Anemone Lighting

[eastfernstreet]

I acquired a 5" Green BTA last week. When I leave for work in the morning it is absolutely beautiful. Fully spread out , totally inflated, mouth tightly closed, etc..

When I return in the evening, it is nearly completely closed. Whatever tentacles remain exposed are deflated (bright green still) the mouth is either invisible or sometimes "pouty".

My lights are, according to many on this site, insufficient even when fully on. (4x54W 48" HO T5's). Today I'm only letting one 54W Actinic bulb turn on. Yesterday, with only the two Actinics on it was still shriveled.

Parameters are fine: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10, 1.025, 80.5 degrees, etc.

Is this normal? Should I perhaps go with no lights for a few days? Will this hurt anything else in my tank? I am trying to be patient, but am concerned that I'm not taking the right steps -- in which case my patience is really becoming negligence.

 

[OrionN]

It is likely not have anything to do with light. I think your anemone is sick and bleached. You may have a chance if you pull it out of the tank and start to treat it with antibiotic. There are various thread on this site on treatment of sick anemone, mainly S. Gigantea and H. magnifica. (these two species are very poor shipper and often end up sick on arrival. It seem that they can be sucessfully treat if begin treatment early.
If he is mine, I would pull him out to a treatment tank and treat him with ciprofloxacin. Good luck with him. If this is what you want, search for Ciprofoxacin or Cipro, treatment on this forumn.

 

[eastfernstreet]

Thanks, Minh.

Unfortunately, I'm one of those half-a**ed guys with only the one tank. Afraid it's going to make it or not on its own.

 

[ernieq]

I have 10 BTA's in my tank with just a pair of 96 watt CF 10K and actinic bulbs. They all do the same thing each day. After ligthts on, they spread out and inflate, and toward the evening they begin to shrivel up. I never spot feed them and basically live off their Zooxanthellae and the occasional bits and pieces of shrimp that the fish miss and goes right into them. Is your anemone bleached?

 

[ken6217]

They do not need a lot of light. The issue that are having I would bet has nothing to do with the lighting.
Ken