Carpet Anemone "issues"?

[segraves1]

I have a beautiful Saddleback Carpet Anemone (have had it just over a week now). The clown moved in almost instantly and 50%+ of the time the anemone looks really good. It is under a 250Watt 6500K MH with a water temp of around 80degrees and a SG of about 1.025.

The problem is one hour the anemone will be big/full/tight mouth/beautiful looking and the next it will be flat/limp/loose mouth. The clown never leaves it and usually within another hour or so the anemone will be "back up" and looking wonderful. It footed down right away and has never moved (it is in a basicly empty tank (very little sand or live rock) while the new 100gal cycles but the water has absolutly no amonia/nitrate/nitrite (the 20gal it is in had been setup for well over 6months and I have slowly been moving things out of it into the new tank).

So....is this usual?

[graphixx]

how big is the clown in comparison to the anenome, if you get too small of an anenome, the clown will literally beat the anenome to death.

[segraves1]

the anemone could probubly "house" 4+ of my clowns.....my clown can fully hide in one "fold" of her anemone

[dsfdbutterfly]

I don't know if this helps seeing as I've never had a carpet anemone. Mine BTA when first introduced would look great one minute and then next hour would be all curled up. This lasted for a month. The whole time my percs would wait til it would open back up and then go swimming through it again. At one point they were even pulling something from it so it appeared. It's three months now and the darn thing is taking over my 30 gal tank. It only closes once a week or so now. For some reason it just needed more time to adjust to the water or something. As long as your clown doesn't appear to be damaging it and it goes back to normal within a couple of hours I would leave it be and let it adjust.

Angie

[unleashed]

give it some more time to adjust to your tank its still acclimating you also may find tha lowering the temp a bit may help my sebae doesnt like warmer waters it prefers under 80 degrees i try to keep my tank at 77-78. i personally have not owned a carpet either .it may do better in larger tank

[graphixx]

carpet anenomes are beautiful specimens, the one I had was 11 inches across when fully inflated. you want to make sure that he is fed. and they have a tendency to wander. mine would allways cruise around the tank. and then he found a spot he liked and then he stayed put. they are one of the more toxic of anenomes and they pack a PUNCH. like stated above just give him some time and keep an eye on your water, they require very good water with good lighting. good luck.

would sure like a pic of the guy if you got one :D

[segraves1]

guess it really is just me over reacting.....the more I watch it, the less it seems to be "sulking".....

I'll get some pics as soon as it is moved into the new tank (the small one is all overgrown with macros/micros)

[segraves1]

I noticed something really odd today......

when I got up/all morning when the MH light was off the anemone was really open/full....

this afternoon I turned the light on and everything was good for a few hours, but after about 4 hours the anemone was "unhappy" and closed up.....so I turned the light off....

tonight the anemone is back looking really good.....


as I think back, I have seen this happen before (not the first day)....is it possible the anemone could just not be used to the light yet? it was under a 65watt PC at the LFS but is now under a 250watt MH....

[PurpleAardvark]

Carpet anemone's are great. They always have really nice colors and don't move as much as other anemone's. Don't worry about the different patterns of the anemone's size and shape. The onlything you should worry about is rapid color loss, and if it pukes is insides out (sorry couldn't think of a better discription). It is not uncommon for anemone's to change size and shape. They have wierd reactions when going though different light intensities. Some will take days to ajust and some will take months to adjust to your tank. It sounds like you are keeping it alive, and just try to shade it abit to let the anemone adjust. 130pc to 250 MH is a big step. It is like walking out from sunlight up here in WI, amd steping out in sun at the equator. Your eyes and body need time to adjust. It is the same with corals/inverts/ect...
These inverts also have a rought transition to. There path starts at the diver to the warehouse for about 24 hours. then packed and shipped to customs12-24 hours then to a wholesaler 3-6 hours later. After that they are shipped to your store 12-30 hours. So by thee time it gets to your store it has been through 3 rough acclimations in 3-7 days 3/4 of the time in no light. It really tells you how tough these fish, coral, ect.. are but also explains why 5%-25% of a shipment is DOA, and IMO why some stuff is really hard to keep.

[segraves1]

I'm not exactly sure if I would say my anemone has "lost color" or not.....

I seem to remember it being a little more green/silver/gray in the LFS tank (under the PCs) and now (~ two weeks later) it seems more "brown" (still has green to it....) which as I understand the zooalite is actually brown in color (it is also under a 6500K vs. a 10000K/acentic) so I'm thinking as long as it has that brown color at least I know it still has it zooalite/food source....

I tried to feed it (a small piece of shrimp) this morning (after I turned the lights on) but it would not take.....it is still "sticky" to the touch and as I said before, as long as the lights are off it stays big and full.......