Short but interesting...
"I was living and working in Japan at the time. It was purchased from a local fish store in Northern Japan by a US Navy guy. He was getting relocated so I purchased it from him. At the time he had kept it for about 8 months and was about the size of a salad plate and kind of a tan color. Most of the livestock in Japan comes in through Tokyo from Indonesia just like the USA stuff. I feel I was fortunate because he had been alive already for 8 mo and was already anchored to a rock. I built a toilet shape liverock bowl for him and put his base rock in it. He really didn't move around too much. When I first got it, you could touch it with no issue etc.. After 5.5 years with me I accidentally got my hand too close and it grabbed me. I had a nice red tentacle rash for about 2-3 months which in a sick way I was kind of proud of because he was so healthy lol. Around this time he reached one side up into one of my ecotech wave makers and got some chopped up and pulled the wave maker off the wall. Thought he was going to be dead for sure. I got the wave maker off and in a month you couldn't even tell he had an accident.
Like my post said I think the secret is providing a natural bio load for them to eat and a good source of light. I liked the radions because I could play with the settings till he was happy. You just dont have that kind of control with halides and I think the idea that they just need the sun 3 feet from them has led to more deaths than anything. Also, the fish stores say they need to be fed every couple days with silver sides etc.. I dont know who started that but its wrong. I think it also is a reason for their poor survival rate. Kind of like a venus fly trap if you over feed it you will kill it. If you think about it in nature the clown fish will usually scare away in potential prey so the anemone are actually getting most of their nutirtion from particles in the water, poop from the clowns and light. Sorry I dont have a source for you on where it came from. Im looking for one myself now lol. "
"Oh one more thing before I forget is when these anemone came into the fish store there they treated them different than what I said above to get them healthy. Theyd fasten a plastic basket to the rim that is deep enought o hold it but keep it fairly close to the surface. Theyd put a peice of smooth flat live rock in the bottom of the basket for it hopefully to anchor to. That and theyd keep them under heavy actinic light only for. i think at least a few weeks at least until they colored up a bit before transfering them to more intense whites. Kind of like how you'd treat a bleached coral if you got one. So imho if you got a stressed one of these and immediately started stuffing food in its throat and baking it under a halide you have a good chance of killing the thing. You have to bounce back the zooanthelli (spelling?) before putting it in more optimal reef setting. The nice thing about the basket is if yiu are willing to sacrifice the basket you can cut around the anemone foot if it didnt fuse totally to the live rock. You have to treat the foot like its the most fragile thing in the world. Im not sure about medicating them though that doesnt surprise me. The worst part of the Usa is the speed of our mail in country. In japan everything is overnight, literally. Here overnight means a few days later and curse you if you ship before a weekend.
As to my food I mixed up cyclopeeze powder, reef roids, frozen baby brine shrimp, goniopower and then refroze it in mini ice cube trays. I fed that to my fish / tank which made my corals and anemone happy. Dont get lazy about not doing a weekely water change and dont be shy about dosing copepods etc.. to your refugium or sump. Thats the extent of my wisdom =) Hope it helps someone. Id also feed cycolpeeze flakes later in the day to my fish."
Photo's and story by Ricks_Reef.
"I was living and working in Japan at the time. It was purchased from a local fish store in Northern Japan by a US Navy guy. He was getting relocated so I purchased it from him. At the time he had kept it for about 8 months and was about the size of a salad plate and kind of a tan color. Most of the livestock in Japan comes in through Tokyo from Indonesia just like the USA stuff. I feel I was fortunate because he had been alive already for 8 mo and was already anchored to a rock. I built a toilet shape liverock bowl for him and put his base rock in it. He really didn't move around too much. When I first got it, you could touch it with no issue etc.. After 5.5 years with me I accidentally got my hand too close and it grabbed me. I had a nice red tentacle rash for about 2-3 months which in a sick way I was kind of proud of because he was so healthy lol. Around this time he reached one side up into one of my ecotech wave makers and got some chopped up and pulled the wave maker off the wall. Thought he was going to be dead for sure. I got the wave maker off and in a month you couldn't even tell he had an accident.
Like my post said I think the secret is providing a natural bio load for them to eat and a good source of light. I liked the radions because I could play with the settings till he was happy. You just dont have that kind of control with halides and I think the idea that they just need the sun 3 feet from them has led to more deaths than anything. Also, the fish stores say they need to be fed every couple days with silver sides etc.. I dont know who started that but its wrong. I think it also is a reason for their poor survival rate. Kind of like a venus fly trap if you over feed it you will kill it. If you think about it in nature the clown fish will usually scare away in potential prey so the anemone are actually getting most of their nutirtion from particles in the water, poop from the clowns and light. Sorry I dont have a source for you on where it came from. Im looking for one myself now lol. "
"Oh one more thing before I forget is when these anemone came into the fish store there they treated them different than what I said above to get them healthy. Theyd fasten a plastic basket to the rim that is deep enought o hold it but keep it fairly close to the surface. Theyd put a peice of smooth flat live rock in the bottom of the basket for it hopefully to anchor to. That and theyd keep them under heavy actinic light only for. i think at least a few weeks at least until they colored up a bit before transfering them to more intense whites. Kind of like how you'd treat a bleached coral if you got one. So imho if you got a stressed one of these and immediately started stuffing food in its throat and baking it under a halide you have a good chance of killing the thing. You have to bounce back the zooanthelli (spelling?) before putting it in more optimal reef setting. The nice thing about the basket is if yiu are willing to sacrifice the basket you can cut around the anemone foot if it didnt fuse totally to the live rock. You have to treat the foot like its the most fragile thing in the world. Im not sure about medicating them though that doesnt surprise me. The worst part of the Usa is the speed of our mail in country. In japan everything is overnight, literally. Here overnight means a few days later and curse you if you ship before a weekend.
As to my food I mixed up cyclopeeze powder, reef roids, frozen baby brine shrimp, goniopower and then refroze it in mini ice cube trays. I fed that to my fish / tank which made my corals and anemone happy. Dont get lazy about not doing a weekely water change and dont be shy about dosing copepods etc.. to your refugium or sump. Thats the extent of my wisdom =) Hope it helps someone. Id also feed cycolpeeze flakes later in the day to my fish."
Photo's and story by Ricks_Reef.
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