Anemone shrank up in half a day...HELP!

[ajbeck78]

Ok I could use your help with this one. I have had this really nice anemone (I think bubble tip although its not very bubbly) that is hosted by a medium sized maroon clown in a 14g biocube for about 3 weeks. It has always been nice and full grabbing passing food and being fed krill by the clown. I came home today and it has shrank to practically nothing. it looks shocked. My mushrooms and other fish, snails, and hermits are all fine. Checked the water and it reads... salinity 1.023, pH 8.2, ammonia 0.25, Nitrite 0.0, nitrate 20 ppm. I will do a 20% RO water change tomorrow but I do like 15% every week. Any help???? One last thing, another small clown came up missing in the tank about 4 days ago..its a mystery what happened to him.

 

[Mel-E-Mel]

it is normal for anemones to shrink up. they usually do this to release waste and will blow back up in a couple hours.

 

[Jake_07]

Ur ammonia is to high it should be 0 maybe that is what is causing it also ur nitrates are probly a bit to high water changes will help

 

[adtravels]

when settled anemones wont do this all the time, only infrequently, ammonia should be 0 for all inverts especially anemones, also it may stay deflated for more than a couple of hours with nothing to worry about.

 

[dc]

I'm always amazed how small they can shrink up when they expell.

 

[garygb]

The fact that your ammonia is detectable and that your nitrates are 20ppm suggests that all is not right. Do you have a skimmer? Do you have a deep sand bed? Do you use activated carbon? You said you do weekly water changes, that's good. The other things I mentioned might help with the parameters.

 

[Mel-E-Mel]

I overlooked your ammonia level and everyone here is correct about it should being undetectable.

 

[Toddrtrex]

[welcome]

Like everyone has said, the ammonia should be zero.

But, I am wondering if other issues are playing into this. You stated that this is in a 14 gallon biocube ( personally, I think that is too small, but...) and you have a medium sized maroon clown. How big is the clown compared to the anemone? Maroons are very hard on anemones, and I can assume that the anemone isn't all that large because of your tank size. So that might be stressing out the anemone too.

 

[ajbeck78]

Thanks guys for all your help. You were right it reinflated later on last night. I didn't know that they occationally shrank up to expell wastes. He looks back to normal know and the maroon clown is happy. I am too. Thanks again!!!

 

[ssagent]

Anenome is very sensitive to water quality.