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H. Magnifica (aka Ritteri) anemone
- Thread starter ~Flighty~
- Start date
Gustavo,
Start feeding that puppy heavily. I'll trade you ..... ......what do you want?
Start feeding that puppy heavily. I'll trade you ..... ......what do you want?
seasno
A.K.A. Craig Snow
I used to feed mine silversides or krill once or twice a week, but when it moved to the top of my rockwork about a year ago I noticed it grabbed a fair amount of mysis and brine shrimp when I fed my fish. I intentionally feed the fish over the top of him now so he gets his share...the smaller daily portions (and pieces) appear to stress his digestive system out less.
JustDavidP
Non-member
Gustavo.. My new home is looking for a baby ritteri 
JustDavidP
Non-member
It was 
Poor thing. I'm not sure who did it...but I think the guy that did is now on the run...in Florida.
Again, I'm suprised that they both made it as well as they did
Poor thing. I'm not sure who did it...but I think the guy that did is now on the run...in Florida. Again, I'm suprised that they both made it as well as they did
nunofs
Non-member
~Flighty~ said:
His name is Max Buerba, I also dived with them when I was there... he showed me his setup, if I remember correctly it was an Olympus camera with an underwater housing and external flash(es)... I don't remember the specific camera model, but it was not top-of-the-line. He has some really nice shots, too bad he wasn't available when I did my last few dives there.
Nuno
Chuck Spyropulos
Non-member
My Experience with a Ritteri and Other Anemones
I have had a healthy Ritteri specimen for around 5 years with two breeding ocellaris clowns living in it. I too, was drawn to this anemone since it is one of the few natural hosts for ocellaris clowns. An ocellaris clowns are my favorites....even before Nemo!!!LOL!!! In planning my tank, I knew that I wanted to house one of these anemones, although 5 years ago many experts including Joyce Wilkerson (definitely read her book on clownfish breeding....it is the best book on this subject!), begged reefkeepers to not buy these anemones. The reasoning is that they were hard to keep and they took away home/protection for many generations of young clownfish.
But, after careful planning and lots of reading, I decided to go for it. I designed one half of my 300 gallon tank rockscape specifically for the Ritteri. It consists of a large pile of live rock with a definite "summit" or high plateau for the Ritteri. When researching the Heteractis Magnifica anemone, "Ritteri", I found a few do's and do not's:
1: DO place the anemone at the highest place in your tank
2: DO feed a lot in the beginning to help keep the anemone from roaming
3: DO place the anemone directly under a MH lamp (I use a 250W HQI)
4: DO NOT provide direct high velocity flow, instead provide low velocity, high volume flow in your tank in general (same as you would for an SPS tank). A trick to keep the anemone still if it starts to wander is to point a power head across the direction of travel. Since the anemone hates high velocity direct flow, it will retreat. I have had to do this only once when I first got my Ritteri
5. DO provide lots of room for growth (more on this below)
6. DO NOT force feed an anemone
7. DO keep clowns with a Ritteri; it seems to do better with them than without them. (However the reverse is NOT TRUE...you can keep clowns very succesfully without anemones)
8. DO provide optimum water chemistry without large changes....keep it consistent as possible including pH, Alk, Temp, etc...
9. Anemone stings are potent and WILL kill corals that are constantly touched by the anemone's tentacles.
10. Healthy anemones will have tight oral discs and a strong "stickiness" and sting on there tentacles. If the sting and/or stickiness is gone or the oral disc is loose and opened, the anemone is severely stressed, injured, or diseased and may not live long.
11. DO NOT pull an anemone off of its rock, you could tear the base and injure the animal to the point where it will not recover.
Over the last few years, husbandry for these guys has become easier with water treatment automation and better filtration methods. Also, I read that target feeding for the Ritteri or even other anemones is NOT warranted as formerly thought. I have a Ritteri, Haddoni, and a Heteractis Crispa that I very rarely feed directly. I keep my Tunze's on during feeding so that the anemone's get fed indirectly. Keep in mind that the amount of food required depends heavily on how much light these animals get. More light requires less food....Less light requires more food. Also, I have kept my anemones from growing much by daily visual inspection, monitoring, and feeding only rarely (almost never). All three are healthy but are in "stasis" as far as growing is concerned.
WARNING: If you feed these guys they will grow very large!!!!!!
However if you don't feed often, they will maintain their size. They have the capability to live off of their own tissue during long periods without food....which means they consume their own flesh ...which means they get smaller when not fed !!!! So if you monitor their size and only feed when they look like they are beginning to "lose weight" they will not grow much. I have used this "control" mechanism succesfully for the last 4 years and the anemones are healthy with their resident clowns happy as well. Although recently the Clarkii (huge) who lives in the Haddoni, on the opposite side of the tank, at the bottom, 8 feet away, has of late, been investigating the Ritteri and agitating the ocellaris clowns who fiercely defend their home and their egg clutches when present. Bad Ole Clarkii needs some manners.......LOL!!!
OK, now for my soap box recitation.....
The Ritteri was an anemone that I knew I wanted before I even set up my tank. The planning paid off and I have had success with the Ritteri. The wrong thing to do is to purchase a Ritteri without planning out its home (It WILL take up a lot of real estate that could otherwise house more corals) in your tank. Since these anemones grow to 100's of years, not planning before you purchase one is extremely irresponsible. So please b4 you get one, plan out its home. If you do not have enough room, lighting, correct aquascaping or if you are buying on a whim....please do not do it...you could kill a specimen that would otherwise provide a safe haven for many generations of wild clownfishes. Sorry, but I would feel really badly recommending this anemone without the above warnings. I sincerely hope I do not offend anyone, or deter anyone from getting a Ritteri with the right tank, filtration, aquascaping and planning.
That being said, as many of you know, I had a bad case of STN that wiped out most of my SPS colonies last year (still replacing....donations?).....BUT I still have all 3 of my anemones as these animals are not affected by STN or any of the other crazy diseases and pests that affect SPS corals and that try SPS keepers patience. Go figure
.
I have had a healthy Ritteri specimen for around 5 years with two breeding ocellaris clowns living in it. I too, was drawn to this anemone since it is one of the few natural hosts for ocellaris clowns. An ocellaris clowns are my favorites....even before Nemo!!!LOL!!! In planning my tank, I knew that I wanted to house one of these anemones, although 5 years ago many experts including Joyce Wilkerson (definitely read her book on clownfish breeding....it is the best book on this subject!), begged reefkeepers to not buy these anemones. The reasoning is that they were hard to keep and they took away home/protection for many generations of young clownfish.
But, after careful planning and lots of reading, I decided to go for it. I designed one half of my 300 gallon tank rockscape specifically for the Ritteri. It consists of a large pile of live rock with a definite "summit" or high plateau for the Ritteri. When researching the Heteractis Magnifica anemone, "Ritteri", I found a few do's and do not's:
1: DO place the anemone at the highest place in your tank
2: DO feed a lot in the beginning to help keep the anemone from roaming
3: DO place the anemone directly under a MH lamp (I use a 250W HQI)
4: DO NOT provide direct high velocity flow, instead provide low velocity, high volume flow in your tank in general (same as you would for an SPS tank). A trick to keep the anemone still if it starts to wander is to point a power head across the direction of travel. Since the anemone hates high velocity direct flow, it will retreat. I have had to do this only once when I first got my Ritteri
5. DO provide lots of room for growth (more on this below)
6. DO NOT force feed an anemone
7. DO keep clowns with a Ritteri; it seems to do better with them than without them. (However the reverse is NOT TRUE...you can keep clowns very succesfully without anemones)
8. DO provide optimum water chemistry without large changes....keep it consistent as possible including pH, Alk, Temp, etc...
9. Anemone stings are potent and WILL kill corals that are constantly touched by the anemone's tentacles.
10. Healthy anemones will have tight oral discs and a strong "stickiness" and sting on there tentacles. If the sting and/or stickiness is gone or the oral disc is loose and opened, the anemone is severely stressed, injured, or diseased and may not live long.
11. DO NOT pull an anemone off of its rock, you could tear the base and injure the animal to the point where it will not recover.
Over the last few years, husbandry for these guys has become easier with water treatment automation and better filtration methods. Also, I read that target feeding for the Ritteri or even other anemones is NOT warranted as formerly thought. I have a Ritteri, Haddoni, and a Heteractis Crispa that I very rarely feed directly. I keep my Tunze's on during feeding so that the anemone's get fed indirectly. Keep in mind that the amount of food required depends heavily on how much light these animals get. More light requires less food....Less light requires more food. Also, I have kept my anemones from growing much by daily visual inspection, monitoring, and feeding only rarely (almost never). All three are healthy but are in "stasis" as far as growing is concerned.
WARNING: If you feed these guys they will grow very large!!!!!!
However if you don't feed often, they will maintain their size. They have the capability to live off of their own tissue during long periods without food....which means they consume their own flesh ...which means they get smaller when not fed !!!! So if you monitor their size and only feed when they look like they are beginning to "lose weight" they will not grow much. I have used this "control" mechanism succesfully for the last 4 years and the anemones are healthy with their resident clowns happy as well. Although recently the Clarkii (huge) who lives in the Haddoni, on the opposite side of the tank, at the bottom, 8 feet away, has of late, been investigating the Ritteri and agitating the ocellaris clowns who fiercely defend their home and their egg clutches when present. Bad Ole Clarkii needs some manners.......LOL!!!
OK, now for my soap box recitation.....
The Ritteri was an anemone that I knew I wanted before I even set up my tank. The planning paid off and I have had success with the Ritteri. The wrong thing to do is to purchase a Ritteri without planning out its home (It WILL take up a lot of real estate that could otherwise house more corals) in your tank. Since these anemones grow to 100's of years, not planning before you purchase one is extremely irresponsible. So please b4 you get one, plan out its home. If you do not have enough room, lighting, correct aquascaping or if you are buying on a whim....please do not do it...you could kill a specimen that would otherwise provide a safe haven for many generations of wild clownfishes. Sorry, but I would feel really badly recommending this anemone without the above warnings. I sincerely hope I do not offend anyone, or deter anyone from getting a Ritteri with the right tank, filtration, aquascaping and planning.
That being said, as many of you know, I had a bad case of STN that wiped out most of my SPS colonies last year (still replacing....donations?).....BUT I still have all 3 of my anemones as these animals are not affected by STN or any of the other crazy diseases and pests that affect SPS corals and that try SPS keepers patience. Go figure
.
OP
OP
~Flighty~
Now with more baby
Hey Chuck, thanks for the info. I agree with everything you posted to the point that I feel a little bad putting pictures on the web because it might encourage someone to buy one before they learn about them.
If you had a chance to see the webcam, do you think mine is in too much flow? I had the tunzes turned down, but the higher I turned them on, the better the anemone looks. The attached pic shows a diagram of the setup. The tunzes pulse about 10 seconds each in turn. The pulseing makes the water pretty chaotic as it spins out of the pump.
(top down, then side diagram)
If you had a chance to see the webcam, do you think mine is in too much flow? I had the tunzes turned down, but the higher I turned them on, the better the anemone looks. The attached pic shows a diagram of the setup. The tunzes pulse about 10 seconds each in turn. The pulseing makes the water pretty chaotic as it spins out of the pump.
(top down, then side diagram)
Attachments
Chuck Spyropulos
Non-member
Flow
If the anemone looks better with higher flow then go with it. You are probably the best judge, since you observe the Ritteri each day. High flow in the tank is generally good...but direct flow is not. From your diagram it looks like the flow is emanating from the opposite side of the tank...I use the same setup and it seems to work well.
I didn't mean to stop you from posting images....go oahead and post them. Ritteris are gorgeous!!!
Good luck with your new "Ritteri" !
If the anemone looks better with higher flow then go with it. You are probably the best judge, since you observe the Ritteri each day. High flow in the tank is generally good...but direct flow is not. From your diagram it looks like the flow is emanating from the opposite side of the tank...I use the same setup and it seems to work well.
I didn't mean to stop you from posting images....go oahead and post them. Ritteris are gorgeous!!!
Good luck with your new "Ritteri" !
~Flighty~ said:
OP
OP
~Flighty~
Now with more baby
He looked pretty ugly when I woke up, but he's looking great now. He even shifted to hog the camera.
http://lebsacks.dyndns.org:8080/
fish
food
http://lebsacks.dyndns.org:8080/
fish
food
