Coralkin honest saltwater & reef care

🩺 Emergency Vet-Prep

Sebae Anemone Emergency Vet-Prep

Marine vets are rare and it's easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. Print it, keep it with your care notes.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it's serious yet? Run the symptom checker or the water-test checker first — many worries turn out to be a husbandry fix.

Coralkin honest saltwater & reef care · coralkin.com
Sebae Anemone — Vet-Prep

⚠️ Safety first — read this

Do NOT buy a bright-white (bleached, dying) or neon/“rainbow”/yellow (artificially DYED) “sebae.” There are no naturally white ones. The tell for a dye job: if the base/column (pedicle) is coloured, it has been dyed. Healthy H. crispa is tan, brown, grey or purple with pink tentacle tips and a greyish column.

🔍 Find an aquatic vet

  • Search the WAVMA (World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association) directory — or search "aquatic / exotics vet near me".
  • Call ahead: "Do you treat marine fish?" Few vets do — find and save one now, while things are calm.
  • Ask the exam fee when you call — knowing the cost up front removes the money-panic in a crisis.

📇 Fill this in now

My vet
My sebae anemone
What I'm seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

Quarantine and get help promptly if you notice any of these:

  • Turning white/bleaching — it's losing its zooxanthellae from too little light, starvation or stress; improve light and feed heavily.
  • Mouth gaping open, or expelling body-coloured bits/gut contents — a serious decline.
  • Constant wandering that never settles — a healthy specimen anchors and stays; roaming signals light, flow or water problems.
  • Deflated, not turgid, tentacles sticking together or shrivelling — poor health; a melting anemone must be removed before it crashes the tank.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Test your water NOW — salinity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, alkalinity and temperature — and correct anything obviously off.
  • Move the fish to a hospital / quarantine tank if you have one.
  • Keep it in its own stable tank water.
  • Keep the tank calm and dim.

⛔ Don't

  • Don't dose the display tank with OTC or shop “cures” blindly — copper and many meds are harmful to inverts and corals, and they mask the real cause.
  • Don't make a big, sudden parameter swing.
  • Don't add anything you can't explain the reason for.

🎒 What to bring

  • A recent, full water test — salinity, alkalinity, nitrate, temperature (and ammonia/nitrite/pH if you have them).
  • Photos plus a short video of what you’re seeing — it may not show it in the clinic.
  • A note of your system and how you feed.
  • Only if advised: the animal itself, in its own tank water.

🗣️ What to tell the vet / expert

Adult size
Up to ~12 in (30 cm) oral disc.
Lifespan
Naturally very long-lived, but the captive record is dismal — in one survey only about 1 in 32 specimens lived five or more years, and most trade animals die within months. A healthy, undyed specimen given proper care is the whole game.
Minimum tank
A spacious tank (~40 gallons and up is the common floor), established for at least 6 months before it goes in.
Lighting
High — powerful LED, T5 or metal halide; roughly PAR 150–250. Acclimate it to strong light gradually, like a coral.
Water flow
Moderate — enough movement to feed it, but not a direct laminar blast that damages tissue.
Placement
It anchors its foot in a solid base at the rock/sand interface and extends its disc up into the light. Don't glue it down — give it a good spot and let the foot grip; it must be free to reposition.
Temperature
~77–84°F (25–29°C).
pH
8.2–8.4.
Specific gravity
1.026–1.028.
Other targets
Pristine, low-nutrient reef water; zero copper (as with any invert).
Feeding
Photosynthetic PLUS meaty foods — silversides, mysis, mussel or shrimp cut smaller than its mouth — roughly 1–3× a week (feed a recovering/bleached one more often).
Temperament
A potent stinger — it can catch and consume fish and inverts, and it wages a “stinging war” with corals placed too close. Wear gloves.
Reef-safe
With caution — it stings corals, wanders, and can eat small or weak fish, shrimp and seahorses. Give it space and screen your pumps.
Natural range
Indo-Pacific.

⚕️ Most marine illness starts with water quality or acclimation, not infection — bring a full set of parameters (salinity, alkalinity, nitrate, temperature). Marine-fish medicine is specialised and few vets treat fish, so call ahead. Copper and many OTC 'cures' are toxic to invertebrates and corals — never dose them in a reef display; treat a sick fish in a separate quarantine/hospital tank, and tell the vet exactly what you've already added.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you treat marine fish?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my water or acclimation be the cause?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for?
  • How do I prevent this happening again?