Carpet Anemone Question

[NCC-1701]

I have been maintaining a small 40 gallon reef tank for six years. Last year I also set up a 215 gallon tank which has been doing very well. Two weeks ago I added a very nice carpet anemone to the tank which slowly declined and died. The anemone was slowly acclimated to the tank for approximately one hour. The anemone never ate when offered food. There was also a maroon clown fish which hosted in the anemone. The tank is heavily loaded with corals which are continuing to do very well. Water parameters are as follows:
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 0
temp = 80 degrees
specific gravity = 1.026
calcium = 425
alk = 8.8

The tank is lit with three 150 watt metal halides and four 96 watt actinics.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why the anemone did not survive.

 

[COreefer]

Perhaps the anemone was doomed from the get go...how did it look when you purchased it? Also how did it die? Was it a slow decline...did it bleach...did it disentigrate???

 

[NCC-1701]

Thanks for the reply. It looked very good when purchased. It quickly attached to a rock for about a week and hosted a clownfish. The one unusual thing I noticed as compared to the anemone in my 40 gallon tank is that the other anemone would only close up when fed, where the new anemone would be closed and pulled in for a while, then would open up again and look healthy, a couple of hours later it would close up again. After about a week it started to slowly detatch from the rock as the mouth grew larger and appeared to turn inside out. After that it started to come apart.

 

[vaporize]

I have alot of the same experience with haddoni carpets that do the same thing lately.

You mentioned that there are other anemones in your tank, if so what are they. I have green BTA and rose BTA that have been living in captive environment for a long time, and also alot of softie -> SPS (no leather) in the tank, I am wondering if there are chemical warfare going on that contributes to the decline. The carpets were well and eating for a week or so before it decide to decline. This is a matured tank with good water parameters.