Continued from Page 2....The foot of all Heteractics anemones is often larger than the Top and body stem itself, giving this anemone type a very strong hold on whatever it is attached to. The best way to dislodge it is not pulling or prying it off, but by using ice cubes around the anmone's base to make the anemone feel the cold and make the anemone feel uneasy. This will gradually make the anemone detach itself from whatever it is attached to, even within the crevices of so-called live rock. The rougher the surface to which the anemone is attached, the slower you should go using this process. Damaging the foot can lead to many problems and often to the demise of the animal.
Just keep rubbing the ice cubes along the exterior edges of the anemone, until most of the anemone comes loose. Little by little, parts start to loosen, sometimes more rapidly than you expect. In fact the anemone may detach completely after just a few minutes. If that is not the case, at some point, when you can, go underneath the base and keep rubbing the ice cubes close to the still attached portions of the foot. More and more of the anemone will detach until, finally it is completely loose. You can now reposition the anemone where you would like it to remain, without any guarantee though that it will. Such is the nature of many anemones. They find their own favorite spots, whether we like it or not.
Another method, to be applied when the anemone is attached to glass or acrylic tank panes, is to blow hot air with a standard houselhold hair dryer onto the anemone's base. This is, of course done from the outside of the tank. This method will make the anemone detach as soon as it starts to feel the heat. Once it is loose you can reposition it within the tank. Again, even though that may be the location you would like it to be in, it may not remain there. Anemones travel and look for areas in the aquarium that meet their own requirements. Often these are: lighting, nutrient supply and current.
In both these ways no damage to the anemone will occur. When you pry with you fingers and pull, you will inflict damage. This can, and often does, lead to infection and the loss of the anemone. Use the methods described above instead. They are safe and tested and have been used by many a hobbyist with success.
The photo shows a Heteractis crispa anemone, partially hidden between rocks, with only a small portion of its tentacles viewable. This makes it look like a Fungia type coral but it is not.
Most clown fishes will develop symbiotic associations with all of the varieties of Heteractis anemones, especially with H. magnifica. Perhaps the only other anemone that has just about as many clownfish that associate very easily with it is "Entacmaea quadricolor"(the Bubble Tip anemone by its common name).
Note that Carpet anemones (Stichodactyla type anemones) develop quite a few relationships/associations as well. The problem with "Carpet anemones" is that most are even harder to keep than Heteractis varieties (this is especially so for the more desirable ones such as Stichodactyla mertensii and the variegated form of S. haddoni. Another article will deal with Stichodactyla anemones.
With Heteractis anemones though, hobbyists run very little risk, if any at all, that the clownfish selected will not form a symbiotic relationship with any of these Heteractis anemones. They will, and will do so rapidly. It may, in fact, only take a few hours before the clownfish are swimming inside the anemone and have made it their home, so to speak.
Heteractis Anemones are certainly not considered to be the easiest ones to keep alive and thriving, in fact the Sebae variety, with its beautiful colors, usually does not survive for more than 6 to 8 months in captivity, rarely up to a year. At first this anemone will loose its color and then it will start to become smaller and flatten out. Its interior may become visible too. This is really a bad sign and is often irreversible. This fact is documented in many papers. Even Public Aquariums report this problem with Heteractis anemones, especially with the Sebae variety.
The photo below shows a Heteractis aurora anemone buried in the sediment with just the tentacles visible.
This is the case even though hobbyists take all precautions necessary to maintain real high water quality levels, prevent aggression and predation towards anemones, feed regularly, adjust the temperature and really adhere to strict maintenance and husbandry (a most important part of being successful at keeping anemones alive). Lately, though, some hobbyists report better success, especially those who feed the right kind of foods (see later) and those who, in addition to feeding also provide great amounts of lighting of the right intensity and spectrum. One of the aims of this article is to give you more insights in what exactly to do, to enable you to keep these anemones for long periods of time, not just a few months.
If the anemone you acquire has already lost most of its zooxanthellae, only real high intensity lighting will allow it to regenerate some or most of them. By strong I mean the usage of metal halide lighting. Shoot for 5 or more watts per gallon of water in your tank. Many successful hobbyists use intensities approaching 7 to 8 watts per gallon and rely on the daylight spectrum to do so, (5500K.) or even better and higher spectrum lighting (6500K. or 10000K.) to illuminate their aquariums and, of course, these anemones. (K stands for degrees Kelvin)
Too little lighting intensity appears to be the major cause for the early loss of anemones. Not feeding appears to be the other one.
Of course, when you run that kind of lighting intensity, you must make sure that all nutrients levels (total nitrate, phosphate and silicate) are extremely low, lest you will have undesirable algae appear in your aquarium in no time. Watch out for phosphate and silicate concentrations in particular. The former will rapidly give rise to the growth of green stringy or slimy algae, and the latter mostly to brown ones (diatoms), although the brown can be real dark and remind you of black type algae (they are not in the majority of cases).
If necessary, use compounds designed to lower phosphate and silicate based compounds dissolved in the water. Make the changes slowly. Do not use radical approaches that advocate the use of large amounts of these compounds. Use small amounts and change them frequently so that phosphate and silicate concentrations diminish gradually, not suddenly.
pH and salinity fluctuations need to be avoided at all cost, especially when they occur too rapidly. Anemones appear to be very sensitive to this, and to react negatively to any change in water chemistry that occurs in a short span of time (minutes usually). They can, however, cope very well with changes that occur over longer periods of time. For instance, temperature and pH fluctuations that occur slowly between day and night do not affect the animals adversily.
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