Dead Long Tentacle Anemone

salty107

salty107

New Member
Hi everyone,
We purchased a long tentacle anemone about 5 days ago, and it is now dead. After we purchased it and brought it home, I did some research on anemones to make sure we acclimated them correctly and to make sure our water was in good condition to introduce him to the tank. We left it in the bag overnight because our nitrate level was WAY too high to put it in and I think this didn't help anything. But anyhow, he was fine in the tank for several days now, he crawled to the back corner behind a rock and hid. He was seeming to do ok, he was puffed up and all of his tentacles were full of air and he was looking good. Today, we went to check on him and he was all shriveled up and was like a quater of the size that he was earlier today :*( We have a Zoo-Med Light fixture with two T5 HO bulbs. 1 blue, 1 white light. We have a 56g tank, that is about 25" deep I would say. The odd thing is, this anemone went from looking great to like completely decomposed in a matter of hours and I figured he would slowly decay if he was going to die but it was like insanely fast. Any help or advice on anemones would be great. Thank you!
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator

You don't have enough light for an anemone

How old is the tank?
+1
Also, remove it, a dead/decaying anemone can really create havoc on your water quality.
How high were the nitrates?
 
gemmy

gemmy

Active Member
Welcome to the site! There is some FANTASTIC advice being given here. Anemones have very specific needs and IMO are best suited for intermediate hobbyists.
 
luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
Make sure he is dead. I have a lta and he will go from his full size down to a silver dollar ball when he wants to. Anemones will be one of the first things in your tank to let you know if something is wrong.
 
salty107

salty107

New Member
The tank has been up for about a year now. Can you explain what you mean by "you dont have enough light". I was told by the owners of the fish store that our lights were fine. They indicated all we needed was a blue and white light that had T5 HO lighting. And yes, we confirmed that he was dead, he smelled awful and was decaying everywhere. Yes, we removed him once we were sure he was gone as I knew it would wreck havoc by increasing ammonia/ nitrites. To answer your question about how high our nitrates were, lets say this.... if you look at a test stick for testing waters, it was the very far right color, which was the worst it could be.
We have had saltwater fish for well over 5 years now, this was our first time trying an anemone. To be completely honest, we haven't really lost too many fish or inverts. But, the biggest problem we are facing here is just differing opinions when it comes to this hobby. I just wish the store owners would have inquired about our water quality more before selling us an anemone. We have been told that if we didn't have corals, we didn't need a protein skimmer. At the same time, we haven't really done a lot of water changes either which is bad on our part but we never knew that if we didn't nitrates would skyrocket. We have purchased a protein skimmer now and plan to do water changes regularly so that this doesn't happen again. =(
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Anemones need intense lighting....metal halides are best, BUT you can keep them under a good set of T5's.....2 bulbs is not enough...for example....I have 4 bulbs on a 10G
for a 56G I would think you would need a good 6 bulb set at least....
DID you say test strips???? If so throw them out...they are really worthless and inaccurate.....you need a kit like api master kit (YES the test tubes)
Sorry it died.....I lost a few when I first started by listening to the "wrong" people :(
 
gemmy

gemmy

Active Member
You'll also find the people around here are pretty friendly and even helpful. Unfortunately, many LFS's are out there to just make a buck. More often than not they will tell you what you want to hear so that you will make a purchase. Some even try to sell you crazy add-ons to make even more $$.
 
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