HELP!! Is this anemone dying? When do I remove it? Dont want to pollute tank!!

[SauceSBC]

I got this green carpet anemone about 3 days ago. my params are fine, except nitrates at 40ppm (coming down from a long battle). The nem has been deflating and inflating- expelling waste about once a day. I also assumed it was acclimating into it's new environment. I did a drip acclimation for one hour, until temp/salinity/PH matched.

It's mouth is open, and it's deflated more than I've seen so far. I'm not sure if this is considered "gaping"? "gasping?". This is my first carpet anemone, never seen this behavior before.

At what point do I remove this from my tank? Is this "melting"? or just really deflated?

If I remove it, is there a humane way to put it out of it's misery if it is in fact dying? I hate the thought of letting it suffocate when I pull it out.

Please, help, I'm freaking out about it polluting my tank!
How do I know if it's dying, and how do I humanely deal with that?

Tank info: 55gal Reef w/29 gal refugium sump, ~80lb LR, 4' 4Bulb T5 HO 54watt ea.(2sun+2actinic), Sea Clone 100 skimmer, Aragonite sand

BTW- has not eaten yet since I bought it. I did try to feed it, but it retracts when I tried to give it krill, mysis, or brine. After searching for answers, I now know to wait a week before trying to feed it.

 

[OrionN]

It is not dead yet but it is doing poorly. Consider treating it with antibiotic. Please see this treat if you want to try to do something.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2220652

 

[SauceSBC]

I'm definitely willing to put in any work needed, but if unsuccessful, at what point do I know it's dying? When do I take it out, and how do I put it out of it's misery if need be? At what point does it start to pollute my tank?

 

[OrionN]

They start to melt from the inside out when they died, very smelly. They loos all tones of their body and just lay like a glob. When they reach this point you need to siphon them out.

Anemone are mostly water so they have a lot less mass than most people estimate.

 

[kduen]

First I would GENTLY remove it from the rock where you have it and put it on the sandbed. S. Haddoni are sand dwelling anemones and I would be willing to bet that if you dug out a spot in the sand next to a base rock, put the anemone in the hole in the sand and gently cover up the foot with the sand it will start doing better. Also it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to acclimate it to your lights using the eggcrate and window screen method.

 

[SauceSBC]

Now it's (again) looking much better- have not done anything yet. Ill move it to sand bed, I thought it was supposed to be close to the light, so I put it up half way from sand bed to top.
it is on a flat piece of LR. can I just bury that in the sand, so I don't have to remove it?

This is what it looks like now: (3 hrs later) But I'm sure it will look bad again tomorrow.

 

[nemoboy1]

It looks a lot better... Just move him to sands without rock... Good luck

 

[OrionN]

Just bring the rock to the sand and he will move to the sand. You don't have to remove him from the rock

 

[SauceSBC]

I will move it to the bottom, leaving it on the rock. is deflating to that point (pic on original post) normal since I've only had it a few days?

 

[Rippinfrags]

It looks like a sick s. gigantea to me, I would leave it where it is at. If wants to move it can do so on it's own. I would work on improving your water quality first and foremost. what kind of lighting do you have?

 

[kduen]

As the others said moving it with the rock is fine. It will move to the sand once it realizes it's close. I wasn't sure if the rock that it was on could be easily moved or not.

Also the easiest way to differentiate if you in fact have a S. Gigantea (which i don't think you do) would be to look underneath the disk to see if you can see visible purple spots. It looks 100% S. Haddoni to me though.

 

[SauceSBC]

kduen- sorry, I'm not sure what the disk is, (where to look). Here are some close up pics, also different angles. Let me know what u think it is, and also how I tell (where exactly to look)
I did not see anything purple without moving it, or touching it.

Rippenfrags- my lights are listed on my original post.

 

[Rippinfrags]

After seeing the third set of pictures, I agree that it is an s. Hadonni. How long has it been since you have changed your light bulbs?

 

[SomeDude12]

He looks just fine to me.

 

[SauceSBC]

Rippinfrags- about 7 mo?

Somedude12- yeah it looks just fine now, if you scroll up to top of thread- you'll see why I was freaking out. Never seen deflation to that extent & I had no idea if I needed to remove it from my tank or at what point it starts polluting. I'm still learning about some types of nems. Haven't had any die so far.
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I still don't know at what point (if it were to die), that it starts to pollute my tank. OrionN described what it looks like once it's dead- but do I wait until I can siphon it out to remove it? Is it not until then, that it starts to pollute?
In a search, i read someone taking their dying anemone out of their tank and "putting it out of its misery". If it does need to be removed before it melts (which I don't know), how does one humanely put a dying anemone out of it's misery?
Obviously I'm not worried about it when it does look healthy, but I need to be educated on how to handle the situation if it is, in fact sick, and if the point comes where it does not make it. That is still unclear to me.
I appreciate the knowledge.

 

[Rippinfrags]

S. haddoni need a good amount of light, since you only have a 4 bulb lighting system I would stay on top of replacing your bulbs.

Generally when an anemone dies, it's mouth will gape and you will see its insides starting to fallout. They will usually detach(not always) when dying and you can then bring it to the surface of the water to smell it. If it is dead you will surely smell it.

 

[OrionN]

Anemone does not have a brain so it won't be in any misery so don't worry about torturing it.

 

[SauceSBC]

Update:

Update:

about an hour before this first pic, it was fine. I actually noticed it started to change as soon as I turned my actinic light on for the day.
It kinda turned inside out, but then about 30 min later, retracted. I did move him to the sand, as soon as I turned the lights on.
The first pic is when it was inside out(ish)
the second and third is about 20-30 min later.
The 4th pic is about another 10 min after that.

Is this normal behavior for this species? Again, I'm new with Haddoni. Or is this dying? I bought him on Friday night, so I'm not sure if this if how it behaves adjusting to a new tank- if I should give it time to adjust naturally, or if I need to take action. I'm guessing he will be fine (looking) in a little while.

Is this what it looks like when turning inside out? (first pic only)
Is this cause for concern?

 

[SauceSBC]

As soon as I turned on the actinic light, (first light of the day) its tentacles shrunk in. Then this happened? Is my light making him unhappy? Is it possibly too much light? I turn on only my actinics in the am, for one hour- then the daylights for 8hrs, down to just my actinics for the last hour. (so 10 hrs actinic with 8 hours daylight also)

 

[SauceSBC]

even later:

even later:

now he looks like this. So what is the deal? Is he just adjusting? Or is he starting the dying process?