HELP... I think my pink tip is dying

[jlfnjlf]

Help I think my pink tip is dying. It has been in my tank for 4 days, and tonight it shrank to this

Yesterday it looked like this.

What should I do? I am considering removing it from the tank just to prevent an ammonia spike if it is truly on its way out.

Thank you,

John

 

[Jamie1210]

Unfortunately, that anemone is defintely bleached (i believe it's a condy) but the picture above showing it shrinking isn't a bad thing; it's probably just expelling waste. I'd be more concerned about the bleached effect. I'm hoping you have it already under some high intensity lights (MH, PC's or VHO's), are feeding it things like silversides or krill, and acclimated it long enough. Has it been wandering around? If it's been staying around, anchored to the same rock as opposed to being disconnected/wandering around, then there's defintely a good chance you can bring it back. I would be worried if the mouth was open and gaping, but I can't really tell from the pic. In any case, Good luck and keep us posted!

Jamie

 

[jlfnjlf]

OK, so it is an hour later and it is looking OK. I went straight to the Anemone FAQ page, and reread the section on deflating and flushing. Boy Oh Boy, I still have a lot to learn.

Thanks,

John

 

[jlfnjlf]

I am a running 192W PC setup on the tank. It anchored itself on the second day and has not moved since. It has been taking small bits of shrimp with quite a gusto, but I a will look into the suggested foods. As for the color it is not naturally that white? Do the suppliers bleach them, or is this a further sigh of illness? All the ones at the place I got this one were the same bleach white.

Thank you so much,

John

 

[Ryanqk]

yeah ALOT of anenomes ive seen for sale are white does that mean all of them are bleached?

 

[dantodd]

Anemones get food from 2 sources. One is direct feeding, the other is a symbiotic colony of zooxanthellae dinoflagellates. The zoox creates more food than it needs through photosyntesis the excess is used by the anemone as a food source. These dinoflagellates are a brownish color. Since the zoox are photosynthetic they start dying when the anemone doesn't get adequate lighting. One the zoox die, the anemone will expell the dead colony. Once they have been expelled the anemone loses its brown color and appears white.

There are some anemone that have other colors. Most notably the "carpet" species and rose bubble tips. I do not know the mechanism (pigment, other symbiots, or a combination) for alternatively colored anemones. Hopefully some others with more experience will explain it to us.

 

[Ryanqk]

What i'm wondering is, are there anenomes which might naturally have none of this brown symbiotic algea or have other pigments, Basically i see alot of anenomes sold that are white but have maybe a tiny pink tip, or glow green (like mine). Are these ALL bleached and sold that way or could it be just becuase thats what the particular anenome type looks like in the wild. Are you saying that all anenomes should have at least some brown or some color on the entire tentacle?
Ryan

 

[traveller7]

Coloration varies by species, dramatically. That said, Condylactis sp. is one that will frequently be white in a natural setting depending on where it lives. In captivity, they will brown up if you can keep them long enough.

Anemones frequently stress and dump symbiotic algae during the collection/shipping/wholesale/retail process, hence what we see is not typically the natural coloration on arrival.

Ryan, in the case of your M. doreensis, it should have brown inside the tentacles and oral disk.