First casualty of a powerhead

spiderwoman

Active Member

We had a nice Condi anemone that was flourishing in our tank and had doubled its size since we got it 6 weeks ago. I re-aquascaped the tank on Sunday from 1 single island into 2 rock mounts and added a new powerhead (Magnum 1200). Yesterday the Condi started moving around and got off the left side mount and wondered around the right mount and started climbing up that rock. Around 2:30pm today I saw it half way up the rock reaching for the new powerhead and I didn't think anything of it.
4:30pm I come downstairs from my office getting ready to pick up my girls from daycare and can't find the anemone anywhere. I thought it was hiding under the rock or something and that is when I saw this pink blob sticking out from the suction side of the powerhead. I almost cried :( There was nothing I could do for the Condi, it was already half gone

Now that raises a question... did the Condi dispurse something toxic to the water when it died or will the water be OK? I haven't tested it yet and am not sure what to test it for?
TIA
 

keith burn

Active Member
I have lost one like that sorry it is not fun but IMO no i just did w/c of 4/5in 2 times in the next week and all was ok for me. Good luck and sorry
 

babyjeep21

New Member
I feel your pain. We lost our GBTA this weekend. We have a canister filter and the little guy worked his way over there and lodged himself into it. This must have happened during the night because when we woke up, he was half sucked into our filtration system. He was my fiance's baby, so I had to pull the whole thing apart and get him out of there. Not a fun job. We learned our lesson though. Gotta put sponge or something on top of those things.
 

granny

Member
It is sooo important to cover those intakes and overflows. Ladies knee highs work well.
when my BTA split a few montha ago, both pieces wandered, which worried me a little trying to keep track of them. Finally the parent part moved back to its permanent spot in the tank, near the wavemaker powerhead. The other disappeared. I searched for days and moved rocks. Then one evening, I heard this loud slurping sound coming from my overflow. Looked in and there was my poor BTA baby half barely h olding on to the top rim while its body was sucked down the tube. How it got past the prefilter and over the top of the overflow is beyond me, but it did.
I turned off everything, gently pried it out and set in down in the tank between a couple of rocks thinking it was a goner. It was flat and limp. Surprise, surprise, the next morning it had perked right up and found itself a new spot where it stayed.
 

anonome

Active Member
This is a very good learning experience for all new comers. Sorry, though that it happened to yours. Intakes will also make mush out of nudibranchs also. So, use sponge prefilters whenever having anemones and nudi's.
A good water change and running new carbon will help with any pollutants that may be in the water.
Be sure to frequently rinse out the prefilter as not to clog their effectivness.
 

spiderwoman

Active Member
Thanks guys!
This sure was a wakeup call for me. I'm not going to get another anemone for a while and will check on all openings to be sure that any of our fish can be in danger. I felt so bad for the Condi :cry
 
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