Acclimating a Ritteri, Need any current ritteri owners help.

[AQUA DAVE]

I need help with the acclimation of my new Ritteri coming in on tuesday. What did you guys and gals do to make it comfortable in its acclimation process. I want to do everything right with this one from the time that i get him and so on. Please leave some feedback if you can. I also need some feeding tips. What do your Ritteri like to eat. I have another post on here with the specs of my tank and think that i have a good setup for my new addition. Basically if anyone has any pointers let me know.

Thanks!!!!

[Flighty]

There has been some info passed around on treating these guys with antibiotics. No controlled study has been done so take it for what it is worth. If you can search my back posts you can probably find the procedure.

You probably will want to wear gloves until you figure out how badly the sting effects you. While you're holding the anemone over the tank is not the time to experience the sting for the first time :p At least wait until it is settled in and you can burn your arm on the MH bulb when you jerk away from the tentacle.

If the magnifica is shipped in water and the water is anything but clear, I would get it out and into clean tank water as fast as possible. Float the bag to match temp then take the anemone out of the water, rinse it with tank water to get the gunk off and put it in the tank. Just my opinion here, so others hopefully will chime in. I don't know the standard procedure if it is shipped dry (which hopefully it will be.)

[Flighty]

Hey, I just realised you are an Aggie, I'll be sure to type slower so you understand.

Class of 98 here. Have a shiner at the Chicken for me sometime :). Do they still have the SW tank at the OTRC?

[AQUA DAVE]

Im pretty sure that they do. One of my friends that I used to work with at petstop in the salt water dept. is re-establishing the tank. He is completely overhauling it. I got the powderblue from the tank and he is beautifull. Hopefully I will be graduating sometime in the next ten years.

[luan67]

I have two that are with me for the past 7+ years. i find that after you put them in the tank, position them high in the aquarium with as much direct lights as possible. you also need to blast them with current so that it looks like if they do not attach to the rock, it will blow them away. somehow, using this method, the anemones settled down and are in the same positions ever since.

[delphinus]

7+ years, wow! I've had mine for 5 years, I can't believe it some days.

I'm curious how large yours are and how big of a system they're in. (I see in your gallery that they are the purple tipped variety. Very nice.)

[luan67]

Thanks Tony.

Like you, I'm surprised that I kept them for this long also. For clarification, I have one that is 7+ years (before wife :-)). The second one is going on its 4 year.

The first one when fully extended is about 24" but is usually 16" across. This one is the standard brown variety and is perched right under 250W of halides.

The second one is about 14" fully extended and is right under 400W halides. It is the one you see in my gallery. A greenish/yellow color with purple or red tip depending on the day.

They are my show pieces and as I said, I feel fortunate. Ohh...the tank is 250 gallons and each is at the opposite end of the tank. I had them together before and posed no problems to each other.

Now I'm looking for a third but I do not know if I want to push my luck.

[Flighty]

Wow, luan67, those are great! I would love to see you start a thread here with more information about your experience with them. Do you feed them at all?

[AQUA DAVE]

Very nice!!! I can't wait until I have one on top of my reef. So when you say blow them away, do you literally mean blow them away? Or just let the PH blow over it until it expands.

[luan67]

Thanks Cindy. I do not know if what I'm doing is effective in keeping ritteris or just plain luck (since I can never keep bubble tips anemones and they are the easy ones!) As for feeding, I only feed them about once every two weeks or so and they will take the food. I tried to feed them more often in the past but noticed that they do not ingest the food as readily. Again, I have heard that you need to feed them constantly.

David:

What works for me is a constant blast right at them. In the past, I have used a SeaSwirl as a return and have the anemone about 10-12" away from the nozzle. I also used a Tunze stream and that is about 12-20" away. That is how I "train" them to stay where they are. My experience is when you first get one, put him/her on a perch right under some intense light without any current. Once the anemone has some hold on the rock, turn on the current so that the anemone feels like it is clinging for its dear life. Eventually, it will inflate and be happy and then you can slowly move the current away or oscillate it bakc and forth (SeaSwirl). This has worked for me and the both of them have never strayed away from their positions.

-Luan