LTA - Losing it's color

claudia2012

New Member
Hello,
I'm new at this and unfortunately now I know I should have done WAY more research before getting into it instead of just asking the pet store guys if this or that is ok for my tank, I always got a yeah that's great so i went with it. And I'm truly having a horrible experience.
I have a 45 gallon tank, 36Wx21Hx12D. 3 months old. (please don't get mad, I know it's way too early to have tried anemones, I didn't know it at the time, I assumed the pet store guy knew better). My PH keeps dropping it's currently at 7.8, Ammonia is: .50ppm, Nitrite is 0ppm, Nitrate is 5.0ppm. I have a 36" double T5 lighting system 39Wx2 with 6 moonlight LEDs. I have about 70 lbs of live rock and I have medium .5-1.5mm black sand in the tank (about 2 inches deep).
I got about 8 fish but the tank got ich and i had to return most of the fish. Here is what's currently in my tank:
1 sand sifting goby
1 sand sifting starfish
1 peppermint shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp (red skunk)
1 saddleback clownfish (an 1.5 inches)
1 percula clownfish (tiny about an inch)
1 ocellaris clownfish under an inch (he's in the process of dying :( )
8 hermit crabs
2 feather dusters
1 LTA
2 hammer corals
I had a bubble-tip anemone, he was about 8 inches wide when fully opened but he got sucked up by my filter. It happened overnight and in the morning the tank looked like i'd poured a gallon of milk in it. It's cleared up now but my levels are still off. They had been at 0 before then and my ph had been between 8.2 and 8.4. Needless to say I covered up my filter that same day.
I'm concerned with my LTA. His foot was bright orange when i bought him. When i put him in the tank he started moving around (trying to find it's spot) he squeezed himself through a small crevice of rock and after that i noticed he had white stuff on the foot. I put him in a small breeder tank that hangs off the side of the tank for about a week and cleaned it everyday (slime everywhere, just syphoned out the slime without touching him) until his foot was free of the white stuff.
The LTA has been laying on its side ever since he hurt himself. He never attached himself to anything or buried himself. I didn't have the right sand bed for him. Now the LTA is very bleached, his foot is barely orange and his tentacles are brownish/tan. He won't take any food. I've had him for 20 days. I've tried giving him silversides, shrimp and squid. I try once every few days, I don't try to force feed him all these foods in one sitting and I give him very small pieces. But he never takes them in. I hope he's getting some of the mysis i'm feeding the fish. I really want to help him get better. I read they like soft mud-like sand so i bought caribsea life reef sand ready to use (it came in a 20lb bag with water in it). I put a gallon tank inside my 45 gallon tank with about 4 inces of this soft sand to see if it helped him. His color came back a tiny bit since last night when i did that.
This was his color when I first got him.
" data-type="61" src="https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/data/1/1a/1a8800ff_IMG_2792.jpeg
This is the white stuff healing.

This is his color now. His foot is fully healed.
I hope someone can help me figure out how to help him. And btw my 2 of the 3 clowns that I still have still have ich. One of them never had dots on him but I'm sure he has it too. I've been treating the tank with Herbatana Reef & Marine safe Microbe Lift. Here's the link: http://www.microbelift.com/products/home-aquarium/reef-and-marine/herbtana-reef/
BTW the LTA was not moving at all in the tank since i put him back in after he healed, so I figured I'd try the soft sand I know he doesn't have much room to move in the gallon tank but he's wasn't moving either way so i tried that. I was hoping he'd settle or move or something and I am willing to change my sand bed to help him survive. The sand however is very expensive and i don't want to change it unless it will help him.
Thanks in advance for any input.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Hello and welcome to the site....
My goodness, I'm sorry to hear of all your trouble. 2 clown fish is enough..too many and they fight. The anemone needs super strong lighting. You have to cover all power heads, because as you have discovered the hard way...they get sucked up. (Just in case you don't have them) You do need power heads besides the filter...the wave is the life of the ocean and your SW tank.
The anemone is super stressed. They need metal halides or super bright LEDs to really be happy...they say T5HO can support them, but from experience...it would take an 8 bulb unit to be bright enough.
You also already know that the tank is too new to support it as well, they do not handle any change to the water at all. The white stuff on his foot was nothing to be concerned about. Moving it to a 1g tank without the proper lighting was not a good idea.
The ich medicine is not good for inverts, also why the anemone is suffering and on top of it all, it doesn't work. You need to remove all fish to a quarantine tank, and leave the display tank fish free for 6 to 8 weeks. The inverts are safe and can't get ich, without a host the parasite will die off...upping the temp to 82/84 will make it go thru it's life cycle faster. Treat the fish in the quarantine/hospital tank with Hypo or copper (NEVER the display tank)
 

reefr

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/393012/lta-losing-its-color#post_3493652
Hello and welcome to the site....
My goodness, I'm sorry to hear of all your trouble. 2 clown fish is enough..too many and they fight. The anemone needs super strong lighting. You have to cover all power heads, because as you have discovered the hard way...they get sucked up. (Just in case you don't have them) You do need power heads besides the filter...the wave is the life of the ocean and your SW tank.
The anemone is super stressed. They need metal halides or super bright LEDs to really be happy...they say T5HO can support them, but from experience...it would take an 8 bulb unit to be bright enough.
You also already know that the tank is too new to support it as well, they do not handle any change to the water at all. The white stuff on his foot was nothing to be concerned about. Moving it to a 1g tank without the proper lighting was not a good idea.
The ich medicine is not good for inverts, also why the anemone is suffering and on top of it all, it doesn't work. You need to remove all fish to a quarantine tank, and leave the display tank fish free for 6 to 8 weeks. The inverts are safe and can't get ich, without a host the parasite will die off...upping the temp to 82/84 will make it go thru it's life cycle faster. Treat the fish in the quarantine/hospital tank with Hypo or copper (NEVER the display tank)

agreed
 
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