Heteractis Magnifica - Tell me some success stories

[psusocr]

I have LEDs and I put mine pretty low n my tank and it's doing great..

[crsandoval]

11 years! Awesome. I am going on six years now!

[maxxII]

Originally Posted by mrabolli

im thinking of owning one of these in my 200 deep dimension tank. What about building a pedestal rock rising about a foot to a top "dish" area and planting him up there? obvious to secure the pedestal type rock with a wide base but really unless hes willing to fall off there's nowhere for him to go. I saw a pic of a similar setup once but cant seem to find that thread.

That's how I have both of mine, on a rock "island" under the lights and just below significant alternating flow. They will shift about occassionally on the rock, but its rare these days.

I just recently moved the 58 over and plumbed it into the same system as the 120, so both Ritteri's are in the same system. I'm assuming my brown one is a male since I've never seen eggs in its column tissue, and I can definately see eggs in the purple based one.

Interestingly enough, the 58 also contains a small (4.5 inch) H.crispa and two small (3-5 inches) RBTA's. Nobody so far seems to be showing signs of allelopathy, although I'm sure its ongoing.

Need to clean the glass and post new pics.

Nick

[maxxII]

Originally Posted by krak256

nick, thanks so much for ur detailed write up and pics. definitely helpful for everyone

You welcome! Anything that helps others is a good thing IMO.

Nick

[Matsreef]

Just thought i would share mine.Ive had it 14mths or so.It has tripled in size so going fairly well i reckon.My friend gave me his clowns after having to pull down his tank.They are W/C Darwin B&W's.The female clown is around 3"+ long.

And a quick video.
http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...=VIDEO0001.mp4

Cheers Matsreef

[maxxII]

Newest pics of the purple tipped Ritteri... as of yesterday:













Its doing well and still under Xm 15K 250 SE bulbs.

Nick

[Greg 45]

Can someone please tell me the temp. of the tank.
Everywhere that I read is to keep the temp in the low 80's
Thanks

[maxxII]

I keep my system set at 80 degrees. I keep the heater in the sump and the temp sensor of the heater in the display overflow so it reads the warmest water,(heat rises etc), and controls the temp accordingly.

Honestly, I prefer to keep my reef between 78f-82f which gives me some wiggle room. But IME, temp isnt a real major factor inkeeping a healthy nem unless you've got a cooler/cold water system going. I had a heater go bad and raise the temp of my tank to 87f-88f for a couple of days. My acros bleached and the Ritteri was unhappy, but everyone recovered when temp was brought back to normal.

Hth,

Nick

[maxxII]

11-03-2011

I've had the purple based & tipped Ritteri anemone for one year now, so I thought I'd post some pics:









Brown based, yellow tipped Ritteri with incestuous mated Rod's Onyx Percs







I've had the brown based yellow tipped Ritteri since 03-10-2006

Both Ritteris are in the same system, although in seperate tanks.

Total system volume is approx 250 gallons and houses the following anemones:

Brown based, yellow tipped Ritteri
Purple based, purple tipped Ritteri
Purple H.crispa anemone, seen in above pictures with purple Ritteri
2 RBTA's not pictured
2 S.tapetum (mini carpet anemones) which can be seen in the pics of the yellow tipped Ritteri. Both are very close to the Ritteri but seem to be ignored.

I dont run carbon on my system but I do weekly 20% or larger water changes on my system and have recently upgraded my skimmer to a larger one. So those could be reasons why I'm not seeing any issues with chemical warfare.

Nick

[garygb]

Great looking anemones, Nick!

[maxxII]

Thanks!

I've always liked anemones and wanted to keep these, so I designed the system around their needs.

I'd like to find a healthy S.gigantea sometime and give those a try...but I'm nervous about messing with success...

Nick

[maxxII]

New pic taken today





The Picasso Perc's spawned for the 2nd time today.

The brown based H.magnifica is in the process of splitting.....and has been since just after Christmas.

Nick

[plancton]

I would like to see more success stories by the gavage method, try the gavage method:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...gnifica&page=2

I've seen many people try it in my city with very succesful stories, some of them say they will even thrive under T8s once you get them to eat by themselves after the gavage method, I want to see more people try it and report it.

[maxxII]

I read about the Gavage method....that example didnt work out so well.....

I ended up having to seperate my anemone from the clowns for it to survive....Its feeding response was incredibly slow initially, 45-60 minutes slow. After keeping the clowns from it, it was able to eat unmolested and began to speed up the process.

Nick

[delphinus]

Awesome ... love that purple! How much has it grown in the last year?

[taylor t]

Those are some beautiful anemone's! Very nice!

[psusocr]

Going on a year

[maxxII]

Originally Posted by delphinus

Awesome ... love that purple! How much has it grown in the last year?

Delphinus it's about 9-10 inches in diameter. I would guess that its regained its size, from what it lost to shipping stress. It was advertised as being approx 9 inches in diameter, and got down to about 4-5 when I was going through the whole acclimation/rehab process listed in the previous page...(in the "basket").

I'm very happy with how it looks today and that it survived...I'd honestly assumed it wouldnt survive based its condition and behavior during the first two weeks I had it...

It just didnt want to quit...

[plancton]

What do you mean by the method not working out so well, what happened?. By the way, I do realize chances of success require clowns to be moved appart since they steal and stress the weakened anemone.

[garygb]

Here are two of my three mags:

[maxxII]

Originally Posted by plancton

What do you mean by the method not working out so well, what happened?. By the way, I do realize chances of success require clowns to be moved appart since they steal and stress the weakened anemone.

Plancton,
The anemone did not survive.
What exactly caused the anemone to die isnt exactly clear, but it cant be considered a success when the anemone died almost immediately following the gavage feeding method. Hwd the op of that thread kept the anemone in question alive, I would consider that a success.
Whether or not I consider that specific instance a success is irrelevent since it had the effect of causing People like you and me to think of other possible "remedies" for H.magnifica anemones that are in poor health. Anything that does that is good IMO.
I think you got the wrong impression from my post...I'm not against the ideas espoused in that thread, I just pointed out that the anemone in that thread died in the tail end of that thread for unknown reasons....hence, didnt work out so well.

Garygb, gorgeous anemones... Love the green!

Nick

[garygb]

Thank you Nick. Yeah, they are pretty morphs, greenish yellow that ends in a bright yellow tip. I wish I could combine the purple base with the yellow tentacles, that would be stunning.

[Ostara]

Originally Posted by maxxII

Plancton,
The anemone did not survive.
What exactly caused the anemone to die isnt exactly clear, but it cant be considered a success when the anemone died almost immediately following the gavage feeding method. Hwd the op of that thread kept the anemone in question alive, I would consider that a success.
Whether or not I consider that specific instance a success is irrelevent since it had the effect of causing People like you and me to think of other possible "remedies" for H.magnifica anemones that are in poor health. Anything that does that is good IMO.
I think you got the wrong impression from my post...I'm not against the ideas espoused in that thread, I just pointed out that the anemone in that thread died in the tail end of that thread for unknown reasons....hence, didnt work out so well.

I just read the thread earlier and did not see it stated that the anemone had died. Towards the end of the thread the OP described problems that it had seemingly due to different magnificas competing with one another for space, but in his(?) last post he said it was alive. It definitely was not mentioned that it died "immediately following" a feeding. The post near the end mentioning a magnifica that had died was from a different user, not the OP. That's probably what confused Plancton.

That said, it is an interesting thread and theory. I'll definitely keep it in mind if my next magnifica has issues eating and hanging on to food.


Gary, those are gorgeous anemones. I really love the second picture; great shot!

[garygb]

Thanks Ostara, the purple is actually nicer in reality than I can capture in pics.

[maxxII]

Originally Posted by Ostara

I just read the thread earlier and did not see it stated that the anemone had died. Towards the end of the thread the OP described problems that it had seemingly due to different magnificas competing with one another for space, but in his(?) last post he said it was alive. It definitely was not mentioned that it died "immediately following" a feeding. The post near the end mentioning a magnifica that had died was from a different user, not the OP. That's probably what confused Plancton.

That said, it is an interesting thread and theory. I'll definitely keep it in mind if my next magnifica has issues eating and hanging on to food.


Gary, those are gorgeous anemones. I really love the second picture; great shot!

Last post on that thread by the Original Poster was this one on 08-10-2009

Originally Posted by WrinkleFreeZone

It's still hanging in there. The bleaching has not resolved though. I'll post again when things change.
-B

That was his last post on RC.

Afterwards, another poster (CT Legacy) stated he/she had lost one (that was pretty far gone already), after trying the gavgage method. I see how I misremembered things.

Nick