# Anemone Help



## KeMo (Sep 3, 2010)

Ok so a good friend of mine has had a Reeftank going for about 2 months. 
He went and bought an anemone . I told him to wait at least 6 months to a year before getting one aswell as upgrading his lights. Well the dumb ass when out and got one anyway. It has been bleached. To look @ it it is white but does have alot of green in it. After I told him this he got mad and said that he was just going to take it out and pitch it in the trash. 
So I told him to give it to me as i will try and bring it back to health. 
I cant just let him toss it out. So I went to his house this morning and got the poor guy. 
He is moving around and already took some silver sides. Anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks for reading Everyone
Cheers.


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

Awwww, poor little thing :-(
http://www.karensroseanemones.net/ is a great source for info...


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

It can take some time, even in perfect conditions, for it to come back. Hopefully it stops moving around and finds a cozy place, from there try feeding it twice a week or so with silversides. Aside from that, just wait and see


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## Big Ray (Dec 8, 2009)

I have kept the hardest to keep anemones in nano tanks after 14 days of cycle ... anemones are REALLY not hard to keep ...

its moving = foot is working

its eating = enough response and the anemone is healthy, 

color change in anemone can be due to ALOT of factors, dont wanna get into the science of it, but it is all about how the proteins inside the anemone are excited via the lighting and water conditions and .... which can come back ASAP, or can never come back, depending on environment and food. if you want your anemone to color up, do not feed the poor guy silver side ! colorless freshwater fish !! give it good food like PE mysis soaked in caretonoids, of if u REALLY want it to color up, give it antioxidants !!! 

I have been that "Dumb ass" many times, according to others, and have pulled it off and know more than them now so .... We simply do not know enough about this hobby to be able to call someone a dumb ass, the 6 month guide line is there, for ppl who take 6 months to figure you top off salt water tank with RO/DI water, not salt water. its the reefer, not the reef 

good luck.


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## Dax (Sep 29, 2010)

I've been asking a lot of questions about the same subject as I got one when I bought an exisiting setup and have 0 experience. Check out the thread by Big Ray on Anemones in here... lot of info.

Bleaching is very bad.... but I think you know that. Means that food source from light is depleted and may take a long time to come back.

Long story short, about the only thing you can do is make sure all the conditions are good... i.e. good levels, good flow, good light. If you have a reef setup it should already be there. Don't feed too much (twice a week max). I'm new at this and always want to be doing something, but unfortunately "wait and see" is what I get.

Big Caution: If you have corals, this thing might move around and sting(kill) them. Also, if it starts to go downhill, make sure you get it out quickly because anemones apparently release a lot of toxins when they are going downhill and may crash your tank.

Commend your effort on saving this thing ... just be careful.


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## KeMo (Sep 3, 2010)

As for the bleaching. Did this happen because of the state it was shipped in or cared for. It was like this when my friend got it. I have read that they can looked bleached due to lights but I have also read that people put them in bleach to whiten them up ? Is this true ?
his foot is a light brown. He is white with a hint of green throughout and has pink tips. Ok so dont feed it silver's got it. What the best to feed it ?
Should I get some fresh Squid from work ? soak it in antioxidants ? the food of course..


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## Big Ray (Dec 8, 2009)

yea they do alot of unhumane things with anemones, they even Die anemones !!! (color them, as of droping it in a pint of oil based color LOL!)

if your water quality is good, and other creatures in your tank are fine, he will recover as well. 

I feed mine PE mysis .. just like all other fish.


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## caker_chris (Apr 22, 2010)

I feed mine a mixture of mysis and brine. As well as I also take raw frozen shrimp from the grocery store and chop that up nice and feed as well.

They love it.


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## Big Ray (Dec 8, 2009)

caker_chris said:


> I feed mine a mixture of mysis and brine. As well as I also take raw frozen shrimp from the grocery store and chop that up nice and feed as well.
> 
> They love it.


+1 on brine shrimp, although low in nutritional value, they contain color pigments which will help anemone color up.


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

Good Site

http://www.karensroseanemones.net/bleachedinthestore.htm


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## KeMo (Sep 3, 2010)

So the Anemone has not really moved much anymore. It is staying in one spot. Today it seems to have a clear or white slime coming off of it. From what i have read is this thing Dieing . When I go to feed it it retracts its tentacles when the food hits it almost like it its scared of the food .


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## marblerye (Jul 25, 2010)

well all anemones are unique i guess because mines (rbta) love scallop soaked in selcon.. it does things to it that I have never seen before like inflate, then bubble up very sharply like spikes and the color that appears the next day is just beautiful! i've always thought if anemones have orgasms that's what it'd look like.. i also had some gbta that were a dirty brown color when i got them, and after 2 months of feeding it fresh scallop and shrimp it actually shifted color to a nice neon green. it also split twice in 3 months. 

way back when i got my first anemone, i read online from various sources that you do not want to feed your anemone within a week of acclimating it. i got a little excited and tried feeding it on the third day and it got so pissed off it deflated and started to move for 4 days.. after it settled all i did was keep the water quality very good and waited exactly one week once it settled. it then took food willingly and at times wouldn't let go of the turkey baster when feeding it mysis shrimp.


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## Dax (Sep 29, 2010)

I picked up a packet of frozen silverfish from the food market and tried it. The silverfish are slighly bigger than the size of a middle finger. I didn't cut it up to see how big a piece it could handle. The anemone grabbed the whole thing and within a coupe of minutes it was all gone. Hard to see with that many tentacles closing in. A few days later a tried a finger sized whole shrimp. All gone. Before this I was giving it the cubed frozen mysis you find at BA. Very small pieces and messy.

So anyone have any advice on how much to feed when the food all disappears? i.e. do you keep feeding till it stops eating?


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

The website i linked to a few days ago has this information...

It suggests smaller pieces of fish fed in intervals until it stops taking it...

Whole fish = long time to digest and requiring to much energy to process... like a human eating something whole...


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## marblerye (Jul 25, 2010)

Careful not to go overboard with feeding the anemone.. usually when keeping an anemone a strong protein skimmer is required because they give off so much waste that some people consider it the equivalent of 4 or 5 fish in the tank. It can easily foul up your water or add to the problem significantly. I know a healthy anemone is a good anemone, but until the nitrate situation is taken care of, it may be a problem. If it starts denying food always remove immediately. 

And if you buy fish from the grocer, make sure it is raw, uncooked, fresh, not seasoned or have any preservatives and washed thoroughly. Good place to buy fresh fish is B&T supermarket, an Asian supermarket across from big al's in Vaughan because of the prices.. I get my scallop there because they charge 8.99 per lb for fresh scallop vs 14.99 at highland farms (not so fresh) or metro (10.99 - frozen). Bit tough to buy just one or two pieces because weighing that is a nightmare but it's all the more fresh; I buy it only when i need it and freeze the portions which last me 2-3 weeks.


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## marblerye (Jul 25, 2010)

Also, Karen's anemone website is an excellent resource. I've read her site recently and I think you'll find the section labelled 'My Secret' to be a very interesting read. Sumpless, refugiumless (seperate), and TONS of anemones. LR, LS, and feather caulerpa plus protein skimmer is her method.. adding caulerpa and later deciding you don't want it will be a nightmare due to the rooting nature of that macro-algae. But she's got things balanced pretty well, as her tanks pretty much act like one whole big refugium anyway..


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## Dax (Sep 29, 2010)

Yep, Karen's site is very informative. Lots of good ideas and inspiring.

B&Ts is an excellent place to pickup raw, unseasoned stuff. That's where I got my silverfish and shrimp. T&T is another place similar to this and much larger, with various locations.

I haven't seen my anemone reject or expel any noticeable amounts of waste so far. There was only the one time where it released a brown dried stringy substance I expect was the waste. It got on the rocks and immediately there were a bunch of critters on it, so I let it be.


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