Help! Newbie bought a bleached anemone!

O

Ourlittleocean

New member
:sad2: We really didnt do enough research before we bought this anemone.... I am aware of our mistake now I need advice to take care of it so it can thrive. I was told by the lfs he is a long tentacle anemone but not told he is bleached ( I would of known if I had researched before I bought ) I will do everything I can to save him. At least he is not at the lfs anymore. (All the anemones at the lfs were white so I thought it was normal!!)

His mouth is open, maybe 1/4" in diameter is this bad?
He seems to have settled between 2 rocks but has not buried his foot. Also we have crushed coral and Im reading they need sand, will this be a big problem?
Also he has a (stringy) film like ring that keeps forming around the foot.

anemone.jpg


Let me add:
Lighting : odyssea- 65w true actinics, 12000k daylight
Water parameters: Salinity 1.023, Temp 80, pH 8.0 (its low) Alk ~ 10dKH, No2 0, No3 20
 
Last edited:
It is a long tentacle anemone. Not supposed to feed an acclimating anemone for atleast a week, but if it's bleached like that, probably should try to feed it often with mysis shrimp or silverside, otherwise it has no source of energy. Try digging a hole and place it in the hole in your crushed coral bed, to see if it will attach to the glass underneath. they do preffer sand, but can't do anything about that now, just try to see if it will attach. Good luck saving it. It can color back up, but until then keep it well fed.
 
Dug a hole in the substrate and placed it against the bottom glass. Fed it mysis shrimp but doesn't seem to be eating it right now. My arrow crab is bugging it and it's tentacles are "deflating". Seems to be splitting on one side??? Hoping for the best and will continue to feed it the mysis shrimp daily.
 
Well, I'm sure you know by now that 6 weeks is too soon to put an anemone in the tank so we'll focus on what you CAN do. Bleached will need to be target fed. You can try holding a small piece of meaty food (human consumption shrimp, mussel, clam, scallop ... raw) and see if it's 'sticky' and will grab hold. If not then try to hold it (gently) near or on the mouth opening and see if it will take it. The piece should be very small, like half a pea sized.

The stringy film you mentioned worries me. Can you tell if the foot is torn ... and are these 'strings' coming out of the foot?

Try not to disturb it too much by moving it or moving stuff around it. Give it some time to acclimate. It will probably hide from the light ... it can't process light anyway so don't be alarmed if it goes to a shady place. It will inflate and deflate as it grows accustomed to the tank.

Salinity is low for an anemone. Should be 1.026 so try to increase this gradually over the next week. Do NOT do it all at once. What else do you have in the tank (livestock wise)? What is your lighting schedule ... may want to reduce it for a few days.
 
The stringy film is probably the "stress spawning" or zoox. He is very white and will need to go into light slowly. I think he will probably make it if you slowly feed him and acclimate him back to light. He's zoox should slowly rebuild.
 
As we all know our anemone is not well. In fact it's getting worse! It has 'cottage cheese' coming out of the bottom of the foot, the foot is loosing colour and it is splitting. To make things worse our very large green brittle star it attacking it! The star wrapped its tentacle around it and pulled it out of the sand and dragged it a few inches away. The anemone will never get better if it's being bullied. What should we do? We do not have QT to separate the star while it acclimates.
 
Sorry to hear... I personally would take it back and tell them they sold you an unhealthy nem... Most LFS will take them back. It wasn't healthy from the beginning then your tank is only 6weeks plus it got stress in the tank with crabs etc... Good luck
 
Maroon clown has started to defend it a little, I hope this helps it. The brittle star is really making things worse, I believe she is WAY too big for the tank so I am trying to find her a new home. She is over 14" from end to end!!!

I was going to take the anemone back to the lfs, but I doubt it will survive another stressful trip. So I will do everything I can to save it. I feed it mysis shrimp with a syringe, after a few minutes the nem 'spit' it out. There is a lot more stuff coming out the bottom. I have turned off a powerhead to lessen stress and covered part of the top of the tank for less light.

Actinics 7hrs and daylights about 5hrs. I know my salinity is low, should i use SW to top off during the week? I normally top off a total of 4-5gallons a week.
 
dead?

dead?

Not sure when to take the nem out before it messes the tank up. Woke up this morning and it is half the size and very deflated..... Will post a pic soon...
 
With all the things against the nem that I've read here, I would say it is probably dead. When the starfish start attacking, it's already too late IME. I lost a "perfectly healthy" anemone a few days after my starfish started going after it, and it wasn't the starfish's fault. I think they smell the rotting meat and by the time they can track it down the nem is already headed downhill. Plus the torn foot, I don't think LTAs can handle that. PLUS being bleached and in a young tank. Those are 3 things that, seperately, would be reason to get rid of it based on my experiences. Sorry to bring such bad news, but odds are good it is already dead. Anemones will look alive for days or even weeks after they have reached the point of no return, and unfortunately it seems that's where you are.
 
What do I do with the anemone? How do I get dispose of it? I cant take it to the lfs till my husband gets home tonight but not sure if it can stay in the tank till then. I cant afford to let it ruin my tank...........

deadnem.jpg
 
bradleym said:
With all the things against the nem that I've read here, I would say it is probably dead. When the starfish start attacking, it's already too late IME. I lost a "perfectly healthy" anemone a few days after my starfish started going after it, and it wasn't the starfish's fault. I think they smell the rotting meat and by the time they can track it down the nem is already headed downhill. Plus the torn foot, I don't think LTAs can handle that. PLUS being bleached and in a young tank. Those are 3 things that, seperately, would be reason to get rid of it based on my experiences. Sorry to bring such bad news, but odds are good it is already dead. Anemones will look alive for days or even weeks after they have reached the point of no return, and unfortunately it seems that's where you are.
Click to expand...

About the star smelling the rotting flesh - that makes perfect sense!

Just so everyone knows, I have learned a great lesson here unfortunately at the expense of this poor nem....
 
It may not have been your fault at all. Don't start blaming yourself. You should be very careful to observe it at the LFS to make sure it's a healthy specimen. This requires looking at what a healthy anemone looks like before going to the LFS. You also must check coloration (part of being a healthy 'nem) and how the LFS "harvests" it from the tank. If they pulled it off a rock or other solid substrate hastily, it could easily tear the foot leading to rather substantial issues. In fact, the manner in which they get it out of the tank might be enough for me to cancel the sale on the spot. If you're only 6 weeks into saltwater tanks, you may be a bit new to the hobby to successfully keep an anemone. You may not be, but that's on an individual basis. We got our RBTA after around 6 weeks into the hobby (with a 6 week old tank... not an established sand bed and whatever else you had.. just the established live rock) and it's still doing great around 4 months later, but we also ensured we got a healthy specimen that ate readily and had very solid coloring.
 
Thank you for you comment jimmy_beaner.

The lfs had the nem sitting in a piece of pvc tubing and he just yanked it out and put it in the bag leaving a film 'ring' floating in the tank... that was flesh off the nems foot im sure. Didnt know them but that was the red flag!
 
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