Dying Long Tentacle Anemone - Why?

[blusafe]

Hi, I have a red base long tentacles anemone (Antheopsis doreensis) that's dying...last week it was doing great with its entire body full and all tentacles waving happily. It was like this for about two weeks. It greedily ate a few pieces of food (squid, prawn, and shrimp). A few days ago I noticed it began to slowly decline. Now it is barely moving and rejecting all food. I have several other inverts (soft leather coral, mushroom polyps, zoanthids, tube worms, turbo snails, small clam hitchhiker (not tridacna) in this tank - all doing well. I've moved it to a bowl because of its imminent death. My wife tried to force feed some squid but it's probably too far gone to accept.

Any ideas on what is killing it?

Water: No ammonia, nitrites
100gal
~0.5 phosphate
395 Ca
14 dKH (high I know! No dosing! Salt mix tested - not cause!)
LED lighting

 

[sjwitt]

I would go to the stickies at the top of the page and read up on Cipro treatment. Don't force feed a sick anemone, it'll only make it worse.

 

[Roshan8768]

That one looks like its too far gone... I think you may have just had a bad specimen to start. As mentioned above, do cipro next time

 

[cyber98]

it doesnt look like it is dying..how deep is your sand? is the mouth gaping? is it expelling its gutts? if i were u id put it in a low flow area

 

[blusafe]

Sand is about 2.5", not too deep but I read this species preferred deeper. Mouth was not gaping and no guts expelling. It was already in a low flow area and decided to move to another low flow area.

For the cipro folks - what indiciates prophylactic antibiotic treatment? Should that be standard for all anemones because they are so prone to infection?

Initially I thought it was just normal deflation. First sign of trouble was when half the LTA had shrunken tentacles and greyish color. The other half had moderate engorgement/extension. When bought, the LTA had a strong, healthy, and quick shrinking action but it did not react vigorously when removed and touched. At that point I felt it was on the road for a backyard burial.

The nem died sometime during the night within 12 hours of removal. I suspect it was rapid lowering of DT salinity from 1.029 to 1.026sg (I really do need to build that ATO) combined with my first CaCO3 dose from 395ppm to 420ppm within 24 hours. I'm done with anemones...they really are finicky critters and require the most STABLE conditions.

 

[cyber98]

Sand is about 2.5", not too deep but I read this species preferred deeper. Mouth was not gaping and no guts expelling. It was already in a low flow area and decided to move to another low flow area.

For the cipro folks - what indiciates prophylactic antibiotic treatment? Should that be standard for all anemones because they are so prone to infection?

Initially I thought it was just normal deflation. First sign of trouble was when half the LTA had shrunken tentacles and greyish color. The other half had moderate engorgement/extension. When bought, the LTA had a strong, healthy, and quick shrinking action but it did not react vigorously when removed and touched. At that point I felt it was on the road for a backyard burial.

The nem died sometime during the night within 12 hours of removal. I suspect it was rapid lowering of DT salinity from 1.029 to 1.026sg (I really do need to build that ATO) combined with my first CaCO3 dose from 395ppm to 420ppm within 24 hours. I'm done with anemones...they really are finicky critters and require the most STABLE conditions.

I currently own an LTA and i really struggled with it, i had to put it inside a cup and fill it with sand as it was really bleached and it kept on moving around..inflating deflating just like yours. Now it is thriving and it turned from bright red to dark purple.
Sorry for your loss, if i were you I'd stabilize my water and try something easier like BTA.. LTAs are really pain it took 6 months for my LTA to start coloring up.

 

[blusafe]

What troubles me the most is that it used to look like this...but with less tentacles. Not sure how it went from super-fantastical to dead in about a week.

cyber98: just a tiny cup? I thought they needed moderate water flow?

http://www.waterworld.pk/html/anemone.html

 

[cyber98]

What troubles me the most is that it used to look like this...but with less tentacles. Not sure how it went from super-fantastical to dead in about a week.

cyber98: just a tiny cup? I thought they needed moderate water flow?

http://www.waterworld.pk/html/anemone.html

Mine hated flow it kept on detaching from the sand up untill I've decided to put it on the side of my aquarium.

Always use this website for any info
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2284131

hmm regarding the cup size it depends how big is your LTA. I cut the upper part of a bottle "Drinking water bottle", and placed the anemone with alot of sand inside it. Few months later the anemone got really sticky and changed it's coloring from bright red to purple.

Yours died from anything from a torn foot, weak light "which I doubt it takes longer than that for an anemone to die from weak lights", bad water chemistry etc...