Opinions on new LTA please

[homegrownREEFER]

Hey everybody, please bear with me I am still very new to all of this. So my tank is just about 6 months old now and I have been testing my water a lot and it seems to have been pretty stable for quite a while now. I decided to take a shot at an anemone. This is my first anemone and it is an LTA from DD. I received it yesterday so these pics are about 24 hours since introduction to my tank. It is very small, I'd say its foot is about 1inch and the oral disk around 3inches. DD had it listed as 3-3.5 inches.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/402579_10151120979270181_732980180_22471091_1968354022_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/398485_10151120980270181_732980180_22471095_1369199601_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/377413_10151120979635181_732980180_22471093_1969723750_n.jpg

I know it has only been 24 hours but i was getting nervous yesterday since i tried to plant it a few time and every time it would undig itself. So i figured let me leave it be so I don't stress it anymore. Left it alone from last night till today until I got home it seems to have dug itself in! :spin1: Yesterday I had to turn off my MP40 and have the MP10 at 10& in order for it not to move. Now I have the MP10 up to 50% and the MP40 at about 15-20% and still not moving. So how does it look since I don't know what to look for? How is the mouth. I seen the mouth open a little before and a little black string come out but now its gone and closed up. I assume it was food? Thanks in advance.

[elegance coral]

It looks relatively healthy. It's really hard to be sure from the pic's, but it looks more like quadricolor than doreensis????????

The black string was zooxanthellae. It's typical for them to release some after shipping. I wouldn't worry about it, unless it continues.

[homegrownREEFER]

Thanks elegance, pretty sure it is a doreensis. Red/Orange foot, tan/purpulish under the oral disk with whitish spots, and purple oral disk and tentacles. Got it from DD yesterday. I mean I could be wrong I am still new to all of this.

[sjwitt]

It's beautiful and looks pretty healthy.

[homegrownREEFER]

Thanks for the responses. Looks like it didn't like the spot so it releases and got itself wedged in between two rocks. Should I be worried and move it or let it do it's thing? Kinda weird spot, hard to get to.

[elegance coral]

Thanks elegance, pretty sure it is a doreensis. Red/Orange foot, tan/purpulish under the oral disk with whitish spots, and purple oral disk and tentacles. Got it from DD yesterday. I mean I could be wrong I am still new to all of this.

It very well could be doreensis, and probably is. It's posture, and the lighting in the pic may just be making it look quadricolor-ish??????

[homegrownREEFER]

True, it's always hard to capture true colors on camera especially with the lighting. It does somewhat resemble a quadicolor though. Possibly since it's such a small anemone and the tentacles are small and straight instead of being corkscrewish and since it isn't fully settled.

[bradleym]

It's really hard to be sure from the pic's, but it looks more like quadricolor than doreensis????????

It very well could be doreensis, and probably is. It's posture, and the lighting in the pic may just be making it look quadricolor-ish??????

Glad you said it first cuz I was thinking it too! Crazy how deceiving pic can be. :D

homegrownREEFER, I would agree with the others. It looks very healthy. In fact, exceptionally healthy considering the stress of traveling.

[atreis]

Looks healthy, and is very pretty! Just leave it alone and it will find a spot that it likes and settle in. It could help it to recover from any shipping stress by feeding it a couple times a week. (I do that anyway for my LTA.)

[homegrownREEFER]

I gave it a tiny little piece of shrimp yesterday to see if it would eat and its tentacles were very sticky and it seemed to have eaten it with no problems. Should I be worried that it is attached to rocks instead of its foot being buried in the sand? I built it a little area of rocks which is basically like a circle of rocks with at least 4 inches of sand in the middle. Instead of burying itself in there it attached to the side of one of those rocks about 1-2 inches up from the sand bed. It seems happy since it streched itself upward to expose its oral disk out of the hole and opened itself to the largest size i have seen so far. Any thoughts?

[elegance coral]

Does this anemone have spots on the upper column/under the oral disk?

[homegrownREEFER]

Yeah elegance, near the top of the column and under the disk it has white dots.

[atreis]

I'd not worry about where it's attached. If it's unhappy with that, it'll find a new spot on its own. It's best to let them do this rather than trying to guess.

[elegance coral]

Okay. LA was right, and didn't ship you the wrong anemone. I was really starting to question the ID after your description of the anemones behavior. If it has spots, it is M. doreensis though.

It's not all that uncommon for doreensis to position itself on the rocks when first placed in the system. If lighting is low, it may climb the rocks and find a hole for its foot/column high in the rocks. If flow is to high, it may never sit still. Especially if there's flow on it's foot/column. You'll just have to keep an eye on it and see what it does. I'd make sure the inlets to pumps, and all power heads are covered. At least until the anemone settles in. Doreensis will take off on you, and end up in a power head, if it's not happy.

[homegrownREEFER]

Thank atreis and elegance, just a little nervous since its my first anemone and I'd hate something to happen to this beautiful creature. Not sure if lighting is too much or too little or if it's still getting used to my setup, but still trying to figure it out since last night it extended itself out of the little rock hole I made it and today with the lights on it retracted its foot. The little area I made it shields it from the flow. I made sure I covered both my mp40 and mp10. I'll just keep an eye on it and it's mouth has been tightly closed thus far and overall the animal seems very healthy.

[homegrownREEFER]

So the lta found itself a spot at the sand bed which it tucked itself in a hole in the rock. Can't tell if it attached its foot or not since it's in the rock. However for the past 2 or so days it seems like its going deeper in this hole. I have yet to see it stretch out for some light, can it be too much light for it? Which I doubt since all I have is a 6 bulb fixture t5. Otherwise it seems fairly healthy color, I see some movement in the tentacles here and there, and I gave it a tiny piece of shrimp yesterday and the response was good. Sticky tentacles, once it touched the shrimp it would not let it go, and it pulled it into itself within a few seconds. Any idea why it would be tucking itself deeper?

[GSMguy]

I put a healthy haddoni under the bulb ends of my 6 bulb t5 and the carpet pushed the rock and itself 6 inches backwards away from the light. A 6 bulb can definetly be Too much light.

[Toddrtrex]

Are you acclimating it to your lights? I prefer using 3 layers of window screening (( supported by egg crate )) and removing a layer every 5-7 days.

[homegrownREEFER]

I guess that's the one thing I missed. Didn't think I needed to acclimate it to my lighting but it only makes sense. Im gonna get right on that.

[davocean]

Looks like a healthy doreensis to me.
Agree, they are sensitive to strong light compared to most other host nems, acclimation would be a good idea.

[atreis]

Once it acclimates to the light, it will come out more.

[homegrownREEFER]

Update if anyone is still interested. My anemone went for a little walk the other night since it never anchored itself in my tank. After its walk it buried its foot in the sand right next to a rock, I am assuming since all i can basically see is a little of the underside of the oral disk and barely any of its column. It chose a spot in the middle of the tank in the shade of like a little bridge/tunnel type thing I built, so i hope it'll start to reach out for some light soon. The position of it kind of sucks since its facing the right side of my tank but as long as its healthy and has its foot planted I am ok with this. Thanks everyone!

[davocean]

When it comes to doreensis I usually do advise placing them near a ledgy area if you can so they can pull in or out of light as needed.
They seem much more sensitive to strong light and flow compared to most host nems.
As it acclimates it will most likely stretch out more.