First anenome

[durabane]

Bought my first bubble tip the other day and it was rolled up underneath a couple rocks. All I can see is its foot and a couple yellow fingers sticking out from under the rock. Is this normal. The tank it came from only had regular florecent tubes I am running 2 65w VHO and 2 55w actinic. I built a shade area for it thinking that it was to much light but still wont come out.
Any thoughts

 

[thomas712]

Welcome to the board

First of all I don't understand your lighting, do you have 2 seperate systems going for lighting? All VHO?
2nd, thats not enough lighting for an anemone, you will need to reach the 4+ watts per gallon in order to have one survive. Please remember these are a photosynthetic animal and must have light to survive or it will be a downhill spiral to death for it. Feeding can help but is no long term substitute IMO, IME.
Your lighting comes out to 2.4 watts per gallon. It tried with 1.4 watts per gallon on a BTA and nearly lost it. I will start to shrink, maybe bleach, then die. Mine got to be the size of a golf ball. I upgraded lighting to 6.9 and watched in 3 months it grew to the size of a softball and then started to split. I've had other changes and upgrades since then and have several anemones.
Been keeping BTA's for 4 years now.
As to the problem with it being in some rocks, this can happen, but I would like to know how you acclimated it? Where did it come from? Local purchase or Mail order? In my opinion it takes at least 2 weeks for an anemone to get used to your water conditions, this does not include walkabout time as it will wander about your aquarium looking for a rock and crevase to put its foot in and other water conditions that it likes.
What do you mean by yellow tentical? They are not supposed to be yellow.
Can you give me a pic?
Thomas

 

[durabane]

I have a corallife p/c pro was told that would be plenty of lighting I might be explaining it wrong. 2 white 65 watters 2 blue 55 watters. The BTA came from a local store that was only using single bulb HO (regular hood lighting) havnt learned the difference between all the different lightings yet.
The store had this one and a couple other white ones. I have been going in there since I set my tank up 3 months ago and they have all been doing fine. Was told that they were used to lower light levels and might need a shade until it the BTA got used to my higher lighting levels. Didnt expect it to curl up under a rock
I have 1230 gph water flow thru the tank and all other life seem to be doing fine. Have 2 different muchroom rocks 1 8 shrooms 1 5 shrooms and brista worm rock with 6 worms still learning as I go so I might not have enough light. Also have 1 royal gramma 1 scooter dragnet 2 orange percs 1 fire goby 2 cleaner shrimp 20 turbo snails 2 burrowing snails and a small population of fan worns thanks to the LR.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jwdelly/album?.dir=/e979
and here are some pictures of the tank from setup thru now

 

[thomas712]

In my opinion the anemones that you describe at the LFS are not healthy specimans, why?, because it sound like they are bleaching as there isn't enough light for them.
What is anemone ‘bleaching’?
All healthy anemones have a population of zooxanthellae in their body tissues that helps provide nutrients to the host anemone. This algae population is brown in color, and all healthy anemones will have an underlying color tone of light to dark brown depending upon the intensity of lighting under which they are kept, and the size of their zooxanthellae population. In cases of stress or poor water conditions, the zooxanthellae population in an anemone can die or be expelled. This condition is called “bleaching” since a healthy, dark colored anemone can become light and pale overnight. Bleached anemones are white or translucent in color, and lack the noticeable brown undercoloring of healthy anemones. The lack of zooxanthellae puts an anemone at significant health risk, since it no longer has a substantial source of nutrients. However, even badly stressed and bleached anemones can recover if placed in a stable, healthy environment. Daily feedings and appropriate light conditions will help the animal to rebuild its zooxanthellae population and reacquire its normal tan/brownish color over time. This process may take a while – three months is not unusual.
White anemones should be avoided as they have lost their zooxanthellae, and that is a sign of ill health.
Thomas