Flower Anemone expelling waste or dying?

[brandon.merritt]

I have a flower anemone that I received in December. He's been doing really well until yesterday when he shrunk and a began pushing out what looks like waste. It's white and has a cottage cheese looking texture. What's weird is that the anemone turned himself upside down to do this.

My water quality is good and the light is good so unless there is something attacking it, I can't figure out why it would be dying.

Any thoughts?

 

[divemonster]

what are your water parameters? Saying they're "good" is not specific enough...it's rather like a user telling you, "my website doesn't work." How often do you perform water changes? Is this anemone in your 12g tank? What do you feed it and how often? What other invertebrates/fish do you have in the tank with the anemone?

When my anemones expel waste it is usually brown and stringy. I did have one that recently expelled whitish stuff in a spume and I thought it was reproduction related. Another anemone behavior I've noticed is how they exchange water by shrinking up to release "old" water in order to replace it with "new."

 

[brandon.merritt]

The pH is about 8.1, Free Ammonia is under 0.1, Low concentration of Total Ammonia (within acceptable range on my testing kit) Nitrates are less than .1. Water temp stays around 72 degrees. All this is inline with what I understand to be good from my testing kits and available info.

Yep it's in a 12g tank.

I had a clownfish and a algea blenny but lost them to a hitchhiking Mantis. The mantis has been removed. Every once in a while I'll remove a maturing gorilla but they are usually tiny. I don't feed much, I put in some frozen mysis shrimp every so often but am worried about over feeding the tank since nobody is in there.

All that's left is a Rose anemone, the Flower anemone, a brittle star, and a peppermint shrimp.

I do water changes every few weeks.

It's possible I'm not feeding them the right things.

I just don't seem to be getting traction with this thing. On top of it, one of the fans in my nanocube sparked smoked this morning.

 

[brandon.merritt]

http://twitpic.com/3j117 Not the best photo, but this is how the anemone is looking at the moment. The tank is also pretty cloudy.

 

[divemonster]

Brandon,
In a tank that small (12g) you should try to do a weekly water change. The corals and liverock use the minerals and trace elements in the water and even though your pH, NH+ and NO readings are within acceptable parameters, water in a small volume gets "old." From what I have read about keeping anemones they need excellent water conditions to thrive, especially species from indo-pacific oceans.

Was 72F a typo or do you keep your tank that cool? I've had a mantis in my 6g nano with a baby clownfish and the mantis never showed aggression toward it so I was surprised to see that yours took out a blenny and a clownfish. I have seen the blenny and a mantis scrap it out over a bit of food but my blenny is very cheeky and has...um...brass ones the size of texas...if you get my drift. If you are keeping your tank at 72F maybe they died and you caught the mantis eating a dead fish. Did you see the mantis catch the fish or did you see it with a corpse?

As for feeding the tank...there are so many ways to feed your reef tank. It's good that you are worried about causing pollution through overfeeding in a tank that size. Feeding mysis shrimp only may not be enough variety. Some of the more experienced reefkepers probably have really good advice to offer you. I have used a frozen product called Reef Plankton in the past, but that stuff needs to be thawed and rinsed before adding it to your tank to prevent phosphate woes. I chose it because it was made with a variety of "meats."

 

[brandon.merritt]

That thing scared the crap out of me Thanks for the advice. I've got a tank heater. But have been afraid to use it in such a small space. I know I'm really new to this so I'm trying to stay positive. I just want to get things stable and get a few fish. And hopefully have them live.

 

[divemonster]

We all want you to succeed, too. And remember this about advice: it's out there everywhere. Everyone has advice, the hard part is finding the practical advice that works for your tank and your schedule.

Smaller tanks require much more work (weekly water changes for example) as opposed to the big tanks (like a 90g where I know reefkeepers who do water changes every 6-8 weeks. They have the luxury of a bigger water volume).

 

[divemonster]

how's your anemone?

how's your anemone?

Brandon,
How are things going in your tank? After re-reading your post I realized that you have 2 anemones in your tank, a Rose anemone and a flower anemone. Did you get the Rose anemone for the clownfish to host? Did you know those anemones come from 2 different oceans? I've read about bad things happening when placing anemones from different parts of the world in a small enviroment like a nano tank. They wage a kind of chemical warfare and end up killing each other. I have no personal experience with it since I keep a regional biotope rather than a mixed reef.

Maybe other TBS reefers have had success with different ocean anemones in their tanks. I'd like to hear about their experiences, especially if they have been successful in a nano environment.

 

[brandon.merritt]

Teri,
Well things went from bad to worse that weekend. Again, my wife and made some seriously rookie mistakes and wound up crashing the tank. It was sad just about did us in. I called the LFS and talked to them about the viability of the liverock and livesand and we decided to upgrade our tank to an Oceanic Biocube and start again.

The tank fully cycled last weekend and we reintroduced some livestock. We now have a modest cleaning crew of snails, hermits, a marbled fromia and a peppermint shrimp.

I might have made another mistake by purchasing a Neon Green BTA and a Golden band clownfish, but we felt that we wanted to enjoy the tank rather than "live cautiously" like we did the last time. We just went through so much timid monitoring we never really tried to enjoy it.

I think we'll be better. I'm on edge with the BTA, but it's a good feeling.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[liverock]

Hmmm

Hmmm

What happened?

From your pictures, everything is alive and happy, water is clear.....looks like a very happy tank?

Richard TBS

 

[brandon.merritt]

On the day of the crash the salinity was off the chart. We screwed up and topped off with saltwater thee day before. It was a significant topoff and I think it pushed us over the edge. The only other factor was the anemone. It released a thick cloud the same day. I swear it was the perfect storm. Believe it or not my rock is still beautiful. I still have barnacles. I still have life. My crabs and stars are gone though. Makes me sad!

 

[noahm]

Look at it this way. Still have good rock. Tank upgrade . Learned the rookie mistake... Just chill for a while and enjoy whats there. Probably the BTA was pushing it, but just don't add anything for a while and keep up on water quality. If you stick to just a few fish....

that golden band is, I assume, a yellow striped maroon. Read up on them as much as you can. You may want to trade for something a bit smaller and less aggressive as an adult. They are pretty, but often bring regret.

 

[brandon.merritt]

The LFS definitely called it a yellow striped maroon. He's tiny at the moment, but I'll keep an eye on him. The tank is going great. I just finished a water change this morning and everyone is really happy. The rock life is coming out more and more each day. Pretty hardy stuff!