new carpet anemone

[Magnatron]

so i have been reading and reading..so much my brain just might be melting lol...anyhow ill share the story from the beginning hehe. any how i was at my lfs yesterday to see what the tank was going to get for payday :) found some nice favia's and neat looking encrusting gonipora (pardon my spelling...spell check dosent seem to know reef words hehe) figured that would be this week don't want to go nuts you know, i try to be a responsible person most of the time.

anyway just as we where finishing up with what frags we wanted in walks my mother (didnt even know she knew where this lfs was lol) and immediately found this bright blue haddoni carpet nem...witch to be totally honest with you at the time i wasn't sure what i was looking at, the ones i have seem pics of that where blue never seemed that blue. well she decided that my tank needed more " color " well i had been reading about anemones and had inteded from the begining to house one in my tank. along with some corals but the tank will most definitely belong to gongora (the nem yes we already named it hehe more on that later).

so i was sure to build to suit, for light it has 2x250 mh 4x65 watt pc actinics (witch i plan to swap the pc's for t5's in time) my display is 85gal 48lx18wx22h and a 29 gal sup/fuge, for skimming im using a euro reef rs 80. so needless to say she decided i needed that anemone and well just could find the will to put up that fight lol. the gentalman at the lfs that was helping us was very knowledgeable about the specimen in fact it seemed he could quote the anemone faq off the top of his head (witch i had read a dozen times or so lol) then he oh so gently and gracefully removed the anemone from it dwelling like it was the easiest thing in the world.

so i get home with it and get it acclimated (did about an hour and a half drip fortunately lfs water was exact same sg as mine 1.025) and this is the point not one of the faq's or posts said anything about the difference between a pro and a noob. so i put my hand in the container to pick up the nem to place it in its new home, well i knew they where sticky but wow they are STICKY!!!!!! needless to say it latches on to me big time fortunately i figured this could happen to i gently settle him in place and proceed to wait for it to release me....and i wait...and wait some more....well i decided to try to wriggle free at witch point i manage to get my other hand close enough to for it to grab as well, mind you there is a room full of family and friends to see the new resident who are laughing histarackly at me. so i wriggle my right hand free just as i notice that it has already taken a full grip to the rock i was really surprised that it did this in less than 20 mins so suprised i didnt notice grab the back side of my right hand ....AGAIN lol (thus why it has been named Gongora). well through out all this i didnt feel anything as far a sting, well as soon as it grabed the back of my had i started to feel what is best described as heat on the back of my hand....now i know why stress out fish wriggle the way they do lol. so i just kept on with the gentle wriggle pattern that worked the first time and managed to finally get both of my hands free (no horrible effects from the sting just felt like a bad sunburn..but it was able to take some of my skin with it so nem 1 me 0)

so here we are on day 2 looks like it spent last night digging part of it body in the sand in a way it can still hold on the rock. its mouth seemed to be closed all the way up most of the day only saw it once with it like the below pic, it also had folds like most of the others i see pics of and visually seems very healthy, unfortunately i was just to busy today get a photo of it i will be sure to get one tomorrow when im doing tank maitinance.

i have noticed my peppermint ship fussing over it, every time something knocks a little sand in it they come clean it out one grain at a time, im not sure if this is normal behavior only thing i read out shrimp and a haddoni was the haddoni eating the shrimp, so i guess time will tell if they are doomed or not.

well thanks for reading my novel i hope you enjoyed my story as much as the rest of us around here...please don't flame me to much for being a noob with this type of animal, ill do my best and let it have the whole tank if it likes lol.

these pics are about an hour after introduction to the tank

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii80/bgummer007/nem1.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii80/bgummer007/nem2.jpg

enjoy and i welcome any words from the wise...or perhapse some great stories

[Toddrtrex]

Looks pretty darn good. And I see that you found out how sticky they really are. Suggest you get yourself of gloves. After going through what you did way too many times I won't touch my Haddonis ( I have 3 of them ) with out putting on the gloves.

I have a feeling that yours is going to get a darker shade of blue. Mine was similar in color when I first got it, now it is a darker richer blue.

Congrats.

[Magnatron]

i was thinking it may change color a bit, it was under one of those big fancy led setups in the lfs there was a green once right next to the blue one what was glowing better than some of the signs ive seen in vegas lol. as far as gloves go, got a new box of unpowdered latex today lol. but i really hope i don't need to handle it....hehe but its a reef right, hope and reality don't always agree.

any suggestion on how long would be ideal before i go out and find a pair of clowns for it, as ive read it better to let the anemone adjust to it new environment before there are clowns doing there thing to it.

[Toddrtrex]

I hope that you won't have to handle it again either. I've noticed that the only time mine have moved is if I do something to the tanks -- move the rocks, etc. Other than that mine don't move at all. After they are settled in.

I would wait at least two weeks. Maybe longer if it is taking longer for it to settle in. It is going to be one of things that you will be able to tell and no really set time.

[Magnatron]

well its been looking good all day, one of the peppermint shimp keeps fussing over it and i noticed the front two legs of the shimp where shorter and most definitely damaged...i bet its gonna be nem food before too long if it dosent find something else to fuss over...

at feeding time today i dropped in some pellets to keep the snails and shimp busy and one of them sunk and landed on the nem and it curled up around it and ate it like nobody's biz, so i fed it a little bit of mysis (again sorry about the spelling hehe) and it relly seemed to take that well... and both my room mate and I think it looks bigger today, we could very well be crazy it wouldnt be the first time lol.

so all in all i think we are going to go ahead and chalk day 3 up as a win, and now for the 3 pics from the moutain i took that im willing to show to the public lol.


this first one is of it mouth as best as i could get when i had the cam out, naturely once it was put away he posed for a better shot lol.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii80/bgummer007/mouth.jpg

this one is a nice one of him in all his glory

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii80/bgummer007/3-16-08.jpg

and this one is very shortly after being fed the mysis id say two mins tops.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii80/bgummer007/feeding.jpg

well there you go hop you enjoy, wish us luck on day 4 lol...back to work tomorrow, most suspense full day of trucking this month i bet lol.

[Jamie1210]

wow, that's a really healthy carpet! I don't usualy see them w/their mouths so tightly closed --seems like it's settled right in. congrats!

[Magnatron]

well its been a week now and all seems well as far as i can tell. it eats like its never had a shread of food in its life lol. its neat to see it actully reach and pick pellets up that landed on the sand near by it. also we arnt sure but it seems it got one of the engineer goby babies, looked all over for it just short of riping rock work apart. also the shrimp that has been fussing over the nem seems to have shorter legs now, but it hasent been eaten...yet.

anyhow just to be sure, should i be worried about it stealing a few pellets from the shrimp here and there. ive also done a target feeding of mysis yesterday and it gobbled all i gave it up, except one tiny piece that i think it used to try and bait that shrimp in..it almost worked too it got one of the shrimps legs.

ok now for the part everyone loves, only got one shot i feel is worthy of posting (ok ok its the only one in focus lol)

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii80/bgummer007/3-22-08.jpg

looks like it got a tad bigger in a week, and the only time i see it mouth open is when its eating something.

[taylor t]

Nice! I just ordered one of those from the doctors this week. Hope mine is as healthy as yours(when it shows up on tuesday).

[Magnatron]

well its been a bit since my last update, im glad to say everything is going great, barring the minor outbreak of cyno......well go go gadget more flow and it seems to be slow going away.

anyhow the growth rate of this carpet is amazing it seems like its bigger every day. great feeding response and its definitely sticky lol. got to watch him try to eat the top crown snail...for about 5 hours lol and belive it or not the snail lives.

and now for some pics

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii80/bgummer007/snaileating.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii80/bgummer007/4-7-08.jpg

and this is a shot of the day it was added to the tank

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii80/bgummer007/nem3.jpg

and this one is from about an hour ago

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii80/bgummer007/pts.jpg

[GSMguy]

wow what a beauty

good luck with it.

any clowns yet?

[Gig 'em]

That's a beautiful carpet and a nice set up. Good luck!

[Magnatron]

yeah i picked up a pair of true percs last week, they sure do love my koralia lol, havent as much as given the nem a second glance. then one decided that it would perfer a hardwood substrate if you will......i really need to get a canopy, i have some eggcrate panels for the top of the tank but they end of getting taken off as we cant see the computer from the light pollution when they are on, and to be honest i just dont like putting non clear things in between my corals and there light.

[GSMguy]

i hate canopies too, once clowns sleep in the anemone there is no need to worry about the clown trying to learn to line dance on your floor.

[Gig 'em]

I would never put anything between the light and corals either. The salt would also build up on any glass layer.

[volcom69]

Nice lookin nem when i put my carpet in my clarki went in it 2 hours after putting it in. I hope the clowns will find the nem. I have a cleaner shrimp, but it dosnt bother it to bad at least that i have noticed. Looks good and love the color.