Is my anemone dead (pics)?

[FishinAround]

Bubble tip anemone that I've only had for a few days but he was looking great, I put him in the tank and he quickly found a spot he liked (although it was towards the back of the tank on the back of a rock where he wasn't getting much light and wasn't very visible). Even though I wanted him more towards the front I left him where he was to get settled in. He was completed "bloomed" out and looking good. I was gone for a couple hours and came back to this. Is he dead? Tentacles are all deflated and he seems shriveled up. Is this normal? He's in a 120g with 1 midas blennie, 2 royal grammas, 1 purple firefish and 2 oscellaris clowns that completely ignore him. Lighting is via 2x150 HQI MH and 2 2x65w PC's. Amonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0, Calcium 360, SG 1.024 and PH running a little low at 7.9. Is he a goner or is there hope?

 

[harrisagogetter]

looks like maybe he took a "poop".

either that or it is too hot in the tank? maybe

just a thought

When was the last time fed?

 

[rkelman]

They can look really bad... Leave it for now watch for it to "melt" if that starts get it out.

 

[bencozzy]

just make sure it has good flow enough to move tentacles alot and to keep mucus from settling on it.

if you notice tentacles or pieces of falling off its done, and if it comes un attached to its current substrate and doesnt show some inflation then its more then likely done, but just incase its not move it to a QT tank so if it melts its not in your main tank.

 

[FishinAround]

Temp never got above 81. Right now there's plenty of water flow across the tentacles and it seems pretty well attached to the rock and some of them tentacles appear to be a little puffy. His mouth does appear to be wide open though. Should I give him a shot of Phytoplex in the mouth or possible drop a piece of food in there, if so what would be best? What will be the signs of him starting to "melt". Thanks for all the help.

 

[bencozzy]

no dont ever force food into a anemones move let them put it there doing that can lead to rotting food in it causing more damage.

if the tentacles start to fall apart, or it has alot of white stringy things coming out of its mouth(not always true but its a good sing to move it out of the main tank just in case) then it is starting to melt.

id say give it 2 days to see if it conditions get better unless they get worse dont do anything to it for now. just have to ride this out.

 

[muic.man]

It looks like the LR is kind of green; is the tank fully cycled with good conditions? an anemone should have a 3-6 Month old established reef to have a really good chance for survival even a hearty BTA.
An anemone is especially sensitive when stressed and if the water conditions are not perfect you could be asking for disaster.
did you get the livestock from a reputable retailer? sometimes when you purchase from a "mega retailer" the animals are way over stressed and have virtually no chance of survival in the first place. te clerks aren't always well trained since it's just a PT after school gig for them any way.
You realy should hold off on anemones and corals untill the reef is well established.
I went to a well reputed local retailer and purchesed good quality live rock for my first reef, and I ended up getting over 10 species of anemones, mushrooms, zoas and even a couple corals mixed in there.
Finally, lighting: a photo synthetic anemone needs alot of natural high intensity southern sunlight are you providing 3-5 watts per gallon in a good spectrum? this will help the anemone recover. they live in 6" or so water almost directly on the equator in the wild. getting 12 hr days and 12 hr nights almost equally year arround.

I hope your new addition is pulling through but in the meantime just follow the basic guidelines mentioned in the posts above and let nature take over this part.

 

[FishinAround]

Update - he's doing much better today. He has started to "puff" up again and his tentacles are waving the in the water flow, hopefully he was just having a bad "tentacle" day.