Entacmaea quadricolor (Bulb Anemone)

Source liveaquaria.com

QUICK STATS

• Minimum Tank Size: 30 gallons
  
• Care Level: Moderate
  
• Temperament: Semi-aggressive
  
• Reef Compatible: With Caution
  
• Lighting: Moderate to High
  
• Waterflow: Medium
  
• Water Conditions: 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025
  
• Max. Size: 1'
  
• Color Form: Green, Tan
  
• Supplements: Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium, Iodine, Trace Elements
  
• Origin: Fiji, Singapore, Tonga
  
• Family: Actiniidae
  
• Insert Date: 15 August 2009
  

The Bulb Anemone is one of the most beautiful ornamental anemones for the home reef. When housed beneath intense aquarium lighting, Entacmaea quadricolor develops a unique bulb tip at the end of its tentacles. When hungry, this member of the Actiniidae family will stretch its sweeper tentacles to grab food from the water column. After feeding, the tentacles then shorten again and take on their bulbous appearance.
Though often referred to as the Four-Colored Anemone, coloration can vary greatly from one individual to the next. Red variations may be referred to as Rose Anemones. Generally, Bulb Anemones from Fiji and Tonga are shaded in soft browns, tans, or maroon, though an occasional green specimen is found. By contrast, the Bulb Anemones from Singapore are typically green in color with a deep maroon base.

The Bulb or Bubble Tip Anemone is found in oceans around the world. The Bulb Anemone attaches its pedal disc deep within dead coral amongst rubble or on solid, living reefs. In the home aquarium, the Bulb Anemone requires similar habitat and positioned amongst deeply creviced live rock or branchy corals placed in sandy substrate. Most Bulb Anemones prefer to find their own place to settle and may move about your aquarium until a suitable location is found.

For best care, the Bulb Anemone requires strong lighting in aquariums of at least 30 gallons. Under ideal conditions, it can grow up to 1-ft in diameter. However, most typically remain compact in size when kept under bright lighting. If the lighting is insufficient, the Bulb Anemone will expand its body to make the most of the available light. It should be kept with a Clownfish for best care. At times, the tentacles of the Bulb Anemone may appear stringy; this may be due to insufficient light or the need for food. Its diet should include chopped fish, shrimp, or worms if a clownfish is not present.

Handle this invertebrate, and all Anemones, with care. The Bulb Anemone can sting other anemones and corals that infringe on its territory.

The Small bulb anemones from Fiji and Tonga are typically colored in shades of brown, tan or maroon with an occasional green specimen. The Medium and Large bulb anemones from Singapore are typically green in color and may have a maroon base.

Other links:
http://www.reeflex.net/tiere/882_Entacmaea_quadricolor.htm
http://www.fishlore.com/profile-equadricolor.htm

Waking up. He's having a hard time with the algea growing around and over him

Stones shifted a bit because of the removal of some algea, but the anemone is doing well

Added 4 new corals, 2 of them surrounding the Anemone on both sides on the top rocks.

The anemone doesn't seem to grow allot anymore, but the clownsfishes are swimming more around it now.

Not much exciting happening with the Anemone, just got a very "nice" picture couple of days ago of the anemone being retracted fully (normally he does this only under the rocks).

Not really happened on the 14th, but a few days later. The mouse was stuck between some rocks, so my girlfriend shifted some rocks, eventually I moved the rock next to the anemone because we thought he might be stuck. He now has allot more room.

Stays "indoor" a lot lately, think I'm going to feed him some extra soon, see if it changes anything (makes it grow?)

The anemone is gone, we are not sure yet where he went. We hope to find him during cleaning, and otherwise hope that he appears by itself again.

Yesterday I noticed a cocoon of some sort hanging underneath a rock next to where the anemone was formally located. After keeping my eye on it the whole day I noticed close to the evening it was beginning to unfold and the tentacles showed a bit, so conclusion, it has moved a small bit and is now hanging upside down for some weird reason (away from light also)

The Anemone let himself drop and is now very dark coloured. Tried feeding him directly but this didn't make much difference yet.
Shortly after the drop:


The next day:

The Bulb anemone has disappeared also. He wasn’t doing well, got more grey and smaller each day. Tried feeding him by hand directly, but that didn’t help much either. And all of a sudden he is gone. He was still able to move, I have seen that, but don’t know if he moved now or is dead.

The Bulb anemone is still gone. If he has died I will replace him with a new one, maybe one more, a different kind. But lets just hope he didn’t die and is just hiding somewhere.

Found a nice article on Fishlore

No trace of the Anemone, going to close the topic