hey wasp your nem is doing great in my tank will get a photo tonight

Good to hear Fish Unit, amazing how fast they recover, the other half in my tank is right back to the size it was before i chopped it, and getting uncomfortably close to some corals I don't want it to sting, might have to chop it again!

could be a LTA maybe Conch?

Me! H. Malu is my favourite anemone. However you say it is locked onto the rock? This is not typical behaviour for an H. Malu, they dig their foot into the sand and will not normally go into rock unless there is no option at all. They are often confused with another species, perhaps that is what has happened in this case.

Can you post a pic of it, including from behind? We'll do a positive ID.

Well, when I say it is locked on to a rock it could be dug in at the base and spread over the rock - I'll take pics - it was sold to me as a 'red purple malu', although who really knows. It eats brine shrimp!

Conch...just looked at you pics in the members section, very beautiful

What is in the second last pic? The thing with the legs? Oh, and the last pic too?

Sorry, posted it here...but rather than start a new thread.

Caper

It must have been approved already... I'll be back in a moment...

Err... I can't find it... maybe it is yet to be approved... can you send me a link? :oops: As soon as I can view it I'll post up what they are, but I think you are probably looking at the Brittlestar (starfish) and a close-up of Yellow Sponge.

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/thecon ... 25402.html

looking good Conch. Looks a bit piecemeal at the moment but that will change as the corals grow to fill any spaces.... Watch that urchin, he will take great pleasure in knocking over any unsecured Frags :lol:

OK - the Anemone (sorry about the quality of some of these photos) - It might be burried in the substrate afterall.

What is it?

a purple tip not to sure but its bloody nice

Its a purple malu anemoe,

You are one lucky punk, TheConch, that appears to be a purple H. Malu, although to do a positive ID will need to see the back of the disk. The purple ones are hard to come by. It's buried in the sand which is what they like, and will be unlikely to move. They prefer deepish sand, how deep is yours?

Only drawback, they get pretty big, my one started out fist size and was in a 60 cm tank, it ended up filling the entire tank, touching the glass at both ends. Even though a lot of the literature says they only get to around 12 or 14 inches, but I think that is from observation of wild ones.

Wow beautiful 'nem!

Can you tell us some more about that urchin?

It does look nice - its sitting in about 2 inches of substrate in a medium flow - I'll feed it and try to get a pic of its backside. Are you saying that I should get to work on my 30,000 litre tank now?

Wow beautiful 'nem!

Can you tell us some more about that urchin?

Err... not really - its a refugee from someone elses tank - it is fascinating to watch, but I really don't know much about it. The spikes are sharp!

can you chop them :lol: :lol:

I don't think so, Tim.

It's been said for a long time that only BTA's can be chopped, but someone on Reef Central tried it a few months ago on an H. Crispa and it worked fine. Wish i'd tried it on my Malu when I had it.

BTW TheConch, re the sand depth, my Malu was OK in anything over 2 inches so you probably just scrape in. But it preferred deeper, 2 inches was only OK if it could get it's foot under a rock as well. that's why I reluctantly had to sell my Malu, when I went to a BB tank.

Much of the literature describe H. Malus as a difficult species in an aquarium, i think that is because people don't meet their needs. If they got a decent bit of sand to bed into they seem to be pretty hardy. Also, they are described as a clown "nursery" anemone. this is because in the wild, they host many species of clown while the clowns are juveniles. When the clowns get bigger they move on to their preferred host anemone species. But it does mean that if you get young clowns of many species, including percula and occelaris, they will host in the H. Malu more readily than they would a BTA.

So all up, nice score !

Cheers, wasp. Some of the info on the web is a little contradictory, so I'm glad to have guys like yourself who have actually kept them make comment. I really have to get a bigger tank by the sounds of things...

I'll look after your RSM for you

i think i would look after it i do live down here in chch

looking great btw

Oh yea... I spent three hours on it last night - that makes about six hours so far this week. You guys might have to take turns...

oh i can do that i spend at least that on my tanks :lol:

sleep is over rated anyway

I hope the light in the RSM is strong enough for your anemone to live.

I will watch with interest.