Anemone - Help!

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Ashes

AC Members
Apr 19, 2001
76
0
0
39
Northern NY
I was given an anemone today for my 20g long (soon to be upgraded to a 65 gallon) saltwater tank. The tank's been set up for a few months, with three spotted cardinals, about 20lbs of live rock, a turbo snail, and a couple of itty bitty hermit crabs.

The live rock was supposedly "mostly cured" when we got it, but has since blossomed into life (amazing to watch), with many feather dusters, lots of algae-type plants, a couple of tiny shrimp - not sure what they are, I only see them rarely - and even what appear to be a few small corals, though I'm unsure if these are alive or dead. This astonished me, because our lighting is pretty unimpressive - just lots of natural sunlight and a 20watt flourescent "reef" bulb. Obviously, this was intended to be mainly a FOWLR tank.

However, as I mentioned already, I just received an anemone. I don't know anything about anemones, and am clueless as to what to do with this little guy. The person who gave him to me actually threatened to throw him away (!!!), so of course I took him.

It's only about two and a half inches in diameter. Its body is a reddish color, and its top is a pale pink. The tentacles range from about one-half to an inch in length, and are a little fatter than a toothpick. There are lines radiating from his mouth to where his tentacles start.

I acclimated him using a drip method over the course of about two and a half hours. The water he was in before was very similar to the water he is in now. I believe he is a carpet anemone - we released him into the tank, and after a few minutes of creeping around, he buried his body in the gravel, with just his "head" sticking out. Now, about six hours later, his tentacles are waving and appear to be stretching out a bit. I gave him a tiny bit of krill not too long ago, and he ate it.

I am very aware that the prognosis for an anemone is not good, but I couldn't really say no.

So.... now what?
 

Oliver

Oliver
Jan 17, 2005
424
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0
Perth, Western Australia
it is very hard to give specific information unless we know hat kind it is. it sounds like a boubble tip, aka rose anemone, has it got boubbles on it's tentacles??
 

Ashes

AC Members
Apr 19, 2001
76
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39
Northern NY
I don't really see any structures on its tentacles that might be called "bubbles."

Are there any good websites for identifying anemones?
 

Max

It's me
Jan 26, 2004
2,567
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Mars
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type anemone into google and there will be all sorts of pics. I will say though this guy most likely won't have much of a future. Most anems are have a symbiotic algae that uses full spectrum light to make sugars and help them remove waste from there cells. There should be an anemone article comming in the next few days.
 
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