911 for Green Carpet Anenome

[swoop]

Help!!!! I just added a green carpet anenome to my 46 gallon tank on Wednesday. Acclimated him properly. All was fine untill I came home last night. He has shrivled up to about a 1/3 his size and what looks like smoke or some kind of discharge is coming from his mouth area. He barely moves and he will not eat. He has not eaten since I got him and I have tried to offer him pieces of shrimp. Is he dying and if so should I get him out of my tank? Also anyone have any idea what the smoke or liquid looking stuff is that he his emmiting? If he is dying I don't want him to pollute my tank and kill my other inhabitants.
Tank specs: 46 gallon bow front, 63 lbs live rock, 50 lbs live sand, pH 8.2, Salinity 1.023, Temp 78, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0.
All my other inhabitants are doing fine. Any help please!!!!!

 

[k.lee]

Don't EVER TRY to feed an anemonae or coral that is not expanded. If you just fed him/her, you could be seeing the extrusion of waste. Otherwise, the anem. is discharging zoozanthellae. It happens. All animals with symbiotic algae can, and will do that.
HTH
Lee

 

[swoop]

I didn't try to feed him when he had shrivled up. I tried to feed him yesterday afternoon when he was fully open and looked healthy. I still need to know if he is dying or is this temporary?

 

[reeferkeeper]

I would check my phosphate level right away. I know mine would occasionally discharge, but I also know that I lost 2 of them due to phosphate when I first started in the reefs. I had tested everything else and couldnt find anything else that was wrong...then I was told to check phosphate. Also, they hate any heavy metals if you havent tested for that.

 

[swoop]

Well sad to say I went home at lunch time and my anenome is dead. I have not tested for phosphates but I will get a kit an start. I have only used RO water so I would think my phosphates should be little to nonexsistent. Everything else in the tank is doing great. My wife and I thought about it at lunch and I think he was dying before I even got him even though he looked okay. During the acclimation process when I opened the bag he was in it smelled like a dead fish in the bag, while the other bags that contained a mitrax crab, certh snails, starfish and sea cucumber had no smell at all. When I removed his body from the tank at lunch he had a strong fishy smell. I personally think he was not too healthy when I got him and the stress of shipping and acclimation was his death nail. Anyway, I called the retailer and they have given me credit for another one when I'm ready to order one. I think I'll wait a bit and get a phosphate test kit and make sure that is okay before getting my replacement anenome. This will also allow me to make sure all my other inhabitants are okay, which they all seem to be. My orange knobby star is moving real good all over the tank.

 

[fishfood]

Swoop -- first off i have a friend up here in Pensacola who we call live oak. He is from Live Oak and they gave him that nickname in our Fraternity. His wife actually works across the hall. They both grew up in Live Oak.
Second - RO water isn't always phosphate free... The RO water that we had been getting from the lfs was loaded with phosphate because they didn't change the filter material. They found out the same week that i did and fixed the problem. Its fine now, but it goes to show that you always need to test for yourself rather than trust someone else just in case!!

 

[55reef55]

Check your water. chekc the phosphates!! i had a green bubble tip that was about 1 ft in diameter, it looked good for 2 days or so then started doing what yours is doing (or sound like anyway) and later it did die. i checked my water too late. my phosphates were high and i think that did it to him. So plz check your water and make sure everything is right dont want one more death. If your water is good then dont worry about it, many anemies do this to excreate waste, and some just for odd reasons. Hope that helps some