GBTA Dying in front of my eyes... Help!

[Mastermind]

I got an RBTA from the LFS this past Saturday. I did a 1 hour slow-drip acclimation, then put him into the display. He was fully inflated, and looked very good that night. The next morning, I found him on the back of a rock, facing the back of the tank, but still inflated and looked good. Later on Sunday, he had disappeared, so I figured he was down in the rocks making his way to the other side of the tank. Woke up Monday morning and found him squished between a piece of rock, and the glass, but this time close to the front of the tank. He still looked good! This morning I checked on him before I went to work, and he had himself on the same piece of rock, but not squished anymore, still looking good. Just got home from work about 15 minutes ago with some silversides to feed him, only to find a half-dead anemone. He's still on the same piece of rock, fully deflated, almost looks like he's inside out. The tentacles are so deflated they're completely flat, no longer round. I picked up the rock, and brought him closer to the top of the tank, and gave it a rocking motion, to simulate waves, and see if I could get a response. A FEW of the tentacles started to fill, telling me he's not dead... but he's still not looking good at all. Any suggestions?

Water params -
Amm - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
PH - 8.2/8.3
Temp - 80.1F
SG - 1.025

He currently looks like he's "melting" off the rock...

 

[revenant]

oh man.. sorry to hear about that.. I think that's a goner.. if it's really melting away and releasing mucousy looking stuff into your water you should probably pull him from the tank before he polutes the whole tank.. those guys put off a ton of amonia when they die... maybe quarantine him to a bowl or bucket while you see what happens.. and put a couple drops if iodine (lugols) in there.. but it does not sound good at all.. sorry about that!

 

[Slakker]

What about your Alk and Ca? Any other changes in your tank that could be responsible for this? Perhaps a chunk of salt creep falling on him or something (I've heard a story or two about salt creep falling on corals and damaging them). Anything copper come in contact with your water recently?

Until he actually starts to dissolve, there's hope. If he's dissolving, you need to remove it asap before it fouls up your water quality.

I'm very sorry to hear that he's having trouble...i hope he pulls through for you.

 

[traveller7]

Re: GBTA Dying in front of my eyes... Help!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10889759#post10889759 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mastermind
He currently looks like he's "melting" off the rock...

Picture would help.

 

[Mastermind]

Sorry, by "melting", I didn't mean dissolving. He was drooping very badly, as if he was going to slide off.

Well, since posting this all of 20 minutes ago, I cut 1/4 of a silverside off for him. It stuck to him as soon as I placed it in his tentacles. He slowly (I mean SLOWLY) got it to, and into his mouth. From the point that his mouth closed until now, he's probably gotten 3 times bigger than he just was. Tentacles still aren't back to normal, but at least he's not shriveled up. Is it possible he was just hungry? Everything I've read says not to feed or disturb in any way during the first week.

In the mean time, I'm off to PetSmart to grab some more test kits, cause I'm out of Alk, Ca, and dkh.

Leave me something good to come back to

Oh, camera is at work, so pictures are out...

 

[Moonstream]

expelling waste?

 

[bencozzy]

usually if you can move them through the water and get a response when they are deflated like that it usually means they arent getting enough flow, what is your turn over rate?

 

[Slakker]

Shoot...I missed the part about him being new. It's common for anemones to deflate after being introduced to a tank, it takes them a while to equalize the water inside of them to the water in the tank, and in this process they deflate to expel the old water and re-inflate with tank water to come to a better equilibrium of water conditions.

That could very well be what your anemone is doing, and if it's eating I think that's probably a good sign.

 

[Me No Nemo]

I've had some that looked totally gone yet came back very well. I sometimes feed them some plump, meaty mysis when they are new that I've soaked in garlic and some Kent Zoe Marine. It's easier for them to digest the smaller particles if they are stressed...but it sounds like he's doing okay with the silverside. Another great food for them is to get some scallops from the grocery store and chop them into slivers and freeze them. My carpet anemone (about 5 years old and big as a dinner platter) loves them. I also soak these in garlic and Zoe Marine before feeding. Hope he pulls through for you!

 

[Mastermind]

Good news and bad news...

Good - When I came home, we was fully inflated, and looked perfect. He was in the middle of pooping out the silversides I gave him earlier (are they supposed to look the same way coming out, as going in?).

Bad news - 10 minutes later, still looking GREAT (better than he's looked since I got him home, even better than at the LFS) he detached himself from the rock, I'm assuming to find better flow, and got stuck to a powerhead. I've got pre-filters on all my pumps, but I never even thought to plug the air venturis!! Two or three of his tentacles got sucked in and ripped off by sheer water movement. I pulled the plugs on all the pumps as soon as I saw what was happening, but it was too late. Anyway, before I could even panic, the wounds were already fused shut... is this normal? Is there anything else I should worry about?

And to answer a few questions... I've got about an 18x turnover (35 gallon, AC201, AC301, and Mag5 w/ 4.5ft head).

Calcium is at ~500ppm... and I just started dosing Kent CoralLife.

No alk param, LFS wanted $21 for the test kit! Eff that...

I'll update once I get to work in the A.M.

 

[Mastermind]

Everything's dead except the blue damsel (of course). Water is very cloudy. I'm assuming the anemone died after lights out, and took the rest of the tank with it.

Found one clownfish in my sump stiff as a board in a bad of carbon. Damsel came right out when the lights came on, but no one else did. Lawnmower blenny, 2 clowns, Sally Light Foot... my tank looks barren.

 

[Mastermind]

My "everything's dead" post was a little hasty.

I know for a fact that my [favorite] true perc was dead in the sump. Can't find the other clown. Lawnmower blenny popped out for a split second, but was almost pure white. No sign of the Sally Light Foot. Hermits are out and about though.

Didn't have time to test water before I left, or move rock looking for bodies. I'll assume for right now that the white cloudiness was from an ammonia spike.

 

[traveller7]

Sounds like water changes, fresh carbon, and removal of dead matter will be required.

Use the power head venturi's for extra surface agitation/flow as well.

 

[Mastermind]

Yeah, fresh carbon will be a must. Should I run floss or a sock also?

As far as surface agitation, there's plenty. Like I said earlier, 18+ x turnover. No film on the surface, and the water splashing in the sump makes what I think the be plenty of aeration.

I guess I'll take out everything that's dead, do a 50% water change, throw in some fresh carbon.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Mastermind]

I don't get it. I just got home from work... the GBTA is still alive. He's got himself buried down in the rockwork, but he's got his tentacles open. Looks fine, albeit not quite as big as he was last night after I fed him.

But, the fact still stands that one clown was dead in my sump, and I still haven't found the other one.

As far as the clowns go, I'm not sure if I posted this last night or not. While I was tending to the nem last night, one of the clowns took a trip down the overflow into the sump. He was doing fine, so I netted him and stuck him back in the display. Once in the display, he seemed a little slow and lethargic, kinda resting himself on a rock with his top fin laying down. Didn't think much of it, so I put the carbon-filled sock back on my drain in the sump and went to sleep. I found him laying on top of the carbon in the sock this morning, dead. Obviously I need to put mesh or something over top of the inlet for the overflow. But I'm trying to figure out what killed him. Could laying on the carbon with 300-400gph flowing over top of him for 6 hours killed him, or should I investigate further?

 

[Mastermind]

Found the other clown, when I went to change the carbon just now. Yep, BURIED in the bag of carbon. EFF!

 

[Lance M.]

Your Ca is at 500ppm? Why are you dosing?
That is high. 380-440ppm is a good range.

18x turnover isn't that much. I have about 35x turnover in my 20 gallon and it doesn't even look like it's that much.