Heteractis Crispa not attaching

[pringl3s]

Hi Everyone, new here

I already have 4 other corals in my aquarium wich all attached instantly and are very happy. my 2 clowns completely ignore the crispa luckily.
So I bought a crispa anemone 3 days ago, and it just doesnt want to attach.
I've tried every surface - glass - sand - bury it - rock- pvc pipe...
It seems fairly healthy, and is definetly not bleached.
The tendrals are a little bit sticky, could be more tho.
The oral disc is about .5 cm open.
The area under the tendrals is also fairly sticky and does gold onto stone or gravel, is extremely easy to detach tho.
The foot is not sticky at all and kind of curls together.

My water parameters are:

Salt: .023
Temp: 24°C / 72.5°F
Ammonia: 0.2 (This is a false reading, the aquarium is 4 yrs old)
Silicate: not detectable
Magnesium: 1290ppm
Carbonate Hardness: 9.3dkH
Calcium: 420ppm
Phosphate: 0.1mg/l

Used Salifert tests before any1 asks

I'll be attaching an image of the coral and foot for y'all
All help on how to get it to attach is very apprecheated, I really dont want to loose it.

 

[BryanM]

salinity and temp are both low unless this is for a very specific purpose.

and when I google the nem, it is apparently a very difficult nem to acclimate and care for.

 

[pringl3s]

salinity and temp are both low unless this is for a very specific purpose.

and when I google the nem, it is apparently a very difficult nem to acclimate and care for.

ok thank you, I'll increase temp and sal.
maybe I'll just have to give it time tho, this morning a little bit of the foot is attached, the nems oral disc doesnt look so good tho. I hope it'll manage

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’ll move this to the anemone forum where it may get more expert responses.

I kept a large purple H. Crispa for years and loved it, but as long as you are setting it near a rock sand interface, I’m not sure what else you can do.

 

[Seancj]

Check the bottom of the foot for tears/holes with little white filaments coming out. If it has tears in its foot, it will likely not attach to any surface and will likely start to decline very quickly. Fresh imports very rarely survive for long if they come in with a torn foot.

 

[pringl3s]

I’ll move this to the anemone forum where it may get more expert responses.

I kept a large purple H. Crispa for years and loved it, but as long as you are setting it near a rock sand interface, I’m not sure what else you can do.

Whops, Thanks! Didnt know there was one

I mean I am confident it'll manage now. The tendrals are WAY more sticky today and its not deflating, so it shouldnt be too bad.

I filled up some more sand and shoved it into a pvc pipe where its quite small now, but yeah
Imma give it a bit and we'll see!

Another thing I'm planning it getting some bigger grain sand and going back to the store I got it from and getting their water parameters so I can better understand whats going on.

I know crispas can be little ___ but since all my copper anemones are doing perfectly fine I'm confident it'll manage

 

[pringl3s]

Check the bottom of the foot for tears/holes with little white filaments coming out. If it has tears in its foot, it will likely not attach to any surface and will likely start to decline very quickly. Fresh imports very rarely survive for long if they come in with a torn foot.

I know for a fact the shop I got it from has had it for almost a year as I regulary visit and already had an eye on this specific one for quite a while. The foot is perfectly fine, atleast from what I can see.

Also the anemone isnt (yet) spitting out its insides, just the oral disc is open a bit

 

[Seancj]

I know for a fact the shop I got it from has had it for almost a year as I regulary visit and already had an eye on this specific one for quite a while. The foot is perfectly fine, atleast from what I can see.

Also the anemone isnt (yet) spitting out its insides, just the oral disc is open a bit

Turn it over and check the bottom of its foot. If the foot is free from tears, it has a chance. Best of luck with it! I hope it settles in for you!

 

[pringl3s]

So I'm not seeing any cracks, maybe you do tho, here's the foot:

Seriously though, if something was wrong with its foot would it look that good still? I mean its not even deflated a bit and the tendrals and warts it's got are sticky, just the foot isnt ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

One thing It could POSSIBLY be is that my gravel/sand has an extremely high Carbonate hardness. Water is at 9.3 as I already stated, but I took a sample of the substrate and it appears to be more than 15.7

Since all shops are closed today I'll buy new one tomorrow and slowly change it to lower the KH but do you recon that's got to do anything, since its a sand anemone and all?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I would not expect the alk in the sand to be an issue, and I’m not sure your value is accurate. Any solid particles of sand getting into the test will give a false high reading as they dissolve in the low pH conditions of the kit. That said, alk can be higher in sand since pH is lower.

 

[pringl3s]

I would not expect the alk in the sand to be an issue, and I’m not sure your value is accurate. Any solid particles of sand getting into the test will give a false high reading as they dissolve in the low pH conditions of the kit. That said, alk can be higher in sand since pH is lower.

ok! I've decided to test again if it is more willing to attach to rock, and put its foot between a rock and the glass!
I'll report on if this helped once I know

Any ideas from your side on how to reduce my KH? Water changes did nothing...

 

[winxp_man]

I have the basic BTA’s, temp at 78-80 and salinity is 1.024. Lighting as long as you have a good one, it will do fine. The nem will find it’s place based on it. And also make sure you have some flow.

 

[Seancj]

The foot looks good! Most sebae seem to prefer the rock/sand interface, vut some prefer to attach higher up on the rock. I'd put it on a flat rock close to the sand bed and see what it does.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

ok! I've decided to test again if it is more willing to attach to rock, and put its foot between a rock and the glass!
I'll report on if this helped once I know

Any ideas from your side on how to reduce my KH? Water changes did nothing...

At 9.3 dKH I would not try to lower it.

 

[pringl3s]

The foot looks good! Most sebae seem to prefer the rock/sand interface, vut some prefer to attach higher up on the rock. I'd put it on a flat rock close to the sand bed and see what it does.

This is the rock setup I have it and it's attached about halfway now... Will keep you updates if anything changes

 

[pringl3s]

At 9.3 dKH I would not try to lower it.

Did a water change, went back up to 9.9, checked the salt I used, 14 KH just mixing the salt with the filtered water... Filtered water alone ~ 2.7KH

Bought silbermann 0KH salt now and will start doing 5% changes twice a week to slowly lower it to 8

 

[pringl3s]

I have the basic BTA’s, temp at 78-80 and salinity is 1.024. Lighting as long as you have a good one, it will do fine. The nem will find it’s place based on it. And also make sure you have some flow.

Have an Aqua Medic 3.1 powerhead running at 100% over the long side of my tank, anemone is at the very end where there's little flow. Look like this:

 

[Hot2na]

Dont stress, just lv it alone..make sure your light is adequate ..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Bought silbermann 0KH salt now and will start doing 5% changes twice a week to slowly lower it to 8

I’m skeptical of that material. Have you used it before? The pH claims seems nonsensical.

What is “filtered water” that has 2.7 dKH?

 

[Adam_Wallace]

Hello I had bought a bleached crispa at the latter half of last year. And like yours it’s bleached but had sticky tentacles
I found I tried everything with mine to get it to anchor ie digging holes placing it on rocks/glass
And in the end I just left it be and it found its own spot on the rock and sand line.

I found that it would shy away from light in the day and stretch out in the night. So lowering my lights helped

Then after a week or two I started to feed small pieces of clam once/twice a week and it’s started to look dirty so guessing it’s getting its zoos back

Keep going and don’t fuss it to much you’ll be grand