Anemone dead?

[saltyg135er]

Hey all,

My work has a 80g corner sw tank and we had a red bubble tip anemone in there for a couple months. It moved so much and finally picked a decent spot under a big rock but was able to reach out for light and some food. About 3 weeks again we noticed that it just stayed under the rock and never reached out anymore. Now the tentacles are gone and its under the rock hanging and it inflates a but then deflate some. Any help or is it just dead? Thanks

 

[davocean]

Hard to say, pics/specs would help.

 

[davocean]

Actually, better answer is hard to say if dying or not, it will melt when dead.
Many come back from brink of death in prpoer conditions, but need all tank specs/params/light, how long running.

 

[STLmatt]

i would check on it. once they die, they do 'melt' and make a really stinky mess. if it died, the sooner youg et it out the better.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

Are you feeding it? What is the lighting? What color was it when you bought it and what color is it now? Are the tentacles long and stringy, fat and bubbled, or like little nubs?

 

[saltyg135er]

Damn, they don't even have a test kit at work so I don't know what the par are. I need to bring my camera to work to take a picture of it. It use to have nice long tentacles but now I don't even see any. I think the tank has too much phosphate in it, because there is a lot of red violet algae everywhere.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

Oh. Yes that is phosphate. You need to have lots of equipment and do a lot of maintenance to keep a SW tank. Don't keep anemones anymore until you know the tank is 100% ready. BTW, are you feeding it? It is probably eating it's own tentacles because it is starved.

 

[davocean]

I've never heard the eating own tentacles theory...
Actually, you could never feed it, and it would be fine as long as light is good, as that is their main source of energy.
So start w/ light for now.
Cyano is from excessive nutrients/phosphates.
Good skimming, less feeding, more WC's will take care of that.
Really should check params, and salinity.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

Go to Karen's Roses (it is a website) and she talks about them eating their tentacles when they are starved. It happens!

 

[davocean]

It may be possible, just haven't seen or exp that myself.
I had my LTA and Sebae for 5.5 years.
First year-year and a half I never once fed them(before this site and didn't know any better), but they did have decent light, and may have picked up occasional mysis or brine.
Gallery pics show what became of them, monsters.
Not ruling anything out, but his sounds like it's been short term in captivity.
But again, it's really a guess w/out specs.