LTA advice

[diverdown69]

I just got a new LTA (Macrodactyla doreenensis) and I introduced it to the tank last night. It looks really good, but I had a few questions about it.
I did the usual temperature/salinity acclimitazition procedure that I would normally follow and the LTA didn't open up for several hours...actually overnight. I checked it this morning and it was pretty much fully opened and extended. I was wondering if this anemone will attach to a sand substratum or if I need to have something a little more coarse. I already have one LR in the tank with a warty anemone attached and thriving quite nicely. Anyway, the LTA was a light green color when it was retracted. I assume that was due to the zooxanthellae being closer together. Was the retraction the LTA's way of osmoregulating in the new tank? How long should I have let it become acclimated to the salinity in my tank (about 26ppt using Instant Ocean).
TIA!!!

 

[lando]

We need some more info...How much and what type of light do you curreently have? Is this in the 10 gal. right now? How long has the tank been running? Lando

 

[Anemoneman]

I hope this is not a 10 gal tank. Much too small for more than one anemone.
LTA's like to be surrounded by rock(s) with the foot surrounded by rock and (usually) attached to the bottom of the tank. Alternaltively, if you have several inches of sand, enough to allow the anemone to completely bury itself, it may be OK. They like to have the foot buried or surrounded by something. If you have enough sand the anemone will bury its foot and only have the oral disc exposed.
Same if you have enough surrounding rock structure. The oral disc will spread out to cover the rocks. These get quite large and are aggressive fish eaters.

 

[diverdown69]

The tank has been running a while. Water quality is good with nice clarity, pH of ~8.1, salinity of 26ppt, and very low nitrates. It is a small 10 gal tank, but I will have a MUCH larger tank in a few days. I got a great deal on the LTA and decided to see how it would react to the 10 gal tank. The other anemone (warty anemone) in the tank is very small, but doing quite well. I want to add them to a 110-gal tank that I am about to get started up.
I have plenty of sand in this tank for the anemone to bury its foot. I know it sounds crazy for a 10-gal tank, but this setup is only temporary. Like I said, I got a great deal on the LTA and I figured that putting it in this small tank for a few days couldn't hurt.

 

[WarOrks15]

what lighting is on that tank?

 

[Nanoreefer]

Always hard to tell with anemones whether they are doing well or poorly. They are often unprdictable especially when new to a tank. When MY LTA was new to the tank he moved around a lot and also closed up for days at a time; i thought that he would die for sure. But now he is almost two years old and he has been living in a 18 gallon tall tank which has the same surface area at a ten gallon tank. The lighting has only been a 37 watt power compact. I have never fed him in all the time i've had him. I think that he would do fine in a well established 10 gallon tank.

 

[diverdown69]

I have a 24", 20W 10000K Coralife bulb on top of the tank right now. It is in a small fluorescent assembly I had laying around. If I have time this week, I am planning to weld up a stainless steel hood for my larger tank. That tank will probably have two of those 10000K bulbs and maybe even a MH if my friend can find his MH ballasts. The LTA isn't looking good this morning. The warty anemone looks okay. I checked salinity and pH this AM and they are just like yesterday's readings. I have PLENTY of aeration and filtration. I am thinking that the LTA doesn't like the substrate. Changing out the substrate isn't gonna be fun, but I may be doing just that tonight when I get home from work.

 

[lando]

Can you desrcibe what teh anenome looks like now? What color is it? Is it extended or not? Can you see the oral disc? YOu do not really have enought lighting to keep this anenome in the 10 gal. Chances are it is not looking good because it is starving. You need to do something fast. Good luck...Lando

 

[diverdown69]

The anemone was partially retracted with the oral disk visible. The tentacles were partially deflated and the base was smaller in diameter than usual. The animal did in fact react when I moved the water around some this morning. Two days ago, I fed both anemones a chunk of shrimp and did not notice any problems after I did so. Should I feed them again? I know this sounds like a newbie question, but the art of keeping anemones is still kind of new to me. I have kept everything from fish to shrimp (I have helped culture shrimp) and I have never had this sort of trouble. Hell, I taught water chemistry to grad students.
You say I don't have enough light to keep this anemone in a 10-gallon tank? With that much light (the 10000K Coralife bulb) it seems that I would have plenty of light. How much more do I need? That light would light up my yard. Would the MH bulbs help? I can start the stainless hood now, but it will take some time.

 

[lando]

in a previous post you mentioned you had one 20 watt 10,000k bulb. On a 10 gal. tank that is only 2 watts per gal. LTA gennerally like 4 to 5 watts/gal. They rely on light as a food source and will starve without it.

 

[diverdown69]

I know that they utilize light as a food source, but I didn't realize that they needed that much wattage per gallon. That would explain why the LTA is looking so poorly. It looks like I may be welding that light assembly up a little earlier than I previously thought...like tonight. I still would need to go get another 20W 10000K bulb, wouldn't I? I have planned this light hood pretty meticulously and if I build it tonight, it will be expandable to accommodate just about any size tank you could want.

 

[lando]

Another 20 to 30 watts would help out a lot right now. For what it is worth, I think the LTA is a fairly low-light species. Seabeas and others require like 6 to 8 watts to be happy.

 

[diverdown69]

Lando, your advice is well taken. I will go get another light today or tomorrow if the LTA is still alive when I get home.
Thank you very much!

 

[diverdown69]

Well, I am at home now and the LTA is very dead. I think I figured out what happened. Here where I live, the well water is not drinkable so my wife and I get drinking water in large refillable bottles. We refill them at my mother-in-law's place. After some digging around, I discovered that the water I used on my last water change did not come from the inside faucet. It actually came from the OUTSIDE water hose. I found this out when I put another bottle in the cooler and drank some of it. I used that same water when I did my last water change. I bet there was something in it that made my water quality really bad. The other anemone appears to still be okay. Bizarre...

 

[lando]

Sorry to hear about the anenome. Are you sure its dead, dead? When they expell waste from their oral disc they get all shriveled up for a couple of days. What did it look like? I have been told that when they die, they look like melting ice cream...perhaps a new flavor is in order for Mr. Ben and Jerry. Anyways, if there was any doubt in your mind it is best to get rid of it. A dead anenome can be so toxic it will wipe out very large tanks, not to mention a 10 gal. Probablly a good choice...Lando

 

[diverdown69]

I just did a 100% water change and removed ALL of the sand from the tank. I replaced the sand with the coarse gravel I originally had. ALL of the gravel has been thoroughly cleaned. My sal is at 26ppt and pH is about 8.0. The water is a little cloudy, but it should clear up. I put the UGF back in under the coarse gravel. I also kept the same filter media in place for now. The warty anemone (on my LR) opened right up and appears to be okay. The LTA, however, is tightly balled up. When I got home, he looked like complete kaka. The melted ice cream comparison is fairly accurate. The tentacles were an olive green color and were very shrivled. The orange coloration at the base was dull and just didn't look like it originally did. This LTA has been troubled since the day I got it. I never could get it to attach to sand OR gravel. It seemed to take shrimp pieces okay when I fed it, though. I am going to put it in another small (1.5gal octagonal) tank I have for a day and see if it comes back. I doubt that it will. Perhaps the warty anemone knew the LTA was dying and closed up to protect itself. That little warty anemone has lived through a lot. My 3-year-old dumped an entire bottle of dechlorinator in the water when I first got the warty anemone and it lived. It has now been through the trauma of being transplanted from one tank to another as well as being imprisoned with a dying LTA

 

[lando]

Sounds like bad news for hte LTA. Not sure it was a good idea to completely empty the tank and wash the substrate. I am afraid that your tank will have to cycle again. It will for sure co through a mini-cycle. Keep an eye on parameters and be prepared to do water changes as needed. What else is in there with the two anenmes? Lando

 

[diverdown69]

Right now there is only the LR and the one warty anemone. The LR has some oysters attached, probably Crassostrea virginica or Ostreola equetis. I kind of want the tank to go through another cycle so it will sort of push the proverbial reset button so to speak. My wife just got back from the store with 10 gallons of distilled and deionized water so I can do the water changes when it does cycle again. I may take a sample of the new water to work and test it for chlorinity before I put dechlorinator in it needlessly.