Whats Happening to My Anemone?!?!?!?!?!?!

[Reefer4ever]

What is wrong!!!!!!! Lighting is good enough because the previous owner had the nem for 2 years. If you do not know, I bought the whole tank with the nem and other various corals in it and they are doing well. I even added some more sps, plate coral, acans, and a sun coral. Oh ya; I also got an orange spotted blenny, which i may say is a VERY fine specimen, and he has made his home in a hole in a rock :D Back on track, please give your knowledge to the next generation of reefers.

Before :D
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab37/reefer4ever/New20gReefTank015.jpg

After :(
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab37/reefer4ever/sadnem001.jpg

Please help and offer your advice. I also want an ID if you can help me. Last owner said it was a green ball anemone but I have never heard of such an anemone.

Thanks in advance.

[Reefer4ever]

Anyone? help...

[StevenSeas]

looks like its unhappy obviously, the mouth is gaping open and can see in. So why is it doing this?
Did you feed it recently?
Water change?
what is your water parameters like?
Any new flow patterns?
How long has the tank been up since you bought it? (as in from the day that it got transported to your house and set up not how long he had it before)
When was the last time the light bulbs were changed?
Any stray voltage in the tank?

[jrsatx20]

Tank may be going through a cycle from the move. Did u use all the old water or did u make new water.

[StevenSeas]

^^^^ that is my initial guess as well

[Reefer4ever]

looks like its unhappy obviously, the mouth is gaping open and can see in. So why is it doing this?
Did you feed it recently? Yes. half of a silver side monday.
Water change? No
what is your water parameters like? pH-7.9 Ca-500 Kh-10 PO3-0 NO2-0 NO3-0 Am-0 I do not have Mg or I.
Any new flow patterns? No
How long has the tank been up since you bought it? (as in from the day that it got transported to your house and set up not how long he had it before) Got it last saturday(9-18).
When was the last time the light bulbs were changed? He said three months ago but one of them turns on and off.
Any stray voltage in the tank? Not sure what you mean

.

[Reefer4ever]

I saved as much old water as possible. The rest I made new. It is a 20g if you all were wondering. Has a CPR cyho 2 bak pak skimmer and it is pulling out a lot of nasty, smelly stuff.

[StevenSeas]

a few things could have likely caused this one more so than the other imo. Sometimes after feeding anem's get like this if they are over fed, and 1/2 a silverside looks like it would be too much. Food wise it should be no larger than the mouth. Also the pH is low and Ca and kH are kinda on the high side, pH if it swung recently could cause problems.

but my guess is that its going through a mini cycle (this recently after a move I find it hard to believe that your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all 0) from the move and the disturbance of stirring up the sediment and everything else, coupled with being a little over fed (they dont even really need to be fed but maybe once a month or so according to some) caused some problems.

[Third Coast Tropical]

It doesn't look good.

If the anemone is unattached....pick it up and smell it, if it stinks....get it out

[Reefer4ever]

When we got home, we took out a lot of the sand because it was a deep sand bed(5"). Upon doing so, we ran into a little obstacle. I then remembered he said he put in eggcrate covered with plastic mesh that was supposed to keep the nitrates/nitrites/ammonia down by having an open void of water under the sand bed. We took out the sand all the way to just enough to where the plastic mesh was covered by a centimeter or so of sand. We then added a fresh 20lb bag of live sand over that.

The anemone does not look big on your screen but in real life, it is pretty big and the mouth is just shy the length of what i fed it by about an eighth of an inch. Also i fed the nem with the piece i have been speaking of but i cut that piece into quarters, so I thought it would be easier to digest. So it got fed 4 one half inch pieces. When he was expanded, the mouth is big enough to consume the whole half of the silver side.

[Reefer4ever]

It is starting to look better. Not 100% better but he has expanded quite a bit since I last took his picture and looks a LOT better. I would say he is about 70% better. Some of him still looks a little bit deflated but i think this might have been a false alarm.

[Gseclipse02]

didnt you say you had flatworms ??? did you dose for it ?

[Reefer4ever]

No. This tank is worm free. Cant find any and i have looked really well. That was my other tank that had worms. I did get rid of the flatworms in that tank but sadly, I now have hair algae growing.

[Bill S]

OK, let's slow things down a bit...

The anemone doesn't need to be fed. You likely have a mini-cycle going on, and you don't need to make it worse. I'm sorry you disturbed the sand bed - that can really compound problems.

Have you tested your Ammonia and Nitrates? What are they. I'd be EXTREMELY aggressive with water changes if you have ANY ammonia or nitrates above 25.

Again, please don't feed the anemone until things are back under control. I have had over 20 anemone splits, many/most of which are in MAAST tanks today. I NEVER feed my RBTAs.

[Reefer4ever]

I tested them and got 0 for nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and phosphate. The anemone is 100% better. I think it was just expelling water or something because it now looks just like the before picture. Maybe even more puffed up.

Now i just want to know what this anemone is called...

[ErikH]

I would keep water changing, err on the side of caution. It looks very bad, so bad it's hard to believe it's back to perfect. Keep your water changes going 5g per day for a week. I have two anemones, and I have never fed them. The mother has split at least three times, at least that's all I can remember. It looks like a Green Bubble Tip.

[Bill S]

As Erik says, it's most likely a Green Bubble Tipped Anemone (BTA).

[CoryDude]

So you removed most of a deep sand bed? I'd recommend pulling everything out of the tank and replacing the sand bed w/a 1" layer of new sand.

1) set up 3 storage buckets w/fresh saltwater and use 1 for the rocks, 1 for the critters, and the 3rd for your bta and the attached rock.
2) siphon 50% of your tank water and store it for later. Then start removing the rocks, fish, and bta.
3) remove the rest of the old sand and replace with caribsea special grade reef sand or somthing else of your liking. A 1" covering should work unless you're wanting jawfish or some other burrower.
3) Shake off the rocks really well in the separate bucket. This will help remove any built up crud they've accumulated over the past 2 years.
4) return everything to the tank and refill it with the saved water and fill the rest with new salt water

Then I'd do futher 25% water changes over the next few days. This should give your tank a fresh start without having to go through a full blown nitrogen cycle. Just an idea.

[Reefer4ever]

I did all of that stuff you said all ready.

[CoryDude]

I did all of that stuff you said all ready.

Guess I missed the post where you said you replaced all the sand.

Well, now you just wait it out and quit feeding the anemone for right now. You've gotten some good tips on this thread, so just keep following the advice given. I'm guessing your anemone is a long tentacled anenome or a deflated bta.

BTW, if you've got hair algae growing then you don't have zero nitrates and phosphates. In fact, if you have anything living in the tank, you've got N and PO4 present. It may not be reading on the test kits.

[Bill S]

I tested them and got 0 for nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and phosphate. The anemone is 100% better. I think it was just expelling water or something because it now looks just like the before picture. Maybe even more puffed up.

Now i just want to know what this anemone is called...

When I see ZERO Nitrates, it makes me think there's either a problem with the test kit, or the tester. Unless you have some kind of nitrate reduction system, OR you've done a 100% water change, it should register SOMETHING. Mine are often in the 15-20 range.

[Big_Pun]

as stated before there is no reason to feed anemones unless you like watching them poo and add nitrates, i have a rbta from bill and its healthy also have 2 rock anemones from corpus one been then there almost a year, owned a huge gbta and i never fed any of them. they all get what ever food floats to them(left over fish food i also do coral frenzy and cyclopes), when i did feed them reg in past they didnt look good always spitting out stuff.

[CoryDude]

I think you're initial problem was hydrogen sulfide and sulfide deposits in the lower layers of that dsb. Here's a good article about the problem:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/rhf/index.php

If you've already replaced the sand, you've taken care of that. As long as you transported the rock in containers w/water, or they weren't kept dry for too long, during the tank move, you should be only experiencing a mini cycle. As other members have said, aggressive water changes should get you through the cycle w/o major problems.

Also, just keep removing as much of the hair algae as possible, keep up with the h2o changes, and you should come out of this just fine. But as someone else said, keep a close on that anemone. Best of luck.

[Reefer4ever]

Ok. First, I have THREE TANKS people! ONE is a 6.6g(the one that had worms and has hair algae). TWO, is the 20g(the one with the anemone and no hair algae). THREE, is a clownfish breeder tank(no babies yet because they are still young), but that is out of the question as I have not mentioned that tank until now. The anemone is looking good and has been fine since yesterday. Any other things you all want to say?

[txav8r]

Calm down sparky! LOL

They are all just trying to help.

[jrsatx20]

I would first rephrase that last statement. We are all just here to help which you had asked for. Disturbing the sand bed is more likely what made the water quality go down.

[jrsatx20]

U beat me Jack.

[Reefer4ever]

I am sorry for getting all whipped up. I understand you all are trying to help. It is just that its fine right now, so ya...

[jrsatx20]

U started out good and ended bad again.

[Reefer4ever]

I am sorry once again.

[Big_Pun]

just letting you know info on nems, after a couple feedings it will look like your first pic again and spewing stuff. just so you don't think something is wrong again. you need to take constructive criticism for what it is and not personal. everyone is here to help and learn, that way other people can read these post in the future too learn from them.

[CoryDude]

One love, one heart....let's get together and feel all right

Well, glad to hear the anem. is doing well. I've been on the receiving side of some neg. criticism, especially from bstreep (I think he likes to argue), but don't take it too personally. Once you start to meet people in the club, you'll see that most everyone around here is pretty friendly.

Hey, at least you don't have to feel the wrath of H20chem posting on this thread. Great guy in person, but get him in front of a keyboard and he'd tear you a new one!