Lost to a powerhead!

[Catpicklesdog]

After all my showing off about how my anemone never moves around my tank - it moved!!!

It started a couple of weeks ago when I found under a rock at the front of the tank, so I moved it to the side which it attached to. It then went in and out of the rock work, which worried me as it was quite dark, bu the anemone always looked inflated, large and healthy and it's mouth wasn't continuously open.

Anyway, I came home from helping out at my LFS yesterday to find it totally stuck inside a Koralia #4. RIP anemone.

I have decided that unless I can get an aquacultured one, I'm going to give anemones a miss!!!

[Rbishop]

Ouch. That really sucks.

[mandy21]

Sorry to hear. These dang anemones need to quit the powerhead loving.

[The Zigman]

I hear about this alot...
Excuse me though, as I only have freshwater (right now) but..
How fast do these guys move anyway? like a snails pace?
Couldn't we use something like a needlepoint screen to fabricate a barrier around the powerhead? I want to start a FOWLR soon, and later make a reef out of it, So I am just getting advice ahead of time...

[lanimret]

I haven't had a problem with my anemone getting near the powerhead at all, i have a koralia 3, but my nudibranch keeps getting sucked into it, though for the moment it seems to have survived these maimings.

Yesterday as a solution I took the fine mesh bag I bought from my LFS for carbon and wrapped it around the koralia like a sock. I zip tied it tightly around the koralia, twisted it tightly around the power chord and ziptied it there, then with it as tight as possible I cut the end (one of the corners) off the front where the outflow of the powerhead comes out. This seems to have not disrupted my flow too much and as far as I can see makes it impossible for anything to actually get sucked into the fan. I'm sure it will be a pain to replace/clean the screen, but better than killing my animals.

My anemone is aquacultured btw, but he moves around quite a bit actually, and as of this morning he is also hiding behind some rocks. He just cloned though so I have a feeling this has something to do with it.

[AnnetteG]

wow, CPD, was this a Rose? I'm sad for you.

You should get one of these. The color is very similar and it never moves at all. No matter how many times I've moved it around the tank.

Course, it doesn't host clowns, but still, it's pretty. The white specks on it are sand from the sleeper gobies.

[Catpicklesdog]

No it wasn't a Rose, but still expensive enough!!!! I think that's a picture of a rock anemone, if so i have quite a few of those. You're right, they don't move, but quite pretty.

[AnnetteG]

yes, it is, I just meant, you should get one this color, since it's close to a rose. Still,I'm sorry for your loss.

[salty420]

i was wondering where this post was, keep forgetting about this section...
so another nem meets it's maker due to power head! im hoping mine learned it's lesson after getting tangled in my maxi-jet because if it didn't it won't survive the koralia's! i did have them covered with media bags zip tied on but they got so dirty so fast that i ended up taking them off.
did the nem get shredded and foul your tank CPD?

[journey0820]

wow, CPD, was this a Rose? I'm sad for you.

You should get one of these. The color is very similar and it never moves at all. No matter how many times I've moved it around the tank.

Course, it doesn't host clowns, but still, it's pretty. The white specks on it are sand from the sleeper gobies.

Ironically, my permanently affixed rock anemone took a little field trip around the rock last night but eventually settle right back where he came from. Worried me though...he was heading straight for the back!

[Catpicklesdog]

[

quote=salty420;1434719]i was wondering where this post was, keep forgetting about this section...
so another nem meets it's maker due to power head! im hoping mine learned it's lesson after getting tangled in my maxi-jet because if it didn't it won't survive the koralia's! i did have them covered with media bags zip tied on but they got so dirty so fast that i ended up taking them off.
did the nem get shredded and foul your tank CPD?[/quote]

It wasn't shredded but a bit torn.

Time for the longer story.

A while back my LFS helped me rescape my tank. Unfortunately during this process the rock with the anemone fell of the other rocks. You guessed it - it landed anemone side down!!!:eek:

Basically, since then it has never been the same:headshake2: and I think my maroon may have been a little bit feisty with it!

The other week it got caught in a powerhead, but I think it had only just happened when I saw it as there was no visible damage.

The anemone started walking around the tank about 3 weeks ago, which is when I started getting worried.

On Monday I came home from helping out at my LFS to find it really caught up in the powerhead with a few bits breaking off, so I removed it and "disposed" of it. Tuesday morning I woke up to find another anemone caught in a powerhead????????? Am assuming it must have ripped in half because I certainly couldn't see a complete foot, although it is hard to inspect them when they're all shrivelled and cheesed off:grinyes:. Anyway, I removed that half and "disposed" of that as well.

Since then I have been keeping a close eye on params, which are as follows

Ammonia = 0
NitrIte = 0
NitrAte = 20 - have now done a 25% water change just to make sure, everything else seems to be OK and my maroon is now hoping between the Xenia, Leather Toadstool and the Anchor coral!!!!

[salty420]

hmm well it makes me feel a bit better that your nem that never walked didn't just start walking for no reason at all - i was getting a bit worried myself... very glad to hear that your params are all basically ok, those nems can sure do nasty things to the tank if they really shred...

[Catpicklesdog]

I finally realised that i never relax when I have a nem in the tank. I had one years ago that died (when I first started and knew nothing!!! my then LFS told me my tank would be OK as I had polyfilter in the tank. Needless to say I lost quite a few fish. I had to sit there and watch a blue cheek Goby roll around in what seemed to be agony. It was horrible and not a sight I can forget. And an experience that has made me very wary and watchful when it comes to anemones. Hence why I'm pretty sure I got it out of there before any damage was done. Plus there is a lot of water in the system and I'd just cleaned the skimmer so it was working at full speed!!!

This was my third anemone and as soon as we dropped it, I've been on tender hooks ever since. Now it's gone I feel I can relax. I'm pretty sure I won't be getting another!!!! My clown is the most active I've ever seen her, trying to make her mind up trying to find a new host!!!

[salty420]

sounds like you'll be better off without the nem in your system CPD :)

[AnnetteG]

CPD, you're making me nervous with that story! I've got a baby GBTA in my tank now. He was on walkabout when I first put him in, but I think that was because of my 20K bulbs. He kept trying to get higher up. Now that I've got new 14ks in there, he appears to be happy sitting about midway up in the tank on a rock I put him on when I dug him out of the top of the overflow where he'd gone in search of more light. He used to always sit with his foot stretched up as far as it would go, looking like a house plant does when it's leaning towards a window. Now he's all settled in and relaxed and his tips are actually bulby sometimes. I only got him because I really would love it if my clown would discover the joy of symbiotic love. LOL She's a tank raised ocellaris though, so I don't know if she will. Maybe I should see if I can swap the nem & his rock for something cool on my reef club board.

[Catpicklesdog]

Annette, don't let my story put you off. There are a lot of people who have kept anemones successfully. I'm just not one of them.:headshake2: If it makes you feel better I do have reasons for losing all of mine:

Reason 1 - Totally inexperienced with a lousy LFS that let me buy an anemone when my tank was 9 weeks old with only fluorescent tubes for lighting (same LFS that let me buy a boxfish in a waaaay too small tank!!!):mad2:

Reason 2 - Anemone had been picked up from supplier at 4am in the morning, was still floating in the bag at my LFS at 1pm, I got it home at 3pm and thought it would be kinder to put it straight in because of the length of time it had had in a bag - Totally wrong!!!!!!! Should have acclimated for an even longer period than normal!!!:wall:

Reason 3 - If you've got a rock with an anemone on it and you drop the rock - you can guarantee it's going to land anemone side down!!!!:eek:

Don't get me wrong, I'm not proud of any of the above, but if anyone can learn from my mistakes then I'm pleased to help:grinyes: