Anemone lighitng schedule ?

clowntank said:
What kind of lighting schedule would a flower anemone need?
Click to expand...
I leave my lighting on for 12 hours a day for my nems. Do you have it in the bio cube listed for your tanks? How big is the nem? PC are usually not sufficent lights for a nem long term. Make sure you feed him in addition to the light. Also... Dont put a nem in your tank if its only been up a few weeks. IMO
 
Also it says your expierence is a few weeks.

Nems need tanks atleast 10-12 months old so if you put him in there now he will most likely die and wipe out anything that is in your tank. I suggest taking him back to the store.
 
Yeah it's in my biocube... I have a real honest LFS and the guy said it should do alright, but all nems are iffy in a BC. It's only about 4 inches when open and he said it wouldn't get to big. The tank has been set up since dec. I talked to this lady that put a bubble tip in her 14g after only been cycled... and its doing fine.

How closed up is it supposed to be when the lights are off?
It was pretty open when I was transporting him, but I put it in the tank and he kind of scrunched up after attaching to a rock. The lights aren't completely on right now though, so none of my corals are that open either.
 
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If all you have is PC lighting it wont be enough. Anemones require more lights then most corals.

Also what all is in your tank and how long has it been running?
 
clowntank said:
Yeah it's in my biocube... I have a real honest LFS and the guy said it should do alright, but all nems are iffy in a BC. It's only about 4 inches when open and he said it wouldn't get to big.

How closed up is it supposed to be when the lights are off?
It was pretty open when I was transporting him, but I put it in the tank and he kind of scrunched up after attaching to a rock. The lights aren't completely on right now though, so none of my corals are that open either.
Click to expand...
My nems close up when the lights are off as well. Nems feed from the lights, and the PC in a bio cube may not be enough. Your LFS guy was not honest with you when he said it should be alright. They require high lighting and good water quality of an established tank. Here is some info..
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_1...ategory=4&category_search=63&root_parent_id=4
You may get lucky and it will live. If you have any fish in your tank.... If the nem dies... they will die with him.
 
Why does everybody think nem's can't survive off BC lights? The LFS I got it from has a new nem in their 29g biocube almost every two weeks, and there always doing fine. And the 29 gal. has a worse ratio of watts per gal. than my 14g.

Here are some other people with nem's in a 14g... no adjustments :

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=345544
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFmHDse5l9c[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF9BxbR4P6E[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GFJ35yTKjA[/ame]

Here's one in an 8g BC! which is rediculous... but alive:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llV5CizZlaw[/ame]
 
There also a reason they have a NEW anemone in that tank every few weeks.
Comparing a tank at the LFS to your own tank is like comparing apples to sardines.The animals usually dont stay around the LFS long enough for the lower light to really effect them,where when you get it home,its expected to live for years.Which the anemone will not do if its not getting enough light.
 
Your LFS has the anemone for just a few weeks and they they sell it off. It takes some time for the anemone to die from lack of proper light and you wont see anything wrong with it until its too late. After they sell it, it wont be their problem anymore as they dont keep the anemone long enough for it to die off, but if they do, it will.

I agree with all of the above.
 
Fish stores get in livestock with the intention of selling it quickly. Short term the light is fine (2 weeks as the fish store has) long term it is not good enough. I am not trying to insult your store. They have new nems in because they expect a quick turn around and thats why you see a new one every two weeks. You probably will not find anyone on this site that will reccomend using pc for a nem. I have mine under 48" T5 x4 and I am still nervous about him dying off all the time. They are very touchy and hard to keep alive. if you insist on keeping it, which is your personal choice. I reccomend feeding it every other day.
Also... for some reason nems dont do good in a new tank. at 2 or 3 weeks your tank might not have completed its cycle. Be careful. Watch your water params. zeros across the bored on nitrates, and nitrites is a must with a nem. No one knows why they only seem to do good in an established tank (8 months or more) but that is what everyone on here will tell you. Im done rambling now. Good luck, whatever you decide.
 
like yote said, fish stores have a massive turn over rate, they get shipments of livestock in atleast twice a week and they sell it off quick, thats also why they can keep 12" fish in a 55 gallon tank
 
Well I hope I have luck on my side for a bit :helm2:

Anyways, My tank is not a couple weeks old, it's been up for over 2 months. No that's not 8 months... but it's not a couple weeks either.

Also, I had my lights on from 2-8 because of a algae problem about a month ago... it's been long gone, but everything seemed fine under that lighting so I kept it the same. But with the nem now, what would you guys say the light schedule should be? I've also got a purple tip frogspawn, xenia, three fish and a cleaner shrimp.
 
Any where from 8 to 12hours a day is fine.But dont jump the photoperoid up all at once.Add the time by adding 15 to 20 minutes a day.
 
Whether its a couple of weeks or 2 months, both are not long enough to make your tank mature enough for a anemone, not to mention your lights. My recommendation would be to give it back. You wont know its dying until its too late at which point it will prob wipe out all our inverts & fish. Really not worth it. This hobby requires patience to have success and without it, you'll be wasting money.

Good luck
 
clowntank said:
Why does everybody think nem's can't survive off BC lights? The LFS I got it from has a new nem in their 29g biocube almost every two weeks, and there always doing fine. And the 29 gal. has a worse ratio of watts per gal. than my 14g. Here are some other people with nem's in a 14g... no adjustments :
Click to expand...

My parents' cat got hit by a car a few years ago, and he survived. In spite of his success living through such trauma, I wouldn't recommend anyone else let their pet cat play in traffic, as 99% of the time, cats don't survive getting hit by a car. I'm sure if you google it, you will find scores of stories about cats surviving getting hit by a car. They are not in the majority though.

Of course, people in this hobby like to play the odds. They think they will be in that 1% who can keep an anemone happy and healthy in a biocube. If you think that's you, best of luck to you. Even if you don't look at biocubes, and just take anemones in general. Even in an established tank with good lights the majority of anemones die. They are hard animals to keep, period.

The anemone in the last pic (in the 8 gallon tank) is totally white. It's bleached. It's pretty much dead. Anemones bleach when they don't get enough light. It will be mush very soon. A video of an anemone dying from lack of light wasn't a very good example to use to try to prove the case that you can keep an anemone under low lighting conditions.
 
So I heard you can feed the anemones table shrimp from the grocery store.. The shrimp should be frozen when you give it to the nem right?
 
Do you just put them straight in the fridge then?
Does it matter if you freeze it and let one thaw out before you feed it to the nem?
 

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