LONG TENTACLE ANEMONE CARE OVERVIEW
LIGHT: MODERATE-HIGH (200-300 par) is what we find best. Finding the exact amount to keep them happy will require some experimentation. Overall these anemones seem adaptable to a variety of lighting conditions. You can learn more about Lighting and it's overall impact on your reef tank in our article Lighting and your Reef Tank
FOOD: We haven't noticed that any specific feeding strategy is required for these anemones but they are aggressive eaters and will benefit greatly from spot feeding meaty foods like mysis or brine. Like most anemones they capture nutrients from the water and will do best when supplied a healthy amount of food. Our method is high import, high export. You can learn more about Feeding and Filtration in our article Feeding, Filtration and your Reef Tank.
FLOW: LOW-MODERATE. When acclimating them we recommend killing the flow makers for a bit so they can bury their foot and attach safely without getting tossed around. Too much flow, especially direct flow, can cause damage to the coral's tissue or an inability to capture food. You can read more about Flow and its overall impact on your reef tank in our article Flow and your Reef Tank
DIFFICULTY: MODERATE Long Tentacle Anemones are not the most difficult anemones to keep. They tend to be large around 4-6" discs. The display that keeps a LTA should be designed with it in mind. These anemones require a thick sand bed of 3-5" for best results. Special care should be taken with flow makers and wave pumps. They are susceptible to infections during transit, and can move about the aquarium when they decide a change of scenery is in order. This means all flow makers should be guarded or the aquarium should be designed with these animals in mind. Anemones do not consume Alkalinity and Calcium and do not lay a calcium carbonate skeleton and so these parameters will not require extreme maintenance to keep anemones successfully. Like with all corals, specimens have been seen to do well in captivity when the right combination of Food/Light/Flow and Filtration are achieved.
PRICE: MODERATE. For the size and beauty of these corals there price is fairly reasonable. For the more basic varieties and colorations (purple, green, white) expect to pay around $100+. For special/uncommon varieties like pink, orange you can expect to pay considerably more.
COLLECTION ZONE: Indo-Pacific
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Macrodactyla doreensis, common names long tentacle anemone and corkscrew tentacle sea anemone, is a species of sea anemone in the family Actiniidae.
AGGRESSION: MODERATE. These opportunistic feeders will take advantage of any meaty morsels that come there way but will typically pose no threat to healthy fish. They will be far more likely to pray on a sick/unhealthy fish.
NATURAL TEMPERATURE: 82 °F / 28 °C although most corals can adapt and survive in temps as low as 77 degrees and as high as 84 degrees. You can read more about temperature and how it affects your reef tank in our article Temperature and your Reef Tank.
PH: Recommend 8.0-8.4, we tend to run around 8.2-8.3 over 24 hours. You can read more about pH in our article pH and your Reef Tank
NITRATE: 5-10, try to keep stable. You can read more about nitrate and our approach to maintaining it in our article Nutrients and your Reef Tank
PHOSPHATE: 0.05-0.1, try to keep stable. You can read more about Phosphate and our approach to maintaining it in our article Nutrients and your Reef Tank
ALKALINITY: While these are soft corals and are not consumers of calcium/alkalinity as they do not lay a calcium carbonate skeleton, we still recommend 8-9 dKh. You can read more about how we maintain our alkalinity in our article Alkalinity, Calcium and your Reef Tank
CALCIUM: While these are soft corals and are not consumers of calcium/alkalinity as they do not lay a calcium carbonate skeleton, we still recommend 400-450 Calcium. You can read more about how we maintain our calcium in our article Alkalinity, Calcium and your Reef Tank
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