Experience with macrodactyla doreensis?
- Thread starter LeslieS
- Start date
- Location
- poughquag, ny
leslie my lfs get them and has them, very nice color's in person too, he has the one in the bottom pic and the purple one, id have one but dont think my carpet would be nice to it nor my sps
Thanks Rick. I actually made a noobie mistake and bought one without fully realizing what it is - wasn't paying attention to the color of the foot.
After doing more research, I created a nice deep silty sand bed in a part of my tank with good light and flow. It wouldn't attach, but it wasn't moving either! Very frustrating. After a couple of days, I was working in the tank and created a big mess with the power heads. Most of the silt blew away and the anemone blew into a crack in the rocks head first. I tried to gently nudge it out, but it finally attached!!! Errrg! Head first!!! To the rocks!!! It turned itself around and it's foot is now in the cave where my convict blennies live. There is some sand around it, but it definitely seems to want to attach to rocks.
P.S. I am a little worried about the convict blennies. The anemone is only 4" and they are 10", but what happens when the anemone gets bigger? Will it eat them?
After doing more research, I created a nice deep silty sand bed in a part of my tank with good light and flow. It wouldn't attach, but it wasn't moving either! Very frustrating. After a couple of days, I was working in the tank and created a big mess with the power heads. Most of the silt blew away and the anemone blew into a crack in the rocks head first. I tried to gently nudge it out, but it finally attached!!! Errrg! Head first!!! To the rocks!!! It turned itself around and it's foot is now in the cave where my convict blennies live. There is some sand around it, but it definitely seems to want to attach to rocks.
P.S. I am a little worried about the convict blennies. The anemone is only 4" and they are 10", but what happens when the anemone gets bigger? Will it eat them?
Chris Jury
Experienced Reefer
- Location
- Kaneohe, HI
I've never known them to eat fish and would be quite surprised if one did (save dead/dying fish). With this species I wouldn't be worried about fish in the tank, whereas with one of the carpet anemones (Stichodactyla spp.) I'd EXPECT them to eat some of the fish
cj
the bigger they are the deeper the sand bed needs to be. They like to be able to fully retract into their hole that they dig.
I had a small one that did quite well and thrived for almost a year until i sold it.
I have also had a very large purple one that could never get comfortable and would only attach for a few days then look for a better spot. It never settled and slowly died. I think its because it was looking for a very deep spot where it could completely bury its foot and retract into it's hole. I would have needed over 8" of sand for that to happen. I even tried a "planter" with a large section of 4" PVC filled with sand. It worked for a while but it didnt give the anemone the freedom of roaming until it found that perfect spot to settle in.
My experience in a nutshell, small was pretty easy on par w/ BTA. Large was difficult. I wouldn't attempt another one unless i was willing to have a super deep sand bed.
I had a small one that did quite well and thrived for almost a year until i sold it.
I have also had a very large purple one that could never get comfortable and would only attach for a few days then look for a better spot. It never settled and slowly died. I think its because it was looking for a very deep spot where it could completely bury its foot and retract into it's hole. I would have needed over 8" of sand for that to happen. I even tried a "planter" with a large section of 4" PVC filled with sand. It worked for a while but it didnt give the anemone the freedom of roaming until it found that perfect spot to settle in.
My experience in a nutshell, small was pretty easy on par w/ BTA. Large was difficult. I wouldn't attempt another one unless i was willing to have a super deep sand bed.
Les I had a large 1 I just got rid of the only way to keep it happy and in 1 place was to dig deep into the sand bed and let it attach to glass bottom of the tank after that I built a fortress of rock around it and it loved it. IT never moved again and mine was 12/14 inches when fully opened.
Right now, he is in a depression where the sand is about 2 1/2" deep, but he looks like he is struggling a bit to poke his head out. The Sand around the depression is about 4" deep. As he grows, I can push more sand around him.
Waters, how deep was your final fortress sandbed?
Do you guys have any feed back regarding what foods they like best? Did you target feed or let them catch from the water column?
Waters, how deep was your final fortress sandbed?
Do you guys have any feed back regarding what foods they like best? Did you target feed or let them catch from the water column?
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