Bubble Tip Anemone

psness

psness

Reefing newb
I have had a bubble tip now for about three months. When I bought it, the tentacles were stubbier and fatter and it immediately found a crevice and hasn't moved since. However, now most of the time it spreads out more like a long-tip where you can see the mouth and the tentacles are longer and thinner. Every once in a while the tentacles shrivel up really small for a few hours then it returns to its open size. Wondered if I am feeding it enough. The 20g tank gets 25 drops of liquid food 3x a week for a few zoo's in the tank and this anemone, plus once a week I feed the anemone a few small chunks of thawed squid or brine shrimp. Yesterday I bought a tomato clown and within 2 hours it took to the anemone.
 

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That doesn't look like a bubble tip anemone. That's a sebae anemone, IMO.

The anemone won't eat the liquid food. It will get its nutrition from the light and from the chunks of meaty food you are giving it. The zoas also won't benefit much from the liquid food. By adding it, you are likely worsening your water quality since you don't have anything to consume it in your tank. It is normal for it to shrivel up like you described the day after eating.

The anemone does look healthy though. What kind of lights do you have?
 
Bifferwine said:
That doesn't look like a bubble tip anemone. That's a sebae anemone, IMO.

The anemone won't eat the liquid food. It will get its nutrition from the light and from the chunks of meaty food you are giving it. The zoas also won't benefit much from the liquid food. By adding it, you are likely worsening your water quality since you don't have anything to consume it in your tank. It is normal for it to shrivel up like you described the day after eating.

The anemone does look healthy though. What kind of lights do you have?
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+1 Biff that does look like the sable we have at the office. and that's a nice one at that I like it and the clown in it :D
 
It was sold as a bubble tip and looked more like one when I bought it. Should I be feeding the zoo's anything? Is one feeding a week ok for the anemone? I give it a few small chunks totaling no more than the size of its mouth. I have three 18" fluorescents (two actinics and a 10k) and give about 12 hours of light a day, with only the one actinic on for an hour at the start of the day and one hour at the end of the day. The anemone and zoo's glow beautifully under the actinic.
 
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Once a week is fine for the anemone. You don't need to feed the zoas anything. You should look into upgrading your lights though -- those are not strong enough to keep an anemone long-term.
 
Bifferwine said:
Even with the purple tips on the ends?
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All the Sebae's I've seen have a lot more tentacles clustered around the body disk of the anemone.Where with that one,the tentacles are spread out more and there dont seem to be near as many.
 
Can you get a pic of the underside of the column? That may help with identification. Also, can you post that pic from your avatar, it's difficult to see it that small.
 
I don't want to disturb the anemone to show its underside. It sits in a deep crevice and been there ever since I placed it in the tank. I'll post the other photo.
 
other bubble tip? photos

Didn't look like I could post these in the other thread reply, so had to start a new thread. These are photos from right after I purchased it.
 

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Re: other bubble tip? photos

I know it looks completely different, but these are both of the same animal.
 
psness said:
I have three 18" fluorescents (two actinics and a 10k) and give about 12 hours of light a day, with only the one actinic on for an hour at the start of the day and one hour at the end of the day.
Click to expand...
I merged your 2 threads together.

That is a bubble tip, but you have nowhere near enough light for it. It looks like it's already starting to bleach.
 
Any suggestions for additional light? I have a 20g tank and the top is covered with three fluor. bulbs as described before.
 
I am assuming you have normal output fluorescent bulbs since there are no 3 bulb T5HO fixtures. You need a 4 bulb T5HO fixture or LED's or a metal halide.
 
It honestly has a greener glow than the photo on the right. I have two Coralife T-5's (the actinic and 10,000k) and a ZooMed/Coral Sun T-8. All the bulbs are three months old. I'll check my local store (That Fish Place) to see what I can replace the T-8 with. I could possibly replace the T-8 with another dual T-5 fixture, they are about the same width.
 
T5 is only a designation of the diameter of the bulb. Coralife makes both normal output T5 fixtures and T5HO (High Output). How many watts are each bulb? A normal output is about 14 watts and a HO is 24 watts. You need the HO's.
 
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