Help! Is Anenome dying?

[hawnboy69]

Hi all
I just started a reef tank, 55 gal. I've had this anenome for almost 2 weeks now but now some of its tentacles are shriviling up and turning green. Amonia, Nitrate, nitrite are all low or within norm. Am I missing something.
thanks
Gerald

 

[carrie1429]

What kind of lighting do you have and how new is your tank? Anemones do not do well in new tanks they need well established tanks that are at least 4-5 months old.

 

[jonthefb]

I agree with carrie that anemones dont do well in new tanks, but he might be disturbed, and is therefore deflating his tentacles. is anyting picking on it? It also could be excreting dead zooxanthellae, and used food. Anemone's often shrivel up before they excrete the brown substance through their oral opening. This happens to corals too. keep your eye on it. Are you feeding it at all? and do you have a host clown for it at all? clownfish do fine without anemones but anemones will starve and perish without a clownfish. if you dont have a clown then you need to be feeding the anemone at least once a week with meaty foods.
good luck
and keep us informed as to how its doing!
jon

 

[kyaney]

I don't agree with johnthefb. I always say to each his own, but I don't think that you should feed an aneome once a week. I have 7 of them in my three tanks, some of them I have had for over 5 years. I have never lost one (as I read so many threads about people that do). I think the biggest reaason that they die is because people overfeed them and they mess with them too much. I feed mine maybe once a month, and I don't think I have to do that. Sometimes they shrivel up and completly disappear----leave them alone, they do that! I have had some go away for two or three days at a time, only to return to its full glory. Last week one of them that had been in its position for 3.5 years decided to move to the other side of the tank. Who knows why. It was happy where it was and is happy where it now is. Like I said, frequent feeding isn't necessary, and in my opinion, detramental. There was a post a few months ago asking people how long they have had their aneome. They majority of the responses were less then a year before they died.

 

[joe's reefer]

u might be missing a few major neccessities calcium ,stronium,iodine,iodide and possibly strong lighting.those are some major necessities.if i were i would by some kent liquid reactor and lugols solution and start adding it daily with the reactor and weekly with the lugol's

 

[lnarobbins]

alls I have to add is that you need good water flow, it helps in 2 ways, one it removes waste and second it brings food to the anenome
hope this helps
Alan

 

[hawnboy69]

thank you
well the tank has been running for 2 months now. I have 2 PHs so the current should be fine. I did check the calcium/akalinity and used the ESV buffer to bring it(bringing) back up. Ph was at 8.0. Amonia .25. Litghting I have 2x65 watt lamps. 10,000K daylight and 50% actinic lamp side by side. I did notice a pepermint shrimp climbing all over it. Could this be it? I could remove it to my FOWLR tank.
thanks again
Gerald

 

[daisy]

I would suggest some water changes. ~Any~ amonia is bad.

 

[jonthefb]

Kyaney, i too have had anemones for about three years now. I acquired two bubble tips originally, only to have one divide on me so now have three. They too do the same thing as yours disappearing for a short period of time only to reappear somewhere else in the tank. I also agree with your statement of to each his own. My point was jsut that if you have an anemone with a clownfish, you need to feed it significantly less if at all, because this is one of the benefits of the anemone from its symbiosis with the clownfish. The clownfishfeeds, grooms, and takes general maintenance and care of its anemone while the anemone protects the clownfish from predators by offering it a safe haven full of stinging cells that would harm its foes. i have had anemones with clowns and without, and without a clown i have found that the anemone does better with infrequent feedings. I personally dont feed mine once a week, but try to at least twice a month, if they dont have a host fish. On the other hand, if they do have a host clown i hardly feed at all, because when i feed the fish, the clown takes pieces of the meaty foods such as mysis shrimp back to the anemone. all that our tanks are are experiments in biology and that being said there are about a million different ways of doing things, as weve all encountered here on the board. what works for me might not work for you, but im still gonna throw it out there so that others may try it and have success. That is what is soooo cool about this hobby. Its one giant science experiment!
good luck
jon

 

[hawnboy69]

well i did a partial water change. amonia buffer and moved it higher up on the rocks. He looks better now. He has two clowns feeding him and fending of the shrimp.
thanks for the suggestions

 

[saltyrich]

It doesn't appear that you have enough light IMO for an anemone. What type of anemone is it? I think that you probably need 1 more powerhead as well. I don't think 2 in a 55 is quite enough. Peppermints won't bother an anemone.