Could my anemone be spawning?

[Far East Aquarist]

I wish I had pics to show you all but when I came home from work today my 4 bubble-tips bodies were puffed up and elongated and the tentacles were small and withdrawn.

I was very shocked by this display and checked the tank temps and parameters and all was normal. I kept an eye on them all night and then about 15 min after the lights went out on the tank I noticed the tank was cloudy.

I have been looking in the tank for the last 10 min with a flashlight and white clouds keep puffing out of the anemones. I have not seen the release of any eggs though.

The 4 anemones that I have are all clones from one original parent.

Do you think this spawning is going to cause a problem for the other tank inhabitants? The tank is small, maybe 30 gal. and I have just a mated pair of clowns (yes they spawn every week too) with only a bakpak for skimming?

Its really late for me and im not sure what to do?! Should I change the water now or just go to bed and hope for the best? BTW the tank is now really really cloudy and the skimmer is going nuts but the fish seem ok. White clouds are spewing out of the anemones in big clouds, lol.

A quick response would be great! Thanks!

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

I would perform a water change...

take a look here. Kevin talks about his spawning event, maybe it will help you determine what's going on in your tank.

hth,

Matt

 

[Far East Aquarist]

Well no doubt about it now its definately a spawning event. The anemones are still making the tank very cloudy, I havent seen any of the eggs yet. Maybe I have all males?!

After reading the article I am inclined to do a water change but I'm thinking I should at least wait till they are somewhat done spawning or i'll end up doing changes all night. I wonder how long this is going to take, i'm pretty tired, lol.

In the article he said the eggs were infertile. Would this be the same case for me since these are all clones as well?

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

I can't answer that question for you (about the eggs) 'cause I don't know!

As for waiting on the water changes, I'd begin, if you don't have some already, to mix up buckets or tanks w/ fresh saltwater, get it to match the salinity and temperature of your tank and begin doing water changes as soon as the saltwater has had time to mix. If you already have some aged SW, i'd begin performing water changes immediately.

hth,

Matt

 

[Far East Aquarist]

I have some mixed already but its not up to temp.

I am hesitant to start now because the tank is so small that once I begin draining out water the anemones will be forced to withdraw to stay submerged which will interfere with their spawn and I dont want to have to do this 2 night in a row.

I suppose I could drain and replace the water at the same time but then I'd have to wake the wife to help me out. Not sure which is trickier, attempting this myself or waking her up, lol.

Thanks for the quick responses!

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

Put the heater in there, my friend, and get it up to temp. I cannot say for sure, but I am suspicious that the following is going to happen in your tank...

Heterotrophic bacteria is going to start breaking down all that sperm, going after the carbon...

the result of this is amonia, and lots of sperm means lots of amonia, meaning an amonia spike.

your tank is cycled, but the problem here is that the nitrosomonas bacteria that should break the amonia down in your tank is intolerant of high amonia levels... and the chain will break down from there...

In other words, the bacteria that normally breaks down the amonia in your tank will not be able to handle the large amount of amonia created by the spawning event and futhermore, may start to die...

thus I think the water changes, as close to temp as possible, are the lesser of two evils here. By doing a small WC every hour or so, you may be able to prevent a large amonia spike and the above scenario won't take place...

on the other hand, I may be completely out to lunch on this, so let's hope someone else can chime in...

 

[Far East Aquarist]

Well I'd agree with your assumptions. I too am hoping someone will chime in while the water is heating up!

The poor skimmer cup on the bakpak just cant keep up and im having to dump it every 10 min or so. I think the biggest anemone is done (or close to it). The fear is that the rest will startup in sequence through the night.

Its gonna be a long night of WC's if I have to do them every hour, lol!

The article also said his spawned for a week or so. I guess I'm not going to sleep much for the rest of the week!

 

[Amphiprion]

You will find that the reaction won't be as bad in males. A good water change will still be very helpful though. Females are much more damaging on the system, due to the sheer amount of material released, including cellular 'trash' in the form of follicle cells.

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

Yes, unfortunately, you may not be getting much sleep. I hope your E. Quadricolor's make it. For anemones they are quite hardy and able to recover well, but good water conditions are going to require lots of "elbow grease" to maintain here...

 

[Far East Aquarist]

Water temp isnt quite there yet (still at the bottom of the "acceptable" range). I still dont see any eggs so I am going to assume they are all males or at least only the males are doing their thing.

I'll post a follow up after the WC but please if anyone else has any insight im keeping an eye on the forum.

Thanks for the support all!

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

best of luck!

 

[Far East Aquarist]

OK, that was quick 5 gal water change. I didnt want to do a bigger change yet because the temp was too low but I had to do something because the flashlight wouldnt even pentrate 2 inches into the tank (it was that cloudy).

Unfortunately the WC didnt even make a dent in the cloudiness of the tank! Boy can those anemones go to town!

I cant see far enough into the tank to tell what reaction the water change had on the anemones but it doesnt like it stopped them at all *sigh.

Once the water temp gets up I will change half the water in the tank. I hate to do such a drastic WC but I dont see any other way due to the extreme cloudiness of the tank.

 

[Slakker]

Since they're all clones, they will all the same sex. They are genetic copies of the anemone they split from. I'm also not sure that you'd be able to see the eggs with the naked eye...but I could be wrong.

 

[Far East Aquarist]

OMG! 50% water change, anemones exposed during WC, didnt phase them one bit, still spewing forth!

Slakker, makes sense what u said about the clones, I wasnt thinking (coz its late).

I am going to mix some more water and bring it up to temp. I've got get some sleep but I will get up in 4 hours and change the water again (praying this is ok).

I will be checking the forum before I do the change so please if anyone has some suggestions on a course of action please post.

I wonder if I can take the week off... listen boss man, my anemones spawn at night for the rest of the week so I need to stay home and sleep since i am doing water changes every hour from 10pm till 4am, ok?! Um yeah, that'll fly, lol.

 

[tpdpercula]

From what materials I have read it does sound like they are attempting to spawn. Correct, the clones will be the same sex as the original parent. I have had mine spilt 5 X with in the last year and Im in the process of purchasing a new RBTA to add a "Fresh Bloodline" to my take. Many attempt to accomplish what you are seeing. The trick is to monitor for newly spawned babies and if not try and acquire a new specimen to achieve both sexes.

Keep us posted.

 

[Amphiprion]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9338158#post9338158 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Slakker
Since they're all clones, they will all the same sex. They are genetic copies of the anemone they split from. I'm also not sure that you'd be able to see the eggs with the naked eye...but I could be wrong.

You'd know if they were eggs or not

In addition to horrible cloudiness (ZERO visibility), you get about ~250,000 of these, which makes it even worse as far as bioloading is concerned.

 

[Slakker]

I don't know why I figured you wouldn't see the eggs...I guess I was thinking along the lines of mammalian fertilization, which is on much more of a cellular scale. My mistake!

 

[Far East Aquarist]

When I got up to look at the tank it was slightly less cloudy than what it looked like after I did the WC prior to getting some sleep. I just did another 50% WC and now I can see through the tank but its not yet clear.

So far I havent noticed any loss of life to the tank, the snails, hermits, clowns, and assorted critters seem to have made it through the event. I'll come home at lunch and test for ammonia (hopefully I'll have enough time for another WC).

I cant tell the condition of the anemones but by lunchtime the lights should be on. If I had to guess I'd say that 1 possibly 2 of the anemones actually did the spawning and the other 2 are now ready to do their thing.

 

[Amphiprion]

I didn't think you would have too much of a problem, since they were males. I think that when toxicity issues occur, it is due to fouled stomach contents being released or a sudden, lethal drop in dissolved oxygen (granted the latter certainly can be caused by the former, especially if it is bacteria laden.)

 

[Far East Aquarist]

A quick update while I'm home for lunch. Everyone seems to be doing just fine. 3 of the anemones look like they are back to normal but the 4th is beginning to display the same behavior that lead up to the spawning event.

The tank is only slightly cloudy at this point and the skimmer is working in a more normal fashion.

When I get home from work tonight I will take a pic of the anemone if it continues to display the same behavior it did last night before the spawn. I will also do some tests and post the readings.

Thanks again for the help.