My anemone has a dirty foot... Is this normal? Help :)

[Lemony Lemons]

Hey all, I've been searching for this for two hours now and cannot find anything similar to coarse this to. It's probably not even a big deal but I'd rather be cautious than ignore things!

I noticed my anemone has some green junk stuck to his foot, I was able to get a picture and good look at it this morning when the lights came on and he opened up. Now that I'm looking at it, it looks like the seaweed from the clip. If it is, is this something I should bother with, or leave it alone? I've never seen him get anything stuck to his base before so I'm just worried.

Here's the pic and my tank specs:

30g, 1 clown, 1 lta, 1 starry blenny. Ph 8.1, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 3, salinity is 1.026, 27lbs live rock, 2-3" live sand, hydor koralia 600 pump, eshopps psk-75h skimmer (hob no sump as of yet - working on it!), marineland penguin 350 w/2 biowheels, coralife quad t5 (w 2 actinic bulbs) and a marineland 17" submersible led (this one doesn't give off a great amount of light, but it's good for shadowed places).


If anyone has any advice, opinions, critiques, anything! Please let me know - I love r2r everyone's got tons of advice, much appreciated!

 

[Tahoe61]

It's not something that would concern me. The Anemone looks otherwise healthy, I would not intervene. You can bet in the wild they get all kind of debris stuck to or surrounding the base, and it does look like a piece of nori.

 

[Trex]

Couple of things --- M.doreensis (( LTA )) are sandbed dwelling anemones, and yours is a bit bleached.

 

[Lemony Lemons]

Yeah. I placed him in the sand when I first got him and he moved to the rock, he's been there for 2 weeks now. It's hard to see in the picture, he was just opening up when I snapped it but his foot goes into a bottomless hole about 2" deep into the rock , I guess he likes it? He's been that color since I got him 3 weeks ago. I have been reading on bleached anemones and thought he might be, he eats well and the clown hosts him too.. What were the other things? You said a few things but listed one.. I'm interested to hear the other suggestions too.

 

[Trex]

The 2 were it being on the rocks --- suspect the lack of light is causing this --- and it being bleached. It may or may not fully regain its zoax with the current light set up.

Does that fixture have individual reflectors?

 

[Lemony Lemons]

Sorry, misread your original post. And yes it does have individual reflectors. Should I replace one of the actinic bulbs with a third 10,000K? Or both the actinic? Do you think that would help with the lighting? When I first got this tank it had fluorescents on it, I replaced those with the t5's and the tank is SO MUCH brighter now, there are hardly any shadwed areas. The tank is maybe 16" deep from fixture to the sand at its lowest point.

 

[Lemony Lemons]

The 2 were it being on the rocks --- suspect the lack of light is causing this --- and it being bleached. It may or may not fully regain its zoax with the current light set up.

Does that fixture have individual reflectors?

I'm running to the Lfs now, going to grab another bulb to replace one of the actinic and some silversides for the anemone. I called the Lfs and spoke to the owner, he said it's not bad that they sell them white because they're prettier that way? My anemone was in there for a week, I told them I wanted to watch it before I bought it.. It seemed healthy there. The owner wasn't there when I bought it, but telling me he sells them that was on purpose isn't right.

Hopefully I can successfully get him back to the norm, everything else about him seems great, he eats, has his host and his tentacles are nice and long.

 

[Trex]

If you can, pick up some ATI lamps --- the blue+ have great PAR.

Personally, I would avoid silversides. Myself and other experienced anemone keepers have had issues with them. Lost an otherwise healthy H. malu to one. Frozen (( thawed )) krill is better, IMO.

In time, your anemone should color up, if given the right conditions. Years ago I had one go from this;

To this this over the course of a couple of months,

 

[bairdimusprime]

Trex is probably one of the most helpful individuals you will ever meet when it comes to anemone care, he's helped me out plenty of times in the past 4 years
+1 on the avoid silversides. I myself dice fresh scallops and my nems love them
best of luck!

 

[Lemony Lemons]

If you can, pick up some ATI lamps --- the blue+ have great PAR.

Personally, I would avoid silversides. Myself and other experienced anemone keepers have had issues with them. Lost an otherwise healthy H. malu to one. Frozen (( thawed )) krill is better, IMO.

In time, your anemone should color up, if given the right conditions. Years ago I had one go from this;

To this this over the course of a couple of months,

Ok I went to the store, got krill - he ate em right up, also got a coralife bulb because it was all they had at this store in my size... 10 bucks for a 10k daylight... Better than the actinic for now, I ordered the ati online so when that comes in the mail I'll replace them.

I can't believe your pictures are the same anemone! Gives me hope! I'm patient, I would love for mine to look that healthy ASAP!

I don't want to spend a fortune on fixtures etc for this tank since I plan on using it as a qt tank for the big tank I plan on buying when my tax return comes in... Figured if I can get the 30g running until then without failing at it, I'll treat myself to the whole setup for a big one... I appreciate the help a ton!