Did a dumb thing...

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smoke eater

New Member
The other night we picked up a ritteri magnificent anemone for the big tank. I gave in to my wife, she would have an all anemone tank if she could.

After acclimating it with the drip method, I was carefully lowering it onto a a rock where I hope it would stay. All of a sudden the anemone started swaying in the water flow. Forgot to turn off the pumps. Now I am trying to delicately redirect it to where I want it. Got stung, but it was moving to where I wanted it. Now I am hurting the anemone is moving away faster. I goes right into the intake of a maxijet 1200, I cleaned the tank that morning and left off the strainer, first reaction oh s**t and I grab for the anemone, yes, got stung again. Now this poor animal has its tenacles into the intake, I am hurting, I jump off the stool and quickly open the cabinet to turn off the pump switches. I reach in and start to remove the powerhead, it is still on. This one pump is on the lighting circuit, I run this ONE pump during daylight for extra flow. Yes, I touch the anemone again. I jump down and start pulling plugs, get it stop and the anemone is jammed in the intake. I took it apart to free it. Got it where I want it to stay and prayed. I am sweating, one I had this animal for about 2 hours, I spent my hard earned dollars on it and I killed it. I was not looking good. I watched it slowly deflate, but noticed it start to attach. My ocellaris clowns came over to take a look and hovered around it. This anemone is looking bad, but the clowns started hosting it. With the clowns help the anemone attached and perked right up. Just some mangled tenacles.

What I learned from this? Don't touch an anemone it hurts. :lol:

Anyone else done something this stupid?
 
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sadielynn

New Member
OOCH , if you have any allergies to foods or bee stings be vigilent as an anemone is much like a bee sting :hurted :doc :eek:pps
 
skipm

skipm

Moderator
Staff member
I am happy that it sounds like there may a happy ending here. Good luck. Skip
 
S

smoke eater

New Member
It was a magnificent anemone, very beautiful. My clowns are in heaven. It felt like a slow to start bee sting. It got more painful as the evening wore on.
 
Phischy

Phischy

New Member
Latex gloves are cheap! Plus it protects the critter from you and whatever may be on your hands.
 
D

drty811

New Member
i bought a pair of the coralife ones. expensive but they go up to my shoulders and they have elastic around the top to hold them in place. they worked great for my 75 and my tall 27.
 
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smoke eater

New Member
You know that is another reason that makes this just a dumb thing, is I had gloves out right next to the tank for this move. I had an audience, wife, kids and grandkids so, I blame them for the distraction. The anomene it doing quite well, it is starting to move to the highest point of the live rock. I had to move alot of other coral to make way. I have a mushroom that is attached to the rock the anemone is climbing. Any one know how to move it? It was a hitchhiker on the rock and was my first coral.

Oh yea, the clowns have turned mean, :twisted: They are a mated pair, have spawned and always have been docile. Now that they have hosted the anemone, the attack anything that comes close to it, including my hands when I was moving the othe coral.
 
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drty811

New Member
thats very common for clowns to do....mine bit me all the time when i had to stick my hand in. after a while all my inhabitants got used to it and stayed away. which might be harder in smaller tanks.
 
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incysor

New Member
The sting is involuntary.

Different anemeones have different strength stings. I've handled lots of them with no problems. Carpets, BTA, RBTA, Sebae, Flower, Tube, etc... However they can definitely increase the potency of the nematocysts, (stinging cells). My RBTA wasn't a problem for many months, then I got a free GBTA, and put it in the tank. They are both doing fine, but starting a few weeks after it was introduced I simply couldn't handle the RBTA's sting anymore, it irrittated my skin immediately like a bad sunburn, and then would itch for days afterwards. It could be that the RBTA's sting increased due to chemical warfare between it and the other anemone, or it could have nothing at all to do with it. I'm also a person with a ton of allergies, so it could just be that the repeated exposure has made me slightly allergic.

B
 
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smoke eater

New Member
I think this one was just cranky, it did come from a tank with other anemone's. I have been afraid to get near it again. It is doing wonderful, slowly making it's way up the rock to get closer to light. I had read that they will stay towards the top of the tank. The clowns feed it, that is a cool sight! I feed the tank about 3 times a week and plan to feed the anemone once a week as prescribed. The clowns carry down the food and place it in the anemones mouth. I have to remember to bring my camera home from work and take a picture.
 
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rnosal

New Member
BTA do sting but its not that strong to us. Ive touched mine many times just dropping food on it or holding the food in the tenticles till it grabbed on.
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
B,

Thanks for sharing your experiences with anenomes and their stinging capabilities. I've always heard that the carpet are the strongest and have seen LFS get stung and rash up immediately.

Mike
 
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Jennie

New Member
I've always heard that it depends on your own allergies. Prolonged exposure does increase your reaction (I found this out by my sons dr.)
 
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