sebae acting strange

[kirkland]

i know that anemones move around and can be a giant pain sometimes, but our sebae is acting strange even for an anemone. it had been in the upper right corner of our tank for 9 mths. over the past week, it slowly moved down to the sand, over to the middle and is currently buried in the middle of our rocks, on the sand and is tiny. it was quite large, bigger than both my hands spread out and now it's smaller than one of my hands. any idea if something's wrong with it? we've had a sebae before in our other tank and haven't experienced this. the color is still a good tan with purple tips, the tentacles were sticky last i checked and the underside still had the chicken-skin like bumps. ph, temp, nitrates, alk, calcium, etc. have all been stable and at normal levels and water changes have been regular as well.

 

[invertcrazy]

Does it get to the two handed size anymore or does it stay small? Do you spot feed it?

 

[kirkland]

it has stayed small since it went underneath the rocks. we don't spot feed it but it's hosted by a pair of gsm clowns who feed it at almost every feeding. our male clown is staying under the rockwork with the anemone. it's in one of our 'hallways' so beneath a ledge in the middle of the tank. the female clown comes out to cruise around more often now. she doesn't fit so well under there. lol!

 

[invertcrazy]

IMO your sebae anemone is stressed and starving, and needs to be spot feed. When a nem is big at one time and keeps shrinking it is not getting enough food. This is what i feed mine : RAW shrimp-clams- squid -scallops-silversides-krill and chop into very small pieces and mix together. Add a vitamin like zoecon or selcon and put into a baggie and into the freezer. When its time to feed(2 or 3 times a week) break off a piece, put it into a plastic or styrofoam cup with a little tank water to melt. Then with a turkey baster slowly squirt it around the tenticles around the mouth of the anemone. Just be sure you chop everything up very small because the bigger the food the more energy has to be used to digest the food. Your fish will also eat this if small enough.
Its a little bit of work and a pain in the butt, IMO your anemone will keep getting smaller and soon die. Hope this helps

 

[kirkland]

Originally Posted by InvertCrazy
http:///forum/post/2712445
IMO your sebae anemone is stressed and starving, and needs to be spot feed. When a nem is big at one time and keeps shrinking it is not getting enough food. This is what i feed mine : RAW shrimp-clams- squid -scallops-silversides-krill and chop into very small pieces and mix together. Add a vitamin like zoecon or selcon and put into a baggie and into the freezer. When its time to feed(2 or 3 times a week) break off a piece, put it into a plastic or styrofoam cup with a little tank water to melt. Then with a turkey baster slowly squirt it around the tenticles around the mouth of the anemone. Just be sure you chop everything up very small because the bigger the food the more energy has to be used to digest the food. Your fish will also eat this if small enough.
Its a little bit of work and a pain in the butt, IMO your anemone will keep getting smaller and soon die. Hope this helps
I have 3 different kinds of homemade fish food: raw shrimp, clams, mussels, a bit of blanched spinach leaves & broccoli floret, 2 cloves of garlic, spirulina, a few types of seaweed and pellet food all blended together, squared off, frozen and broken into bits. the same was done for the other 2 but they are a squid/clam mixture and shrimp/krill mixture. the fish are fed this along with frozen mysis & a marine algae forumla. the clownfishes bring the anemone a few pieces of food at each feeding, plus left over bits are blown past the tentacles and I watch the sebae continue to feed after feeding time. I know he is not starving. He is still small and a good tan color but under a ledge in the middle of the rocks. I hope he's just in a weird phase and will come out eventually. I miss seeing it!

 

[invertcrazy]

Well, sorry I couldn't help but that's all I got.

Maybe try google sebae anemone and see if you can get anything there or try to repost it here and someone with a little more experience can help. GOOD LUCK

 

[kirkland]

yesterday I witnessed our female clown take a piece of food back into the rocks to feed the sebae. it is still brown in color and bumply on the underside, 2 very good signs for a sebae. i don't know if the tentacles are sticky since i can't reach it. google...here i come!

 

[kirkland]

just an update - the sebae is still in the back of the rockwork beneath an overhang. the clowns still carry pieces of food back to it during feeding time. our male clown stays under the rocks with the sebae most of the time, the female is out about half the time. with the flashlight, I can see a few of the tentacles lying against the sand. they still have the colored tips but the tentacles look limp.
can anyone tell me about their experience when an anemone died? how long does it generally take? what phases did the anemone go through?

 

[perfectdark]

I can say with 99% certainty its not starving. 90% of what an anemone needs it gets from light and a stable tank environment with the correct trace elements in the water. For it to not move in 9 months I can tell you it was happy or it was sacrificing. What type of lighting is it under? Sebae anemones weather H. Crispa or H. Malu prefer to be on the sand bed, but that is only if the lighting is strong enough.
I cannot tell you what is wrong for sure. IMO something environmentally has changed which caused your anemone to react this way. Have you done anything differently lately? Anything at all that has changed.. powerhead added or redirected, bulbs in fixture changed, treated the tank with anything, changed salinity? How new are the clownfish to the anemone?
What are your water perameters? Alk, trates, trites, pH, calcium, S.G. and temp.
IMO my first concern would be your lighting, Sebae's prefer to be on the sand bed if the lighting is strong enough. Being so high up in your tank I am thinking the lighting is just not cutting it. If its been 9 months since you changed bulbs this maybe why your anemone moved. Depending on the lighting it might of only been barely marginal for this animal. And 9 months would be pretty close to the time line where fluorescent lighting would be replaced. If you have sufficient lighting then I would also question why the animal wasnt on your sand bed from the get go. Depending on the height of your tank Metal Halide lighting is the preferred lighting for Sebae's. HO-T5's are a viable option providing the height of the tank doesnt exceed 18" and any type of NO Fluorescent or PC Lighting IMO Is not sufficient for this animal to survive long term. HTH and good luck.

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by kirkland
http:///forum/post/2726248
just an update - the sebae is still in the back of the rockwork beneath an overhang. the clowns still carry pieces of food back to it during feeding time. our male clown stays under the rocks with the sebae most of the time, the female is out about half the time. with the flashlight, I can see a few of the tentacles lying against the sand. they still have the colored tips but the tentacles look limp.
can anyone tell me about their experience when an anemone died? how long does it generally take? what phases did the anemone go through?
As far as an anemone dying, well so far yours from your description sounds like it is failing. When they do die they decay quickly, and there are not a lot of creatures that eat an anemones remains so its best to get it out very quickly. Depending on the animals size and your tank size they can skunk a tank very quickly. In some cases it looks like the anemones stomach is coming out of its mouth, it literally falls apart in flakes. And it smells VERY VERY BAD !!

 

[kirkland]

during early/mid june, we switched out our lightbulbs. we have a tech fixture with 6 x 39w T5's. we used giesemann again with the same types: 2 pure actinics, 2 aqua blues and 2 actinic +. we switched 1 bulb out every 2-3 days over a 2 1/2 week period. the tank is deep - 92g corner bowfront by aga - and it had always kept it's foot in a crevice of the rockwork and just hung out in the corner.
last testing was 2 weeks ago: salinity 1.024, nitrates 5ppm, 0 ammonia/nitrite, calcium 380, alkalinity 8, phosphates 0, magnesium 1200. water changes have been steady at 10% every 2 weeks and i've been dosing calcium at half the recommended amount for our tank every 3 days since the last calcium testing. there is 130+ lbs. of live rock and 10 fish - the last one was introduced 2 weeks ago, a 4line wrasse, and before then, it had been 2 months since we added in the mimic tang. the clowns were in the tank before the sebae. they had hosted our gbta until that grew too large for our tank and we sold it in may. the clowns instantly moved to the sebae - which they had always gone over and hung out in/under it but did not feed it or sleep in it.
here are 2 pics from april:

 

[perfectdark]

How is it doing today? You didnt mention your pH... and how are you measuring your SG? I am now at a loss for it appears that everything is ok and the anemone should be ok.

 

[rod buehle]

I am not quite sure that you have a "sebae" anemone or either of the 2 that are called sebae. I could be wrong (hard to tell from just those 2 pics) but I am fairly confident that you have a M.doreensis (AKA LTA), whish is also a sand dweller. Are those "chicken-skin like bumps" (verrucae) sticky to the touch and nearly the same color as the foot, or are they white and in rows?
Your adding a calcium suppliment without adding some sort of buffer? Calcium and alkilinity should be added equally. Adding calcium will drive th ealk down, and visa versa adding a buffer will lower calcium. If you have an imballance, you can add more of one or the other,but youll need to test to make sure that the opposite isnt dropping too low. I would check your alk again.

 

[kirkland]

did a 10% water change yesterday and then later, tested. results: salinity at 1.026 with refractometer, nitrite 0, nitrate 10, alk 9.3, calcium 360. i have been adding kent part a/b calcium supplement which also buffers. i started dosing full recommended amount for our tank every other day until our calcium is back up. i don't know much about alkalinity/dkh - are my levels ok?

 

[rod buehle]

Ahh.. Its good that your dosing with a 2-part suppliment. Levels are definitely acceptable, but th ealk/CA is slightly out of wack.. I would add a little more of the CA part for 2-3 days to bring them a little more back in line, but dont sweat it too much because your not too far out of wack that a few more water changes wont fix