What's my anemone doing

sly

sly

Active Member
I have an LTA with a true perc. The past few nights it has shriveled up. Tonight after the lights went out, it was shriveled and almost turned upside down. It had a jelly like sack comming out of its "mouth". When the lights come on it goes back to normal. The fleshy foot looks lumpy when it does this. What's going on?
Is it splitting or is something wrong? The clownfish is just chillin' while all this is going on. Tonight I cleaned some of the substrate but I don't think it's affected it since it was doing it previous nights.
My nitrate, nitrite, ammonia are all 0. SG 1.023. Temp 83. pH 8.4.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
These pics were taken tonight with the lights off
The arrow points to the sack.
In the day it looks normal and fills out nicely.
It's gotten darker since I upgraded my lighting. I'm running 390watts of PC lights.
 
giraffemaster

giraffemaster

Member
Mine get a little smaller and close up at night. I think this is just protecting itself from predators. Also there is no point for it to stay open since there is no light to do photosynthesis.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Honestly I don't know, I've never seen anything like that.
First question: who dropped the bubble gum in the tank for the anemone to get a hold of....J/k

Second, can I use that pic and send it to someone for further imput?
I'll need to know a few things.
Lighting? time on?
Age of tank? size?
calcium alkalinity?
Any other stinging corals nearby?
Is this sac coming from the mouth of the anemone?
Is the foot planted or loose?
most bizzare
Thomas
 
sly

sly

Active Member
Here's a pic I just took after the lights had been on about an hour.
Specs are:
72gal bowfront- 390 Watts of PC lighting (4 bulbs of 50/50 and 2 03 actinics)
Tank established for 2 years 3 months
corraline growing all over tank, don't test for calc. but test for alkalinity which is at ~200 (KH) ppm. Dose with Kent Tech CB to control alk. which also has calc in it.
Dose once a week with Iodine and Iron
Feed anemone once a week with turkey baster (squid mostly)
Clown fish feeds it also
10 mangroves in refugium
Kent Skimmer with 25mg/hr ozone
[edit] foot is loose but surrounded by rocks. I dug out some of the CC for the foot to fit in. In the daytime it turns back upright.
It's the only anemone in the tank. It's my first one. I have a feather duster and a bunch of turbo snails also.
It looks like the bubble is comming out of its mouth.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Are you running the ozone through carbon after skimmer?
Iodine and Iron why? for the mangroves?
Thomas
 
sly

sly

Active Member
No carbon right now but I have in the past. I don't smell any ozone around the tank and 25mg/hr is supposed to be a little small for a 72gal tank so I'd hope I wasn't dosing too much.
Iron for mangroves, Iodine for inverts (including anemone)
[edit] These are the Kent Iron and Iodine suppliments
Also I sometimes mix the food with 2 drops of Kent Garlic Extreme while it's thawing in the cup. (The fish love that cup) :happyfish
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Sly I still haven't gotten the answer from the folks I was aksing, however I did find this out there in cyberspace. The answer might be something to consider, I'm not sure.
Thomas
Question........I have a 55 gal. saltwater tank (approx. 6 mo. old) and recently added a giant green anemone. The anemone formed a large white "balloon" structure from the "mouth". Any help as to what is going on would be greatly appreciated.
Answer.......Anenomes are very sensitive to Ph changes. Perhaps your Ph is lower than the source tank of theses anenomes. Also make sure that in bagging and introducing anenomes not to take them out of the water as their thin membrane can not withhold the forces of gravity. Always bag them and release them underwater so they will not rupture from their own gelatinous mass. another possibility is high gas levels of one type or another. Fish are more able to cope with fluctuations in gas levels than anenomes. If one Anenome should die it often causes a chain reaction, because the anenomes are very rich in protein and create a high ammonia condition as they dissolve. If this should start happening remove any mucus left over from the anemones that have deteriorated.
Well at least we have one opinion.
So how is yours doing now?
 
sly

sly

Active Member
It's been looking better at night but for the past 2 days it's not been opening up much. The coloration looks good and none of the tenticles are degrading, but it's been laying on its side not opening up like it was last week. I turned off my ozone yesterday to see if it affected it any...
I fed it yesterday (squid in a turkey baster). It may or may not have taken anything. I'm not sure. The food stuck to the tenticles but I don't know if it ate anything or if it just floated away later. The clown has not changed any. She still swims in the tenticles like normal and keeps it clean. :notsure:
I'm not sure if this is something that anemones do sometimes or if this is a sign of something bad...
Thanks for looking into this for me.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
I just did another water test. For some reason my pH was down to 7.8. My alk was also low. I haven't done a test in a little over a week. My amon, nitra, nitri were all still 0. SG was 1.023.
I added some more Kent Tech CB to raise the pH and my alk back up. I'll get it back up to 8.4 and see if this causes the anemone to open back up. If not I'll just do a water change and see if that helps. Maybe there is something in the water that I can't test for. Maybe that's causing my pH to keep dropping.
Any ideas on what could cause my alk and pH to drop?
 
T

thomas712

Guest

Originally posted by Sly
Any ideas on what could cause my alk and pH to drop?
It naturally gets used, adding to much calcium can do it, air pollution is a possiblility.
Check magnesium and Calcium as well.
Thomas
 
sly

sly

Active Member
Air polution is fine (nobody smokes here).
I've heard about the relationship between calc and other minerals. I think I read somewhere that if you dose too much magnesium or something, then your calc will not dissolve or vice versa. I need to test for these and start dosing I guess...
Do you know where I can find some information on the role of minerals to corals and inverts? I want to keep my water in excellent quality but none of my books mention diet or mineral adding or anything like that.
Here's what I test for: pH, Alk, Nitra, Nitri, Ammon, Temp and SG.
What do I need to add for testing? I only have one anemone now but will eventually have a full reef.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
Heheh! U said poop!

I don't know if it is or not. I've seen my clown pull dark stringy stuff out of the mouth before but the bubble thing is different.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
I've slowly been bringing my pH back up. I finally got it about 8.4. It was like that most of the day but still didn't open up much.
On a side note my mangroves had some browning on the leaves which I read is an indication that they are not getting enough nutrients so I added a little iron to the tank while I was at it. I also added some iodine as well.
After about 30 minutes of adding the iron and iodine, the anemone opened up fully; first time in a little over 2 days. It looks very good now.
I wonder what made it open? Was it the iron, pH, iodine, or alk? Hmmm....:notsure:
 
sly

sly

Active Member
Here's a pic I took tonight after the lights went off. Doing much better. :jumping:
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Wow, looking much improved since the last photos.
Continue to monitor what you are doing and the anemone, I also think bringing up the ph may have something to do with it, now that I see the results.
Good work and good luck with it.
Thomas
 
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