Tube Anemone

[Jnicho]

Hi guys (and girls),

I need some advice on my new orange tube anemone. I brought him home last night and buried his foot in the sand. Today it's back out of the sand and laying on it's side. Tentacles are inflated some, but mostly laying on the sand, not up and flowing. I find conflicting info about these animals in my research, so I thought advice from those who have had success in keeping them but be better. In the LFS it was just buried upright in the sand in a large display tank with MH lighting. I have about 450Watts of fluorescent lighting in a 55 gallon, so my lighting is bright but certainly no more than the MH at the LFS although their tank was deeper. I read some suggestions about putting it in a piece of pvc pipe and then placing sand around it, anyone done that and had good luck, or should I try to put it back in the sand and get it upright again. BTW, I planned to keep it in one corner where there are no corals and only light to moderate flow.

Thanks!

[Jnicho]

Ok, so I found the below info and made a PVC tube:

DIY Tube

You can use undergravel filter tube or PVC pipe, I have used both. You don't want is old tube. They can usually easily be removed by holding them vertical just off the bottom and they will slide right out. The inner walls the tubes are quite slippery. Help him out and don't let him just crash to the bottom, use you hands for this. The tube should be just a little bigger than his maximum diameter and a least an inch longer than his total length. He will make proper adjustments by using the sand bottom to add to the base area of the tube to make up for the longer DIY tube. Their natural tube is also longer than their total length. There is a reason for this. If you have ever seen a healthy tuber, they can pull themselves into the tube at almost the speed of a feather duster. The base tip of their tube has a small opening which works like a jet, to deflated themselves and to blow the sand bottom up the base of the tube. At he same time they contact very specialized longitudinal muscles, which makes them disappear very quick into the tube for protection.Tube anemones are not anemones but Ceiriantharia and are closely related to "Black Corals" Antipatharia and some Taxonomist put them in the same group, Ceriantipatharia Tube Anemones build their tube with a special type of nematocysts, called ptychocysts, which upon firing produces a stick substances/mucous.

http://www.reefimages.com/Anemones/Anemones4.htm

Options for the Tube;

To make the tube look more aesthetic I use to get some silicon and apply it to the outside of the PVC pipe in a pattern similar to the old tube and then roll the tube in some fine sand. Then let it cure for 48 hours and place it in a bucket of seawater for 24 hrs, rinse it off and put in the tank a place tube anemone in it as described above.

The anemone is looking happier, but now I have a new issue. Does anyone have any trouble with peppermint shrimp and tube anemone's or any other anemone. My 2 pepp's seem to be hanging out right beside it and messing with the tentacles a bit. I can't find any reference on the net to anyone having problems with pepp shrimp. Any thoughts??

[tims]

good find on the tubing.
withthe pepperments. like any shrimp they will try and steal food where they can.

[Jnicho]

So all in all I don't find much good info on tube anemones, and what I do find seems to be contradictory. I believe I have narrowed down mine to the warm water species Cerianthus membranaceus. I was not happy with it's placement in the pvc pipe, and it didn't seem overly happy either (too close to some rocks) so while I hate to keep messing with it I have rearranged one corner of the tank on it's behalf removing a large piece of LR which is now the sump. After hours of research what I have learned is that tube anemones get lumped together as a whole, most are not broken out as a specific species. As far as we (reef keepers) are concerned almost all of the animals available to the trade are the purple or orange warm water species (as opposed to the cooler species that prefer 68-74 water). The new placement for my specimen is in about 6-8" of fine sand. I placed a 1.5" x 6" piece of pvc in the sand and then placed the "foot" of the animal inside. I then filled the pvc around the foot with sand and then covered it bringing the sand to within about 1" of the crown. Hopefully in this protected environment the animal will be able to secrete a new tube (they secrete mucus to form a tube much like feather duster worms). Below is a pic taken just after placement, deflated and overall not looking very happy. I will post more pics as things progress. Hopefully this post will assist others down the road in finding info on these animals. It seems that very often they are sold with their tubes missing and as such need a little help getting established. My research seems to indicate that once established they need regular feeding, but otherwise prove to be quite hardy....more to come!