a tank until its a least a year old, 18 months is better. I have rescued many, many anemones over the years in this hobby. Once you get them settled in, they do fine. It's finding a healthy one in the first place that can be difficult.

The tank is about 6 months old. Should I move it up on the rockwork or let it move on it's own?

 

[Ladipyg]

The reason it is said to wait longer to put an anemone in a tank is because of subtle changes your tank is going thru as it settles in. No big swings of nitrate, nitrite or ammonia but little things that mean your tank has really taken hold and settled in. This is not hard and fast, just a guidline and there have been people who put anemones in earlier and do fine. They are sensitive to water conditions...keep up with water changes. I have no doubt with a 28" zebra moray, you have a lot of waste in the tank...water changes are a must to eliminate the problem. Do your testing, keep your parameters as close to zero as possible.
As for feeding, I have never fed chunks of anything to my anemones...in the wild, they very rarely catch any large pieces of fish, shrimp etc. In home tanks they catch more fish than they would in the wild...it's cause a tank is so much smaller. The clown hosting in them may bring pieces of food back to feed it (mine do) but again, they are small pieces. If it needs more light, it will move on it's own, until if finds a spot with lighting and flow that makes it happy.
If you notice it losing its grip, mouth always gaping, its tentacles losing their stick, keep a close eye on it...if it dies in the tank it can foul things up pretty bad.
Also, if you have powerhead in the tank for flow, make sure there is something like a sponge or grate covering the intake as anemones and powerheads don't mix.
Good luck.

 

[JGoslee]

I just checked on it and the mouth was open and it was smaller than usual. I checked it's tentacles and they were really sticky. I actually had a hard time getting my finger back.

 

[Ladipyg]

That's a good sign...as long as it's really sticky (and Haddoni's are) it is doing fine.

 

[Haddonis Reef]

Id watch that maroon clown they can be pretty tough on anemones.
Id say that Ladipyg has covered most everything else. The one thing i do w/ my carpets is soak there food in some type of vitamin supplement. good luck

 

[sleeper]

I have had a couple and the best advice I can give is to keep your tank as stable as possible. Cover your powerheads as mentioned before and just let it find its own happy place. Hopefully this will be in plane view. Once it gets its foot attached trying to move it is very hard on them. I had long tenticle nems that are pretty hardy but good lighting and I fed a krill every few weeks when I was feeling generous and they did great. I got rid of them when I upgraded tanks because I figured the cycle would surely do them in. Congrats on the addition!

 

[GHOST]

They can be tricky at first but once they attach there nice to look at. Looking forward on seeing some pix!!!