GBTA flabby and inflated, is it dieing?

[ReefGirlSara]

I took pics but my camera batteries just died. I'll try to post pics soon. It's very inflated and just flapping in the water flow. The clowns are rubbing on it like usual, but it's very floppy and inflated looking. It looks like it's dieing- but it's looked this way for about 2 hours now- not much change. The only thing that I have done differently is yesterday instead of feeding it the usual one lance fish I fed it a small piece of a shrimp and one small scallop from the seafood dept. at my grocery store. They were raw and I rinsed them first. I ate the same stuff for dinner...and I'm fine

Any ideas? Should I take it out? I hate to take it out because it was really nice and about to split...

 

[ReefGirlSara]

 

[bencozzy]

what are your water parameters?

i wouldnt say its dieing, yet, probably nothing.

 

[ReefGirlSara]

salinity: 1.025
nitrate: < 10ppm
phosphate: 0
pH: 8.0 (it's always a little low- I'm working on this, not with very much success though)
calcium: 450

 

[Lance M.]

How long has the tank it's in been setup? IME a low pH is sometimes part of it being a new tank (<1 year old) and not enough surface agitation. In some cases, it can be from a build up of CO2 in your home, which can be solved just by opening a window.

Have you done anything differently?
How long have you had it?
Did it just start moving? (from the picture the foot is moving)
What type of light and wattage do you have?

 

[dragonette]

it is normal for anemones to shrivel now and then to expel waste and water.

when (what time of day) was this pic taken?

Jess

 

[ReefGirlSara]

The tank is about 4-5 yrs old, I've had it for about 1.5 yrs. I've always struggled with pH. I use all RO/DI water. I've had the nem for about 2 months. I have a 175 watt MH, with a 6 week old 14,000k bulb. Haven't done anything different except feeding it the scallop and tiny piece of shrimp, instead of the lance fish. The pic was taken just before 3pm, my lights come on at 3:15.

 

[Lance M.]

How much water movement do you have?

 

[Eklikewhoa]

Mine looked like that for a few hours.....


Mine is newly acquired though but after it moved then after I moved the koralia around it turned back to normal and ate a whole silverside

 

[ReefGirlSara]

I don't have enough water flow, just the flow from the return and a koralia 1, but I'm going to add more. The nem is in a place with pretty good flow though. He moved all around when I first put him in, but he's been in the same place since he settled in. Right now he is shrinking down pretty small, and his mouth is really big and floppy.

 

[Lance M.]

I am thinking the lack of water flow is resulting in your low pH.

What size tank is this?

I would aim for around a combined total (add up the gph of all your pumps, powerheads) of around 40x the tank volume turned over per hour.

Also, Is your tank open top or closed?

 

[ReefGirlSara]

54 gallon corner bowfront with open top

 

[unbreakable]

pH is okay, not that bad. mine ranges form 7.8 and 8.2 and doesnt affect my lta

what about your alk? what i do find is that alk will most likely affect the anemone--maybe like a very high alk reading or a sudden swing

also since its stressed out and having your clowns all over it and bother it wont help it at all.. if theres some way you can move the anemone by blowing a powerhead on it or something and detaching then putting in one of those containers that hang on the inside of the tank to give it a chance to toughen up and heal

 

[Purple Penguins]

what time of the day are testing your ph? It is usually lower in the morning hours than it is in the afternoon or evening

 

[unbreakable]

also, i would quit messing around with the tank so much and just stop stressing it out more. its trying to get into a stable situation, and once you start adding this or that its going to get stressed even more. flow is going to depend on the anemone itself

i find that my lta hates any kind of flow. indirect flow, direct flow, any.. if theres any new type of flow hell just curl up, detach, and float away. so adding more flow isnt going to solve anything

 

[ReefGirlSara]

I really haven't 'messed around' with the tank for a while. I added the koralia 1 about 3 months ago. Nothing else has really changed in the tank. The only difference was the scallop instead of the lance fish. I think he's going to be ok, he looks deflated now, but he looks a little more like normal. I want more flow just for the tank as a whole, not really for the nem.

 

[guido_kp]

mine look like that when they are pooing. they get worse looking, their insides sorta come out their mouth along with the poo. he looks like he's still attached pretty well. how big is it, when its fully extended/inflated, in comparison to the clowns. they can be rough on a smaller host anemone, sometimes.

 

[ReefGirlSara]

I was thinking that it was just 'pooing' but I never saw anything actually come out. The nem is about 8 inches or so when it is fully extended, the clowns don't really seem to be too big for it, but the female clown is driving me crazy lately, she has gotten extremely territorial.

At first, they wouldn't even host the nem, and now if I even put one finger anywhere in the tank she will actually come out of the water trying to bite me. She used to be nice, but in the last month they decided they like their nem, and now she is mean. They aren't even spawning.

The GBTA looks better today, still not quite as large as usual, but it kinda looks like it might be splitting. Is splitting hard on them? Maybe that's the cause of yesterday's strange appearance? Or maybe yesterday's experience led it to want to split, from the stress of whatever all that was from?