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Anemones & lighting

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:50 pm
by lowrider
just a lighting :?: i have one 18 watt 10,000 k 18 watt true actinic blue t5 is that enogh or do i need more ? i had a seabay for about 6 months and it died my guess lack of light and just not enough care on my part LFS sold it to me said they are hard to kill said i needed nothing special for care

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 9:15 am
by Amphiprion
Quite to the contrary. They do need special care, especially if you managed to get the bleached out white kind. A healthy sebae should look something like this:
Image.

This is a female specimen I have had for almost 14 years, so they can be very long-lived. Off hand, I will say that your lighting is insufficient. Your T5s are not the ones people rave about for several reasons:

1) They are not high output (HO) T5 lamps

2) They do not have individual reflectors

Also, you don't have many bulbs, either. If you are looking for more sufficient lighting and you want to go the T5 route, try looking at the fixtures available. I highly recommend Tek and Aquactinics fixtures. Also, the icecap retrofit kits are even better, if you want to go the extra mile (and $).

Another note on anemones, despite what you may read or hear otherwise, is that they need to be fed and fed well. I recommend a bare minimum of twice per week with some sort of nutritious, whole meat. This includes chopped silversides (with all parts, guts, etc. included), chopped krill (again, everything included), etc. Avoid feeding only meaty sections, like relying on fillets, peeled shrimp, etc. They aren't really nutritious enough in the long term.

What size tank do you have, exactly? Most of the "hosting" anemones reach a minimum of 12" in diameter, with other more popular species reaching 24"+. Hope this helps you out, despite the horrible advice given by one of our local fish stores.

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 10:53 am
by lowrider
[quote="Amphiprion"]Quite to the contrary. They do need special care, especially if you managed to get the bleached out white kind.



mine was bleached and then it turned a light brown almost eat good and over about 5 months it crashed so i dont know maybe it was me not my light but i only had a fluorescent back then that come with tank .think i will wait awhile before getting another thanx for the advice andrew

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 7:56 pm
by DrHank
Andrew has pretty much said it all except that they love MH too. I didn't get mine till my tank was 1 1/2 years old and very stable. Mine loves both silversides and 3/4" krill (whole of course).