Please share your Ritteri Anemone (Heteractis magnifica) experiences

[Reef Box]

Helloooooo fellow reefers!

I think my new endeavor is going to be a Heteractis Magnifica Anemone and I'd like some input from anyone who has been successful in keeping one.

Quick background: I have been in saltwater for probably close to 20 years with several successful tanks and different systems over that time. I have done fish only, mixed reef, planted refugiums, frag tanks etc. I never really considered keeping an anemone because I didn't like the way they could go wherever they want (which is usually where I didn't want them) and that never really fit in with my desired look, but as my experience has progressed so has what I want my tank to be.

Currently I have a pretty mellow tank that has been established for over 8 years. I think I'm just over 160g TWV with sump and refugium. Lighting is Ecotech with 4-24w T5 supplements (I don't remember the par readings exactly but they'd be easy enough to get), I've had no issues keeping most SPS. My return is about 750 gph in addition to 2-Nero 5s on either side of the tank set at 20%-60% random flow. PH is consistently 8.3-8.6 and temp very consistently averages 78. Honestly, I don't know all the other parameters, I could test for just about anything that would be important but I stopped testing years ago because nothing ever changed significantly.

In the tank now are Polyps, a couple soft corals, a few PJ cardinals, a Percula Clown, Flame Tomini Tang, a Royal Gramma bunch of standard issue various crabs and snails.

I appologize for the lengthy post but I want to provide as much information as I know so that I have the best chances of getting good direction for success. Once I'm comfortable knowing I have a good chance of providing the best chances of survival, I will start looking for one. Which will bring me to the next issue of finding one. It's not something that I normally see at my LFS and I've had such a wide array of luck with LA that I don't think it's worth buying from them.

Thoughts.....?

 

[cdemoss01]

Helloooooo fellow reefers!

I think my new endeavor is going to be a Heteractis Magnifica Anemone and I'd like some input from anyone who has been successful in keeping one.

Quick background: I have been in saltwater for probably close to 20 years with several successful tanks and different systems over that time. I have done fish only, mixed reef, planted refugiums, frag tanks etc. I never really considered keeping an anemone because I didn't like the way they could go wherever they want (which is usually where I didn't want them) and that never really fit in with my desired look, but as my experience has progressed so has what I want my tank to be.

Currently I have a pretty mellow tank that has been established for over 8 years. I think I'm just over 160g TWV with sump and refugium. Lighting is Ecotech with 4-24w T5 supplements (I don't remember the par readings exactly but they'd be easy enough to get), I've had no issues keeping most SPS. My return is about 750 gph in addition to 2-Nero 5s on either side of the tank set at 20%-60% random flow. PH is consistently 8.3-8.6 and temp very consistently averages 78. Honestly, I don't know all the other parameters, I could test for just about anything that would be important but I stopped testing years ago because nothing ever changed significantly.

In the tank now are Polyps, a couple soft corals, a few PJ cardinals, a Percula Clown, Flame Tomini Tang, a Royal Gramma bunch of standard issue various crabs and snails.

I appologize for the lengthy post but I want to provide as much information as I know so that I have the best chances of getting good direction for success. Once I'm comfortable knowing I have a good chance of providing the best chances of survival, I will start looking for one. Which will bring me to the next issue of finding one. It's not something that I normally see at my LFS and I've had such a wide array of luck with LA that I don't think it's worth buying from them.

Thoughts.....?

You should honestly tag someone for this as its a very specific question.

 

[OrionN]

The think about Magnifica is that they like high flow and high light, in the upper SPS range. They should do well in your tank if you put a lot of light for them. They light to stay of a relatively flat piece of rock facing mostly up. That is why the column color is importable since you will see the column a lot.
I like to keep them on a tower, at the top. They should not be able to touch the side of the tank, or an easy way to go to higher rock structure, or else they will. It is unlikely that we can provide them with ALL the light that they want so they will always go up in search of more light and current. On top of the tower they cannot and will just stay there.
You should get ready to treat new Magnifica if need when you first get them. Newly imported Magnifica almost always require treatment. Look at my anemone treatment thread on how to treat them.
Best of luck. Here are pictures of my Magnificat.

 

[D-Nak]

Since you're in SoCal you might be able to find an established magnifica that won't require treatment. Check in with your local reef clubs and Facebook groups. Many LFS should have them, and some might've been sitting in their tanks and also may not require treatment. The last time I was in LA, I picked up a healthy magnifica for a friend from LAX Aquarium.

I agree with @OrionN that your tank should be fine.

One thing to keep in mind is that magnifica like to roam around--a lot. But there are things you can do to mitigate this behavior:

1. Pick a rock with flat surface that the magnifica can easily attach to. They like to spread out their foot on top of the rock, in a manner that looks a lot like a fried egg (they try to grasp as much real estate as they can). Other anemone species like to bury their foot in the rockwork or sand; a magnifica likes to keep its foot exposed.
   
   
2. Create the tower as @OrionN suggested, and to reiterate what he said, just make sure that once the magnifica is on top, that NONE of the tentacles can touch the tank walls. If it can touch a wall, it'll "think" it can crawl to it and will constantly be on the move.
   
   
3. Don't keep other anemones or leather corals in the same tank. 99% of the time, it's totally fine, but there are some cases where other anemones or leathers are blamed for irritating a magnifica. I recently introduced an established magnifica into a tank with other anemones, including magnifica, and no matter what I do, it's constantly moving around.

 

[Reef Box]

You should honestly tag someone for this as its a very specific question.

I don't know who to tag which is why I posted in the general Anemone forum

 

[Reef Box]

Since you're in SoCal you might be able to find an established magnifica that won't require treatment. Check in with your local reef clubs and Facebook groups. Many LFS should have them, and some might've been sitting in their tanks and also may not require treatment. The last time I was in LA, I picked up a healthy magnifica for a friend from LAX Aquarium.

Thanks @D-Nak I'm actually in the central coast area which is kind of terrible for the hobby. When I moved up here 10 years ago I was shocked on how extremely limited I am compared to SoCal. My reference to LA is actually LiveAquaria. They have been terrible the last few times I ordered from them so I stopped using them a while back.

 

[D-Nak]

Thanks @D-Nak I'm actually in the central coast area which is kind of terrible for the hobby. When I moved up here 10 years ago I was shocked on how extremely limited I am compared to SoCal. My reference to LA is actually LiveAquaria. They have been terrible the last few times I ordered from them so I stopped using them a while back.

Apologies, I should put this into perspective. I went camping in Paso Robles last year, and I know exactly where it is. I should've known that it's definitely not close to SoCal! For some reason I had it stuck in my head that Paso Robles was near Valencia (clearly it's not!).

That said, would you ever consider a road trip to LA to pick up your magnifica? I guess at that rate, driving up to the Bay Area would make more sense. The only reason I ask is because we definitely have our pick when it comes to magnifica in both locales. They're not common, but definitely not rare. Occasionally I'll see a local reefer putting one up for sale.

The trick with buying online is to find a healthy one, or one healthy enough to be shipped, then treated with antibiotics when you receive it.

 

[krak256]

Thanks @D-Nak I'm actually in the central coast area which is kind of terrible for the hobby. When I moved up here 10 years ago I was shocked on how extremely limited I am compared to SoCal. My reference to LA is actually LiveAquaria. They have been terrible the last few times I ordered from them so I stopped using them a while back.

A LFS in the Bay Area gets mags in regularly. Last time I checked, they had some colorful ones that looked fairly healthy. I believe they also ship. DM them on IG: AquaticCollection

 

[n1ng]

I think would agree with @OrionN that treatment is the way to go. I always wanted to keep a mag since I started in the 90s. After a long hiatus, I returned and wow have things changed. My Cade900 has been setup for about 3yrs (have IM25 that has been in operation for about 6.5yrs, no room anymore for mags). After about 6 months I got my mag from a dealer on the west coast.

It was in good shape when it arrived, but I decided not to take any chances and proceeded with treatment. I followed Orion's plan for 7 days. Things were great for about 3 weeks, then the mag looked like it was struggling - deflating, inflating, open mouth. I started treatment again this time for 12 days. Unlike the first, I continued to treat even when it seems stable after the 4th day of treatment. Since then it has been doing great.

The mag has gotten itself tangled up with a powerhead at least twice and wiped out most of the fish each time. About 6 months ago it split and it took forever for it to successfully separate I would say over two months. I've attached a few pics.

The process started with the mouth, the opening seems to go downward to the foot, then one side tears to make the "C" shape - this took about 48hrs. It remained that way for about 2 months, when continued the split, the process took less than 48hrs.

Honestly I think the mag split because of poor tank conditions. I just couldn't get things to flourish; specimens would not perish just not grow like my other tank. Still conditions were fine enough for the mag to survive and stay healthy trying to split for months.

Now I have two mags one small and large. I continue to feed them weekly, before the split it was frozen prawns, now I've been feeding sardine chunks. Portions about the size of a dime.

The setup is nothing special, sump, skimmer, and refugium. Lighting is one Uno 2.0 (great light, Daniel is awesome) and two kessil a160we. The two mags have not moved since the split. When I created my aquascape I had the mag in mind, so I created a couple of spots where it would be isolated from other inhabitants. You can see in the pics. In addition I made an old school oscillating stand for a SLW20 to create turbulence for the mag.

I think as long as you get over the first half year mags are pretty hardy. They are doing sooo much better than my acros.

Good Luck!
Norm

 

[garygb]

I have had my magnificas since November 2001, back when compact flourescents were a common light source. Although that wasn't ideal lighting, they lived. Then I upgraded to metal halide, and they looked better. Then I changed to T-5s when those came into fashion, and the mags were great under them, and now with LEDs they do fine, as well. I got mine locally, years ago from an aquarium shop in Culver City, Apex, that is no longer in business. Once established, mags are hardy, and if they are happy are very stationary, not moving at all. If they move, any, that's an indication nitrates or flow or lighting, or fellow neighbor/occupant or something is not right. Over all those years, I've only had a few asexual splits, most likely induced by stress. Back in the day, deep sand beds were popular to keep nitrates low. They were fine until they crashed, resulting in extremely high nitrates. Despite all that, my mags survived. I think getting a healthy mag to begin with is key, and I was lucky to nab my original two freshly imported and small, less than 5 inches across. As far as food, mine eat human grade fresh shrimp from the grocery store (no preservatives), silversides (some people believe those are risky, but I've never had an issue), krill, clam, oysters, fresh scallops (human grade no preservatives), squid. The will eat as often as you feed them. If you want them to grow quickly, feed them a little bit two or three times a week. If you don't want them to grow very slowly, don't feed them often at all.

 

[Reef Box]

That said, would you ever consider a road trip to LA to pick up your magnifica? I guess at that rate, driving up to the Bay Area would make more sense. The only reason I ask is because we definitely have our pick when it comes to magnifica in both locales. They're not common, but definitely not rare. Occasionally I'll see a local reefer putting one up for sale.

The trick with buying online is to find a healthy one, or one healthy enough to be shipped, then treated with antibiotics when you receive it.

A LFS in the Bay Area gets mags in regularly. Last time I checked, they had some colorful ones that looked fairly healthy. I believe they also ship. DM them on IG: AquaticCollection

I will definitely keep an eye out and hit Aquatic Collection up. With that being said, anyone willing to pick one up if they see one that they'd consider healthy, I'd be willing to pay a finders fee and make the trip to wherever you are willing to meet to pick it up.

 

[steveweast]

In my experience, there are three keys to keep a Magnifica happy once you acquire or treat a healthy one…..

1) Aquascaping…..As mentioned above, if you place them on a pinnacle, they will stay put. Mine has not moved in the three years since I placed him on a dedicated pinnacle.

2) flow…..flow must move their tentacles randomly and significantly or they will move.

3) light….the higher the better. Mine is inches away from a Radion XR30 with mostly full white light. The PAR at his mouth is 1100 micro moles.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

In my experience, there are three keys to keep a Magnifica happy once you acquire or treat a healthy one…..

1) Aquascaping…..As mentioned above, if you place them on a pinnacle, they will stay put. Mine has not moved in the three years since I placed him on a dedicated pinnacle.

2) flow…..flow must move their tentacles randomly and significantly or they will move.

3) light….the higher the better. Mine is inches away from a Radion XR30 with mostly full white light. The PAR at his mouth is 1100 micro moles.

Beautiful tank

 

[Seancj]

Nothing really to add to the excellent advice from the many excellent and experienced reefers above, except one thing. Make sure to cover your powerheads, AND your overflows. They move around a lot if given the chance or if the parameters aren't to their liking. Nothing will ruin your day quicker than a chewed up Mag or one stuck in your overflow plumbing. A chewed up Mag can kill an entire tank's inhabitants. I learned that lesson the hard way many years ago.
I want to emphasize the need for a smooth or flat surface for the foot, very high light, and very high random flow. I have 3, 250 watt DE metal halides AND 2 full length LED bars over my tank and the Mags would still like more light. I have 2, 4K Icecap gyres running at 100% (4,000 mph EACH!!) random flow and the Mags love it. All this over an 80 gallon (4'x2'x16" tall).
One word of caution however....once you get yourself a healthy Mag, be prepared for the very strong, and I mean very strong, desire to get another one, and then another one, and then another. You may get to the highest level of addiction in which you just HAVE to have one of every color morph or locale possible and dedicate your entire tank to just Mags! How do I know this......

 

[Reef Box]

@Seancj absolutely love the tank! I will be pretty happy with one to start though.

 

[atoll]

To add to what others have already said. Once established and settled I find them quite hardy. They even do well in less than.ideal water conditions like high nitrate providing high light and good random flow is provided.

I find mine loves the flow my gyre creates with the tentacles moving back and forth. They don't need feeding providing you give them enough light but a piece of prawn now and again is good for them.

 

[Vetekli]

I have had my magnificas since November 2001, back when compact flourescents were a common light source. Although that wasn't ideal lighting, they lived. Then I upgraded to metal halide, and they looked better. Then I changed to T-5s when those came into fashion, and the mags were great under them, and now with LEDs they do fine, as well. I got mine locally, years ago from an aquarium shop in Culver City, Apex, that is no longer in business. Once established, mags are hardy, and if they are happy are very stationary, not moving at all. If they move, any, that's an indication nitrates or flow or lighting, or fellow neighbor/occupant or something is not right. Over all those years, I've only had a few asexual splits, most likely induced by stress. Back in the day, deep sand beds were popular to keep nitrates low. They were fine until they crashed, resulting in extremely high nitrates. Despite all that, my mags survived. I think getting a healthy mag to begin with is key, and I was lucky to nab my original two freshly imported and small, less than 5 inches across. As far as food, mine eat human grade fresh shrimp from the grocery store (no preservatives), silversides (some people believe those are risky, but I've never had an issue), krill, clam, oysters, fresh scallops (human grade no preservatives), squid. The will eat as often as you feed them. If you want them to grow quickly, feed them a little bit two or three times a week. If you don't want them to grow very slowly, don't feed them often at all.

Sorry if im hijacking the thread a bit but one thing i dont see any of you experienced people mentioning is how big they get. I mean i´ve seen that they can become giants in nature (like 1 meter/3 feet), do they get that big in our tanks as well? How big is your oldest one?

Im also thinking about getting one, but i dont want to swap my 90 gallon tank in a few years.

 

[garygb]

Sorry if im hijacking the thread a bit but one thing i dont see any of you experienced people mentioning is how big they get. I mean i´ve seen that they can become giants in nature (like 1 meter/3 feet), do they get that big in our tanks as well? How big is your oldest one?

Im also thinking about getting one, but i dont want to swap my 90 gallon tank in a few years.

If you don't feed them much, they will not grow very fast. Once they reach a given size, you can keep them there by reducing the feeding. They don't really shrink much once they reach a given size, even if you don't feed. My largest one is maybe 14 inches across max. If I wanted to get it bigger ( which I can't afford because I'm already short on real estate in my tank), I would need to feed larger quantities of food a few times per week. I have a pair of perculas that live in my mags, going between individual anemones, but spending the most time in the largest one. Research has shown that the presence of clownfish increases the growth rate of sea anemones. One caveat, my tank has very low nitrates due to chaetomorpha/and a dedicated portion of the tank where I allow algae to grow unchecked, along with protein skimming. A tank with higher nitrates might have faster anemone growth because of the increased carb production via the zooxanthellae. I don't know if that is the case, but it's logical. The thing is, my mags shift around and don't tightly clamp down on the rock when there are detectable nitrates. Personally, I would prefer not to see them appearing restless, my intuition tells me a moving anemone is not a thriving anemone. Imperatives for me in regard to mags, and more generally host anemones is: specific gravity-- full strength seawater, i.e., 1.026-1.027, temp 78-82 preferably, low nitrates. I never test for anything other than specific gravity using a frequently calibrated refractometer and nitrates, using a cheap API test (which I have no reason to believe is any less accurate than any other brand based on some experience back when I obsessed about it years ago). Good water flow and reef quality light is also clearly important. Magnificas are found down to about 150 feet in the ocean, where it's not bright, but in tanks, staying in the sps light range is preferable, in my opinion.

I have been inconsistent in my feeding schedule over the years with my mags. I have gone through phases of no direct feeding of the anemones, followed by phases of feeding them a few times per week with small (cashew nut) size pieces of fresh or frozen seafood. Lately, I've been buying frozen salmon fillets with no preservatives for me, and feeding them small chunks (which they like!) along with frozen scallops and frozen shrimp, also no preservatives. The shrimp I believe has some salt added, but no phosphate preservatives. I also buy frozen krill, which my BTAs love, and my mags like, but don't react as aggressively as they do with salmon or even scallops. I've fed mine tilapia, fresh, back in the day, and they like it, but supposedly feeding freshwater fish to a marine animal is not ideal because of the lower fatty acid profile. Who knows? I doubt an actual controlled experiment has been carried out that supports that "hypothesis." I also buy live oysters and clams on occasion at the grocery store, freeze them, and then thaw and feed the oyster/clam to my anemones.

 

[Vetekli]

If you don't feed them much, they will not grow very fast. Once they reach a given size, you can keep them there by reducing the feeding. They don't really shrink much once they reach a given size, even if you don't feed. My largest one is maybe 14 inches across max. If I wanted to get it bigger ( which I can't afford because I'm already short on real estate in my tank), I would need to feed larger quantities of food a few times per week. I have a pair of perculas that live in my mags, going between individual anemones, but spending the most time in the largest one. Research has shown that the presence of clownfish increases the growth rate of sea anemones. One caveat, my tank has very low nitrates due to chaetomorpha/and a dedicated portion of the tank where I allow algae to grow unchecked, along with protein skimming. A tank with higher nitrates might have faster anemone growth because of the increased carb production via the zooxanthellae. I don't know if that is the case, but it's logical. The thing is, my mags shift around and don't tightly clamp down on the rock when there are detectable nitrates. Personally, I would prefer not to see them appearing restless, my intuition tells me a moving anemone is not a thriving anemone. Imperatives for me in regard to mags, and more generally host anemones is: specific gravity-- full strength seawater, i.e., 1.026-1.027, temp 78-82 preferably, low nitrates. I never test for anything other than specific gravity using a frequently calibrated refractometer and nitrates, using a cheap API test (which I have no reason to believe is any less accurate than any other brand based on some experience back when I obsessed about it years ago). Good water flow and reef quality light is also clearly important. Magnificas are found down to about 150 feet in the ocean, where it's not bright, but in tanks, staying in the sps light range is preferable, in my opinion.

I have been inconsistent in my feeding schedule over the years with my mags. I have gone through phases of no direct feeding of the anemones, followed by phases of feeding them a few times per week with small (cashew nut) size pieces of fresh or frozen seafood. Lately, I've been buying frozen salmon fillets with no preservatives for me, and feeding them small chunks (which they like!) along with frozen scallops and frozen shrimp, also no preservatives. The shrimp I believe has some salt added, but no phosphate preservatives. I also buy frozen krill, which my BTAs love, and my mags like, but don't react as aggressively as they do with salmon or even scallops. I've fed mine tilapia, fresh, back in the day, and they like it, but supposedly feeding freshwater fish to a marine animal is not ideal because of the lower fatty acid profile. Who knows? I doubt an actual controlled experiment has been carried out that supports that "hypothesis." I also buy live oysters and clams on occasion at the grocery store, freeze them, and then thaw and feed the oyster/clam to my anemones.

Thank you for the detailed response! How long have you had that 14 inch one?

 

[D-Nak]

I concur with @garygb that a mag's size can be controlled via feeding. My largest one is about a foot, the smaller two being about 10" and 6" but this varies based on how much I feed. Feeding and water changes do tend to perk mine up, so when I see them look less happy, I'll do one or the other or both.