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Bubble tip & clone.... anemone incomp. 2/22/16 Anemone quarantine -- 10/31/09 Anemone Fading Quickly, More Information Needed - 11/20/07 <Hello Amber, Brenda here> We are new to this fish tank thing and are getting by very well so far. We have had the tank for maybe 5 or 6 months. The salt and nitrates are at a good level. <I need actual numbers here.> We have a 40gal tank, with live and dead rock. My boyfriend does water changes every couple weeks with a vacuum thing. There are about 8 blue leg hermits, 2 larger hermits (don't know the name), <This is too many for a 40 gallon tank. I am not a big fan of hermit crabs, but if you must, no more than one per 10 gallons. Keep an eye on them, they are known to kill small fish, snails, polyps, and pester anemones.> 2 Nassarius snails, a scooter blenny, the pink tip anemone, <Your tank is a bit small for an anemone, and borderline in age. It is best to have an established aquarium, 6 months to one year old. One year is best. Do you have a sump? If so, how big? What species is the anemone?> a sponge, and we just traded our 1 yellow tail damsel and 2 sapphire damsels in for yellow fox face. <A 40 gallon is much too small for a fox face.> But any way back to the question. The anemone keeps shriveling up and going inside of itself. Is that normal? <No, it is stressed! It likely won't last long unless you find and fix the problem immediately. Anemones are difficult to keep. I don't recommend keeping them until you have a full understanding of their care.> For a couple of days the sponge and the anemone were stuck to one another is that ok? <No, a sponge can be quite toxic.> And it can't seem to find a place that it likes to be... It keeps hiding in the rock sometimes where there really isn't too much light, is that bad for it? Any solutions? <I need more information. In addition to the above questions, I need your exact water parameter, including salinity, temperature, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, calcium and alkalinity. I also need to know what lighting and skimmer you are using. How much flow in the tank? I need to know the species of the anemone. Was this anemone shipped? What lighting was it kept under previously? How long have you had the anemone? What are you feeding it?> Thanks, Amber <You're welcome! Brenda> E. quadricolor (anemone) meltdown!... 7/19/06 I have had a small (initially 1.5" diameter oral disk) E. quadricolor for the last 5 months. It has doubled in size since I acquired it and has been very enjoyable. It has not changed locations in the last 4 months. Three days ago it started to "wilt" as my wife called it. However, the next day it seemed to be recovering and it was doing much better until this afternoon when I got home from work and it looks like so much melting spaghetti ice-cream. <Bad sign> I have kept it in a 55gal w/ 250w 10000K MH and 130w CFL actinics. Salinity has been maintained at 1.025 and temps at 76-78 F. Feeding has been weekly/every other week w/ shrimp in vitamin supplement ('Vitamix Plus'). No powerheads in tank and flow is 400+gph from sump via Surge 3500 through SQUID and 300+gph return from sump via Cap 220 (3.5 ft. head, 1.25" PVC and only 1 90deg and 2 45deg/return line (X3). Conspecifics include Stolonifera, var. mushrooms, 1 sm. Ricordea, 1 sm. strawberry anemone, <Do you know the species name of this actinarian?> xenia, anthelia, zoanthids 'yellow polyps' (sorry about the vagueness), 1 adult ocellaris clown, 1 coral beauty angel, 1 med. skunk cleaner, 3 peppermint shrimp, 1 med. coral banded shrimp, 1 sm sea hare, and several small hermits and snails. I also have a small problem w/ hair algae because of the phosphates in our source water. I haven't checked any other parameters yet, but everyone else appears to be doing well. I run carbon occasionally and use Prime to dechlorinate my water. The only other filtration is 70 lbs LR, 4" DSB on a plenum, and a small (3"X20") generic counter current venturi PS. I dose 1 capful Kent Iodine, 1 capful Kent Essential Elements and 1 tsp Kent Superbuffer weekly. Here are changes that occurred in the last few days: T-4 days: removed 8 lbs LR in morning and replaced w/ 8 lbs LR w/ yellow polyps, xenia, and GSP in the afternoon (GSP and yellow polyps are located 6" away and also moved 'hairy mushroom' to w/in 4" to stop allelopathy w/ other mushroom on other side of tank)... <This is likely a/the problem here... don't have to be close... chemical> dripped the new rock/corals w/ 1 gal of tank water and replaced w/ fresh. Added iodine, essential elements, and SuperBuffer. <All should be introduced, pre-mixed with new seawater, not directly added to the system> Salinity dropped to 1.024. Mixed 1 gal salt (IO) per instructions and allowed to sit. PUR (tm) filter failed in last 1/2 gal. and used treated tap water for the remainder. T-3 days: added saltwater top off in AM. E. quadricolor looked poorly in AM and showed marked improvement in PM. salinity - 1.025 T-2 days: normal top off regimen except with treated tapwater and not prefiltered. E. q. continues to improve. salinity - 1.025 T-1 days: same as above. salinity - 1.026 today: E. q. fine in AM and now...yuck!... salinity - 1.026, temp - 77.6 F. Questions: 1. Can you tell what's the problem? <Likely is allelopathy in general, some ancillary related influences> 2. What do I do to fix it? <More systems to separate livestock, no new livestock, pre-mix water...> 3. Is there any hope for the anemone? <Yes, move it to other quarters, pronto> Branon <Bob Fenner> Anemone problems, actually human 8/6/05 Growing up I helped my Mom switch from a freshwater system to a very nice saltwater system (only after my brother and I popped a hole in her freshwater aquarium). She has eventually over the last five years or so grown in to a 400g tank. I have always taken care of her tanks, and other family members as well and I have NEVER had as many problems with theirs as I am having with mine. I have three anemones in my tank, one is an Atlantic Condy, it was my first and it is doing wonderfully, besides for the fact that about twice a week it goes from 4-6 inches to the size of an egg yoke and pulls all of its tentacles in. The second was brown, I am not sure the type, but it is fairly common in all of the different saltwater shops here in Sacto, CA. I left ten days ago and my husband has been taking care of the tank. Since I bought it on 6/26 <Whoa... time warp...> it has only taken hold once and it let go and floated in to the corner of the tank and pretty much stayed there basically on top of my flame scallop. When I came home, my problem anemone was COMPLETELY white. The leg or base is showing a pinkish color towards the end but besides that it is white. <Unnatural, bleached...> Can you please tell me why this has happened? <Mmm, could be a few things... best for you to educate yourself. Read here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/index.htm scroll down to the tray with links to all the Anemone articles and FAQs files... Mixing anemone species is not recommended, even in very large systems... there is likely insufficient light...> I apparently have many different choice places in my tank because the Condy has moved three times and has always taken hold. It has NEVER floated around for more than thirty minutes. The third anemone is a carpet anemone, if it is on the bottom it sits upside down- I don't know why. <Stress, inadequate environment> I have tested all of the levels in my tank and there have been no changes. I don't know what it's problem is but I moved it on my own last night in to a spot in my live rocks- it was doing great- it went back to its usual size of about 8 inches but this morning when I woke up the stupid thing was on the bottom upside down and only about 4 inches again. Please help!! <Please read. Bob Fenner> Anemone Shock Hi, <Hello! Ryan with you> i have recently acquired a new carpet anemone despite the fact that i already have a Bubbletip. i noticed that my Bubbletip has lost its ability to feed.. it is still able to hold food in its tentacles but unable to ingest it. could it be the chemical warfare going on? <Almost certainly a stress response. You can try increasing skimming and water changes to counteract> if i remove the carpet, how am i supposed to "revive" the Bubbletip? <Water change, fresh foods, perhaps some Cyclop-eeze? Be sure to conduct a water test so that you know where the stresses are coming from.> regards, Alvin <<Allelopathy. B>>
BTA losing tentacles 4/5/04 Hi , I have a BTA which has lost a few tentacles. The tentacles start twisting until they resemble balloon animals with their separate sections. It's at this point ( the twisted part )the tentacles break off. Other than that the Anemone looks good and eats well. The set-up is a 20 Gal. with 130 watt pc and two powerheads for circulation and Remora skimmer. All water parameters are good. Tank receives twice weekly water changes of 10 percent. Could it be receiving to much linear water flow ? How much flow should it receive. Has anyone seen this happen before Thank You , Tony <I have seen this in corals, usually when they are interacting with another coral. Is your BTA nearby any other corals or anemones? Water movement around the anemone should be just enough to gently toss the tentacles around. If they look as if they are being blowing in one direction, it is probably too much. Best Regards. Adam> Anemones As Weapons Of Mass Destruction? I have a 150 gallon tank setup, and have recently gotten it populated again after moving and having it down for a year. I never had a problem keeping anemones before, and had a wonderful carpet for many years. <Cool! Sounds like you've got some good experience! Scott F. with you today!> Now I have two bulb tip anemones, and a striped green carpet anemone. The bulb tips are doing fine, and are both host to a yellow-bar maroon clown who moves between them. The trouble is with the carpet. He was happy near the bottom of the tank where I first had him for two days, and then started showing classic signs of being unhappy. I thought perhaps it was water flow, so I moved him up onto the live rock in an area with more flow. Now he's in a cycle of being happy at night and showing signs of dying during the day. I want to save him! <Right off the bat, I have an initial thought, based both on personal experience, and the experiences of others: Mixing multiple specimens or different species of anemones in the same closed system (unless it's huge- like hundreds of gallons or more, is often a recipe for trouble...Anemones, like corals, tend to engage in a form of "chemical warfare", which can make life miserable for the less aggressive specimen> My tank specs are as follows: 150 gallons with 200-300 pounds of live rock. All reef-safe fish (yellow tangs, blue tangs, goby, clowns, etc), Peppermint and Cleaner shrimp, small crabs and snails, various corals (hard and soft), and mushrooms. Curiously enough some of the mushrooms are not surviving well either, while others are doing great. <Again- I'm gonna hazard a guess about allelopathy (the "chemical warfare" situation)...I'll bet that's a good part of the problem> I have a skimmer in the sump, as well as a canister filter, and the water return flows through a filter pad and then over wet/dry balls. I have a CO2 setup with a controller to keep the PH between 8.6 and 8.1. It is normally at 8.4. When it goes above 8.6 the CO2 is released into the skimmer until the rate drops to 8.1 and then it shuts off, and the rate will naturally return to 8.4 or so. I have 4 20 watt 10k bulbs and 4 175watt metal halide 20k bulbs over the tank with timers to cycle dawn/day/dusk. The halides are on for 7 hours. Total lighting is on for 12 hours or so. I have a wave maker with 4 power heads around the tank. <Sounds good...However, I'm curious about the consistency of your water conditions...Anemones generally favor pristine water conditions- undetectable nitrate, stable temperature, and good alkalinity. If these are all okay, I think my theory might be close to the truth. Since I suspect chemical interactions as a possible cause of the problems, I'd engage in an aggressive water change regimen (my infamous 5% of tank volume twice weekly), and employ liberal use of chemical filtration media, such as activated carbon and Poly Filter...This may give you the edge you need to be successful with the mixed species...I said "may", but it's worth a shot at this point.> This morning the carpet was again not looking happy...almost melting and the open mouth. I move him some, and he was not attached to the rock, but he did stick to my finger. I then used a syringe without the needle to feed him some phytoplankton directly into his mouth area, in the hopes that maybe THAT might help him some. He recovered within 20 minutes, closed mouth and happier, but still not as large and happy as when I bought him. <Well, I'm glad that it engaged in feeding behavior> Prior to this carpet I had a long tentacle and a carpet both die, while all the other animals are thriving (except the mushrooms, which I know are related to the anemones). I have spoken to experts at the place I bought him, and they are still at a loss as to what could cause selective anemone sickness/unhappiness. I seem to have good water flow and good lighting. Calcium is about 480 ppm, alkalinity is fine, nitrates and nitrates are perfect, zero ammonia. The only thing that has been elevated was the Phosphates, they were very high. I have since applied a Chemi-mat twice, and installed the canister filter 2 days ago (with phosphate removing media inside) to try and bring that level down. I apologize for not having measures it since then. <No problem...Phosphate is not directly implicated in causing trouble for animals, but it has been implicated in nuisance algae blooms, and is a good "yardstick" for measuring overall water quality...Keep working on removing it...> Can you suggest actions I can take, and possible causes for the anemones to be degrading? James Spillane <Well, I'm gonna stick by my theory here. If dilution of possible allelopathic chemical compounds through the techniques I've outlined above does not do the trick, I'd have to say that you may need to relocate one or more of the animals...Do let me know how this turns out. If nothing else, it's food for thought! Good luck! Regards, Scott F> james Spillane Long-Tentacled Anemone (induced) Troubles I recently purchased 4 long tentacle anemones. I added them to my system and they looked great for about 2 days. Then 3 of them started to shrink and eventually turned into mush which I rapidly cleaned up. I have checked and have had checked by my local fish store my water parameters and they are all fine. I have a 55 gallon with a Fluval canister filter, dual power heads on an undergravel filter, 60 lbs of live rock, a protein skimmer which is generating greenish material that I empty on a daily basis, and 160 watts of mixed lighting (50/50, 10k, actinic). I am concerned because this is the second time this has happened to me. I have some damsels and some turbo snails in the tank. Everything else is doing fine but I am at a loss, as is the fish store, as to what may be causing this. <Very likely one of two things or both... the specimens were "beat" otherwise doomed from the beginning from the rigors of collection, holding, shipping... and/or there was chemical, physical "incompatibility" between them... they don't "just get along" in proximity. Please see the "Anemone" sections posted on our website: www.WetWebMedia.com and the links from there on these issues. Bob Fenner> |
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