Green bubble tip anemone
- Thread starter TAANG
- Start date
justthewife
New member
First off, I am not an anemone expert but...The first thing I thought of when you said it was rotting was a bacterial infection or that it is poisoning itself somehow from it's own toxins from being stressed out or that it got stung or damaged by another coral toxin, or powerhead. Also, you said you had a cyano outbreak in the tank. How bad is the cyano and what are you doing to get rid of the cyano beside lights out for two days (are you siphoning it out? There is a disease they get sometimes called Rapid Tissue Necrosis. Maybe someone on here can speak to that. Are you running any carbon in the tank?
From what I have learned from research (because I own one), a healthy BTA anemone has sticky tentacles and will grab onto food if fed. It will be attached to a rock and show good color. It's mouth will be tight. It should have a pretty good amount of tentacles and not be stubby or sparse. It will show a shock response (retract) if touched by you. They survive in very good water conditions and don't do well in high nitrates or phosphates.
Things that are not so good:
The anemone is not attached to a rock or can be easily removed from a rock.(This does not include moving around to find a better place.)
The anemone is floating around or upside down.
The anemone is bleached (loss of color from stress, too little or too much light, not necessarily a death sentence).
The anemone has sparse short tentacles (an indication it is starving and is eating in on itself to survive). This is usually caused by poor lighting.
From my observations on Anemone's. They need a pretty good size tank to survive well. At least a 50 gallon. The food they eat needs to be a little chopped up to digest well unless they are a big anemone (I do not feed mine silversides anymore because I don't trust the packaging and shipping quality). Food should be no bigger than the mouth of the anemone. They need an anemone "house" where they can attach to the bottom on the rock and extend and contract according to their needs. You can do this by taking three rocks and placing them around to make a cave like structure. The flow should not be directly on them. It should be strong enough to make sure they are getting food from the water and for keeping them clean from excess detritus. A random flow in the tank seems to work well. They don't like to be moved around manually a lot. If the light is too strong for them, they will retract and hide under a rock and only come out partially. If they need more light, they will position themselves to get more light and extend out more. If an anemone is going to die, it will go downhill pretty quickly, and basically turn itself inside out, spill it's guts and rot and it will stink and turn the water around it mucky. If not, it may have a chance.
From what I have learned from research (because I own one), a healthy BTA anemone has sticky tentacles and will grab onto food if fed. It will be attached to a rock and show good color. It's mouth will be tight. It should have a pretty good amount of tentacles and not be stubby or sparse. It will show a shock response (retract) if touched by you. They survive in very good water conditions and don't do well in high nitrates or phosphates.
Things that are not so good:
The anemone is not attached to a rock or can be easily removed from a rock.(This does not include moving around to find a better place.)
The anemone is floating around or upside down.
The anemone is bleached (loss of color from stress, too little or too much light, not necessarily a death sentence).
The anemone has sparse short tentacles (an indication it is starving and is eating in on itself to survive). This is usually caused by poor lighting.
From my observations on Anemone's. They need a pretty good size tank to survive well. At least a 50 gallon. The food they eat needs to be a little chopped up to digest well unless they are a big anemone (I do not feed mine silversides anymore because I don't trust the packaging and shipping quality). Food should be no bigger than the mouth of the anemone. They need an anemone "house" where they can attach to the bottom on the rock and extend and contract according to their needs. You can do this by taking three rocks and placing them around to make a cave like structure. The flow should not be directly on them. It should be strong enough to make sure they are getting food from the water and for keeping them clean from excess detritus. A random flow in the tank seems to work well. They don't like to be moved around manually a lot. If the light is too strong for them, they will retract and hide under a rock and only come out partially. If they need more light, they will position themselves to get more light and extend out more. If an anemone is going to die, it will go downhill pretty quickly, and basically turn itself inside out, spill it's guts and rot and it will stink and turn the water around it mucky. If not, it may have a chance.
Thank you so much. I appreciate any help that you can give. I do not want this little guy to die and I am doing my best to keep it alive. As I said, it was attached to the rock, but we pulled it off to put it in a separate area, in case it died. We didn't want it to cause our tank to crash. This morning, the water is still not bad smelling. The mouth was slightly open with some whitish looking stuff coming out. As far as the cyano outbreak, we read online that reducing the lighting helps with that. We have been manually removing it as well, and it has been decreased a substantial amount. The startle reflex seems to still be there. It is no longer losing fleshy stuff from the foot.I am very hopeful for it's survival. We also have a rock anemone, and it seems to be doing fine. In my opinion, the bubble tip always seemed to be kinda sickly. But, I don't have much experience with them. I have been doing a lot of research, though. I think the anemone was probably pretty stressed because of the lights being turned out. It was wandering around the tank quite a bit looking for a good spot. Also, since we have been feeding it phytoplankton, it is probably hungry.Previously, I saw it eating the left over food that we fed the fish. I did a 1 gallon water change yesterday and I plan on doing another on this evening.
I have some sad news, the anemone is dead 
Man. I did everything I could for it. That's a bummer. I hope the rock anemone doesn't start declining. Now that I know they don't eat phytoplankton, I will be sure to feed it mysis tonight. Are rock anemones more suitable for a 20 gal tank? I was told that bubble tip anemones were fine to keep in this size aquarium...live and learn I guess. I just hate that the poor thing died. Thanks everyone for your help. I am still going to invest in another power head in hopes that the rock anemone will survive.
Man. I did everything I could for it. That's a bummer. I hope the rock anemone doesn't start declining. Now that I know they don't eat phytoplankton, I will be sure to feed it mysis tonight. Are rock anemones more suitable for a 20 gal tank? I was told that bubble tip anemones were fine to keep in this size aquarium...live and learn I guess. I just hate that the poor thing died. Thanks everyone for your help. I am still going to invest in another power head in hopes that the rock anemone will survive.
t4zalews
65g Ritteri Tank
If the anemone is eating left over fish food then there is no need to spot feed it. Cyano is usually a sign of poor circulation. Whats the dimensions of this tank out of curiosity if you're using 48" lights. IMHO, this lighting is not enough for an anemone. You only have one bulb for main light source as actinic light typically has very little useful light for photosynthetic animals.
The dimensions of the tank are 30"L x 4.25"W x 10"H. The light fixture we have was originally for a 55 gallon tank, but we couldn't afford a different one at the time, so we just bought different bulbs for it. The light has a small overhang on both sides of the tank. We had been dicussing the fact the we need better flow because of the cyano, so this just confirms our thoughts. We got the lights to grow coral, originally. We have a mushroom coral and two orange mini sea whips. I am thinking that another power head is a must!
t4zalews
65g Ritteri Tank
Too bad to hear it died....I've lost anemones before, part of the learning curve, eventually you're going to have stuff die on you.
Rock anemones are very hardy and some come in brilliant colors, unfortunately they typically dont house clowns if that's what you want an anemone for. If you want something to host clowns, for this size tank, a frogspawn or torch coral could do.
Rock anemones are very hardy and some come in brilliant colors, unfortunately they typically dont house clowns if that's what you want an anemone for. If you want something to host clowns, for this size tank, a frogspawn or torch coral could do.
justthewife
New member
Sorry to hear of your loss. I don't know if you should blame yourself though. It might have already been sickly at the LFS. Many people have different ideas about the size of a tank the anemone can survive in. It also depends upon your expertise. Bigger tanks are more forgiving. Smaller ones are often harder.
I think it was kinda sickly to begin with. It never really fully expanded or bubbled up. I just figured it was getting used to it's new home. I am glad that it didn't decompose so fast that it caused our tank to crash. I have definitely learned a lot so far, I just wish I could have saved him!
justthewife
New member
Please remember Tube Anemones may require different care. This might be where your LFS was suggesting zooplankton? I don't really know anything about Tube anemone's. I would suggest you post in this forum to ask specifically about the care of Tube Anemone's. I have heard they are difficult to feed because they retract when lightly touched and are nocturnal but I really don't know if this info is correct as I have never owned one.
I don't have a tube anemone, I have a rock anemone...minus the green bubble anemone that was just lost. Will be doing lots of research before getting another anemone. I guess this was kinda just a jump into it excitment stage. Was told that it would do great in a nano tank. Live and learn
justthewife
New member
ooops, :spin2: sorry, I read that incorrectly. I don't know anything about rock anemone's either.
ReeferBill
New member
You should not try an anenome until your tank is at least six months old. Something about having the mature beneficial bacteria established before adding one. Sorry you lost it, I have done it in a twenty long but I would only add one anenome because two separate species can do chemical warfare.:deadhorse:
yeah, initially we ordered a nano reef clean up crew kit and the anemone came with it. The company we ordered it from messed up and sent us two shipments. We really had no choice but to put both. It was definitely not preferred, but we couldn't exactly send it back. We were supposed to get the rock anemone with the kit, but they sent us a green bubble tip instead. So, long story short...our tank was probably not suited for two anemones, let alone of different species. Definitely won't be adding anything for a while!
t4zalews
65g Ritteri Tank
Typically when you first receive a bubble tip, after acclimation it will completely deflate pushing out all of its water and then reinflate with the surrounding waters. Some anemones are just doomed from the beginning have it be transit or poor LFS conditions. Like I said, if you're just looking for something to host your clowns, there are a bunch of "imitation" anemones in corals. IE hairy mushrooms, frogspawn, torch, ricordias, hammers. I'd stay away from magnificent corals tho. Tank upgrade is always a good idea, more water so you can slack off a little more
shifty51008
12-5 Chiefs record
your tank is only 4.25" from front to back?
I'm sorry about that. I just copied and pasted the dimensions off of the internet. Must have been a mistake. My tank's dimensions are 30.25" x 12.5 x 12.75". Glad you caught that. 4.25" would be pretty crazy!
I am definitely going to look into false anemones that will host clowns. There are so many beautiful possibilities. I love this hobby!
I am definitely going to look into false anemones that will host clowns. There are so many beautiful possibilities. I love this hobby!
