Anemone
 

I bought a Ritteri anemone at J&L's a few weeks back. Has anyone else bought one?
What are you feeding it?
How often?
How is it doing?

The one I have has been on a down hill slide ever since I have gotten it, I have been trying to feed it twice a week (shrimp, prawns, myssis) with no luck. I have it up for high lighting and it has good flow. Any ideas would be appreciated.


Robert

Sorry but I have heard that ritteri's (H. magnifica) are the hardest anemone to keep, and that long term success is rare. I have heard that they need very strong MH lighting and strong alternating water current, and even then they are very hard to keep. Did it climb to the top of the rocks? Because apparently that could be a sign of insufficient lighting.

Have you read the anemone FAQ sheet on carlosreef? http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf

Not taking food is a bad sign. Does it have any feeding response at all?

If it's still trying to eat, then try mysis, maybe, the food size is more their preference. Also if it's having problems swallowing the food then turn off the current for 5 to 10 minutes when you feed (so the food is not blown off).

post
 

Rickjames thanks for the link it should help.

Delphinus, as far as I can tell it is not taking food at all. I tried to put a bit of scalop in it's mouth but it just sat there, I came back a few hours latter and it was gone so the fish or shrimp mayhave stolen it.



Robert

Are the tentacles still sticky? If not, that's a bad sign. Is it moving around still? Another bad sign. If it's not happy, maybe see if someone else can adopt it because unhappy anemones almost always mean dead melted anemones.

Anthony

post
 

yes the tentacles are still sticky and no it has never moved around my tank. it is in a good flow area and is perty much left alone exept my 2 clowns


Robert

My anemones have never eaten scallop. Or if they have, on rare occasion, it gets spit out after a couple of hours. So I don't bother with scallop anymore, it's just a waste of food. Some people say they can feed scallop meat but I wonder if it needs to be mixed in with other stuff, or maybe they just develop their own preferences. Anyhow, either way, I've never had any luck with scallop.

So my advice is, for now, stick to mysis. Get the Piscine Energetics brand. That's more like the ritteri's natural diet (mid to large size plankton). Other things would be chopped shrimp or prawn, or krill.

If it's still sticky, then all hope is not yet lost. Or I should say, if it wasn't sticky, then it's fate would be sealed already. (Slightly different wording of perhaps the same thing..) Anyhow, try the mysis, about a 0.5" - 1" square cut off the frozen sheet. Thaw it first of course, then use a turkey baster to gently blast it onto the tentacles. Turn the current off and watch if any goes down (the mouth will open huge).

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Thanks

It looked great this morning, and it even ate :biggrin: but around 3:00pm today it is back to looking like death warmed over



Robert