What happened?

miles o'reef

miles o'reef

Member
Something strange happened in my tank yesterday. When I woke up the tank was very cloudy and my BTA was nowhere to be found and there seemed to be pieces of white flesh floating around.
My first thought was that the anenome died and released its innards. But, my fire shrimp, feather duster crabs and snails are all fine. If the anenome did die I would expect everything to be dead - right?
I did a 25% water change just in case but as of today, I still haven't seen the anenome and everything else is still alive. The anenome appeared fine and was eating so, if it died, I'm not sure what the cause was. One of my PC bulbs went out 2 days ago (the 10k daylight bulb) and I just replaced it last night.
Could going w/o the daylight bulb for 2 days have caused the anenome to die?(I'm assuming it is dead)
I haven't been able to check my water quality since this happened - I hope to do so tonight.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Miles
 
poiboy

poiboy

Member
I highly doubt your pc going out 2 days ago would do that. Grab some of that fleshy stuff and take a big wiff, just to confirm it. If you have any corals are they dead?
 
miles o'reef

miles o'reef

Member
I didn't think that one of the lights going out would cause it either.
Yes, I have ricordea and purple mushroom corals. The ricordea corals look fine but the mushrooms don't look as full and healthy as before but not dead.
Miles
 
poiboy

poiboy

Member
Hey miles, if your BTA is dead, doing a 25% water change will not help the matter, until you get it out. I would get it out asap!
 
miles o'reef

miles o'reef

Member
That's the problem. I don't know if its dead or not because I cannot find it. I was just assuming that it might be dead because I haven't seen it since Monday.
From what I've described, does it sound like the anenome is dead?
 
poiboy

poiboy

Member
cloudy tank, fleshy stuff, missing anemone, sounds like it. Did you do the smell test? In any case 29G tank wont last to long with a dead anemone
 
miles o'reef

miles o'reef

Member
I'm not at home right now so, I'll do the smell test when I get home this evening.
I have a guard on one of the powerheads and the other is so high up (near the top of the tank) - I thought that it was safe but I it's possible. I'll check that also when I get home since I don't think my wife will want to!
Thanks,
Miles
 
angelap

angelap

Member
The same thing happened to me last week. My ballast went out and I had to get a loner from the lfs while mine was being repaired. I also switched from using 2 white/2 blue vho bulbs to 3 blue/1 white vho. My condy (it was the size of a large softball) which looked healthy and was eating great suddenly disappeared and the tank went cloudy w/white particles floating in the water. I pulled all my lr out looking for the condy. There was no sign of it. My CBS was also missing. I did a 75% water change to save my fish and corals. The fish were gasping by this point. After the water change, everything is doing great. The only other death was a hitching crab
 
scotts

scotts

Active Member
Miles,
Consider yourself lucky. I had a carpet anenome die and it killed all the livestock in my 60 gallon tank.
Change as much water as you can and run as many filters on it that you have.
Good luck.
Scott
 
miles o'reef

miles o'reef

Member
Yeah, I think I'm going to do a larger water change this evening.
In thinking more about the powerhead, I don't think the powerhead could have shredded the anenome. The BTA was a pretty good size.
I don't think that my powerheads also have any sharp blades and I don't think that powerheads in general are powerful enough to shredd it or are they?
Miles
 
poiboy

poiboy

Member
Miles, BTA are nothing but tissue soft tissue. I don't think it would take that much to shred or tear one. Powerheads have a plastic impeller loacted inside the housing (spinning really fast) I think it could do some serious damage, even the small ones. Funny when you said you had one near the top and thought it was safe. My BTA would almost be out of water, he loved being next to the power head, clown hated it.
 
miles o'reef

miles o'reef

Member
Well, unfortunately not great news. I examined my tank closely and even removed most of the rock and took apart the powerhead that doesn't have a guard but to no avail. I still cannot find the anenome.
I extracted all of the fleshy particles and I'm sure it was the remains of my anenome. I'm wondering now if the shrimp and crabs ate up the rest of the anenome. That would be a lot though for them to consume in one night.
I tested my water and all of the parameters are great. The test results are:
PH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0 - 5ppm
S.G. : 1.024
So, I'm at a loss right now as to where it is.
Thanks,
Miles
 
poiboy

poiboy

Member
WOW! that is strange. Test results looking good. hmmm and you still have things living. I wish I was that lucky 10 yrs ago. chalk this up for the X-files. Never seen shrimp or crab eating one. I do know that sometimes banded coral's will tear one to get the food inside the anemone.
Water still cloudy?
Anything else still living?
 
jim672

jim672

Member
Miles,
Sick/dying anenomes become a fraction of their healthy size and their tissue is gelatinous feeling and very unstable. It can be pulled apart very easily. The remains of yours could have been "blown" apart by just drifting past a powerhead. You've probably already removed whatever was left of your anenome.
Keep a close watch on your water parameters but if nothing catastrophic hasn't already happened, your water changes may have, hopefully, prevented further deaths.
Jim
 
miles o'reef

miles o'reef

Member
Thanks guys for your replys and help.
jim672, your right about the anenome shrinking - I would notice that at night the anenome would do that - it would be at least half the size compared to when the lights were on.
poiboy, I did a roll call/head count this morning and everyones still alive and accounted for. I put a power filter back on the tank with a clean filter last night and the water was clear.
I didn't want to (because it's so big and the test result were fine) but my last resort is to remove the last piece of LR and examine it.
Miles
 
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