Impulse buying....

I was out of town and looking for books for the military and I figured Id hit a fish store. I saw a really nice LTA and in the back of my mind I felt bad cuz my Australian black clowns don't have a "home", it's just rubble and a big rock in my "fuge". So, I bought them the long tenticle anenome! It was only $30 and pretty big.
I just took the 96 watt PC off the fuge and put a 100 watt equivalent 6500k energy saver bulb. It was doing fine for a fuge but I have NO luck with keeping any type of anenome. They turn to mush in my big tank under 11 watts per gallon. I do feed the anemones every other day though... might be the problem?

But my question for those with luck keeping LTA:

What is the lighting requirment minimum to maximum, flow perferred and feeding schedule?

I searched it online and only came up with feed every other day, which is what I have always done and put it in the sand... which is what I've always done. Should I keep it on a rock and not in the sand? Am I "cooking" the anenomes with too much light? Over feeding? Can I keep it alive with a flourecent bulb like the fish stores do? I bought a 50/50 mini compact bulb from coral life that screws in a household socket just in case (rated 20w equivalent to 100 watts also) Should I use that???. Do they require actinic and why can fish stores keep them under regular household lighting with out actinic?!!

Sorry for the book... I really want to keep an anenome!

 

i'll admit i have never kept an anemone, but i dont think a 6500k household bulb is good for growing anything but algea

 

i havent kept lta but i have kept a few condis and bta. feeding every other day seem excessive.
it depends upon the anemone species some like sand some like rockwork. anenomes can be stressed if they are added into a high light environment to fast, they need to be aclimated to the light. but once they are climated to it they can survive very high lighting as the suns more then 10 wpg
a 6500k light would not be my idead of good lighting. anemones live in the ocean and the ocean filters out most red light, so i would figure they would be more happy with actinics. regular flourscent lighting would not be good lighting either, most anemones need t5 or halide lighting, although a few can live under powercompact.

what you have is not enough lighting at all. 20 watts isnt enough at all, dont go buy incadescent wattage as its useless.

a fish store is just a temperary stop for a anemone, it would be like taking you and puting you in a cage and feed you a piece of bread aday with some water, you would live long enough and look good enough still from your comfy 3 meals aday in the wild for me to sell you. but if your new master kept feeding just one piece of bread you would eventually die(this is refering to the lighting setup not you actually feeding the anem.). most good fish stored dont use regular lights on there coral and anemone tanks.

i would take the anemone back, until you can give it what it needs

 

I have the 50/50 mini compact that's equuivalent to 100 watts and they are in my 10g tank. The 10 gallon was my old frag tank that I took the Halide off and made it a fuge. The PC was 36" so it didn't look right and I figured it was too much for a fuge anyway. I saw a couple people try the bell lamps with a 100 watt bulb and yeah it worked fine for the fuge with just rubble, a chunk of rock and 2 clowns but I didn't think it was enough for the anenome. That is a good conclusion on the red filtering out, never thought of that. I added a pic of the bulb I want to use over the 10 gallon for now. When the clowns are big enough to defend themselves or run, then I'll put it all in the DT and switch it back to a full fuge, grass growing set-up. For now I just want to keep the anenome alive until that time. If not... my blacks are homeless!
If I put them all in my DT now, won't my blacks get beat up by the occelaris'? or won't my Occ's take the LTA as their host since they only have mushrooms now?

 

Clowns don't need an anemone for a home at all. They can and will live happily without one. If you're using a 6500 bulb that won't work. You need T5HO or a MH to house the anemone.

 

forgot the bulb pic....

 

i dont think that will work for an anem either.

 

Thank you for your replies. I do know that clowns don't need a host to be happy or even survive. I breed clowns (or used to just recently). I how ever don't have any anenomes or have ever had any luck with them. I will post pictures of my breeding set-up when I find my USB chord. None of my mates had a host and gave me babies after babies. I just want the ones in my DT and sub tank to be happy in my mind.. lol.. not that the others were slaves... lol. These two sets are the only babies I had left. I have gotten rid of everything so MY parents have to just come over and drop food in while I'm out of the country.

 

That bulb definitely won't work man. It will die in a matter of a couple weeks.

 

So, I should probably throw the LTA in my DT?