LTA issues

[saltwaterfarm]

Hi, I am new to this (any) forum. I have a long tentacle anemone which has a small mass forming on the underside of it's base. I have searched the WWW for 2 days now trying to figure it out. It doesn't seem to fall under the "budding" category. I was wondering if anyone has experienced or seen this before. Thanks a bunch for any info.

 

[saltwaterfarm]

Picture added

Picture added

I have now added a picture if anyone can help....
Thanks

 

[hansonfam]

How long have you had it? But anyways mine had that on the bottom of it as we'll when i fist got it and it has never posed a problem. Not sure exactly what it is hopefully someone with a little more knowledge will chime in.

Lisa

 

[sarahkucera]

Why isn't the foot of your LTA buried in the sand?
How long have you had it?
Can we get a full picture of the entire animal?
What are your water parameters, tank size, lighting, and other inhabitants of the tank?

 

[saltwaterfarm]

Thanks for the replies... I have a 29 gal stock biocube. Coralife 10,000k Daylight/Atnic 36w, and 3 led's. Ammonia and Nitrite, OK. Water change on thursday, calcium 450, ph 7.7-8.0 (lovely test kits so specific, color is between the two), SG 1.025, temp 78.
I have had this anemone for 2 months, the foot is not usually exposed, but for the past day he has been on another expedition. The mass has not always been there. I hope I am answering your questions...
Thanks Again,
Lisa
Tank mates:
2 clowns
3 damsels
clams, scallops, shrimp (sounds like a buffet)
brain coral, sun coral, fiji toadstool, toadstool, shrooms, ricordea, frogspawn and candy cane frags

 

[hansonfam]

Hmmmm So it is upset about something to be on the move.I am thinking you don't have enough light and it is trying to find a way to get more. I had mine under 600 watts of pc's for a few months and it did well but i have added a whole wack load of t5's and it is much happier now
Your ph needs come up a bit as we'll.7.7 is to low...about 8.2 is about right if i am correctly imformed...The mass i am not entirely sure about. Like i said mine had it but it has never posed a problem. Maybe on its adventure it scrapped it on a rock or something. Make sure your water quality is exceptional and if that is what it is then there should be no worry of infection.

Please let us know how its doing

Lisa

you know i take back the not enough light thing...lol
Maybe on a nano 39 watts is enough...(never had a nano)
He is upset about something though...Have you shifted power heads? Added some corals that are blocking water flow??? Little things can make them upset

 

[saltwaterfarm]

Well... could the timing of the lights be the problem? The reason I ask is because I just put on a timer (about a week ago). I shortened the daylight cycle and changed the actnic and led's, because the "usual setup" shown with the timer was different from mine and I was scared that I was doing something wrong. How far away should my corals be? This is a little tank, and I am already dreaming of my next tank.
Thanks,
Lisa

 

[keefsama2003]

I have an lta that just wont settle i have a ton of T5 lighting on the tank and i actually turned off my closed loop to give it time to settle then figured it wouldnt help because as soon as i turn on the closed loop currents would change and it would be on the move again.

so i took a caulender with a ton of holes in it and i have it in the general area i want it with all pumps running and hopefully it will bury its foot and get nice and happy and mine has that on the bottom of it also. all the lta's i have seen have that

 

[hansonfam]

I don't think that the timers would do it....I run my tank 10-12 hours a day...Used to do the pre dawn when i hade actinics but not anymore..With the lights you have i would say everything should be okay pretty much anywhere it is in there...Although i am not good with the little tanks
You KNow i had to bury both my lta's foot. I just looked long and hard at the tanks and decided where it looked good...Where there was lots of light. Not alot of flow but enough and a rock...Just dug a deep hole in front of the rock put the anemones in it and buried there foot with sand....The first one had been in the same spot i put it for 5 months now i guess and the other one has stayed put since i got it a week ago...Try that and see if it works....Lta's have a history of not doing it themselves so do it for him

Lisa

 

[keefsama2003]

yeah im going to do that if this doesnt work. i just want mine to anchor i had a lta a few years ago in my 90 and it wouldnt anchor so i got rid of it for a carpet. and my carpet was on point but i dont want rock dwelling anemone and i dont want any fish eaters. and i like lta's so when i get home tonight im going to dig a hole as best i can as the tank is 30" deep may have to break out the snorkle.

 

[sarahkucera]

All right.
Let's dive into this.

Your LTA isn't happy. It's detached and decided to take a walk about. No idea about the thing on the bottom of the foot, I've got an h crispa (one of the nems sold under the term LTA) and I've never seen the bottom of his foot. When I got him he was already in his travel container, when I transferred him to the tank he grabbed onto my hand, and when I dropped him into the tank he sunk his foot into the sand in minutes and hasn't really moved much since.

But some things that may be contributing to the unhappiness of your nem are:

Your ph is way too low. Get it up to at least 8.2.
Your tank is really too small to support most of the nems that fall under the LTA catch-all-name. My h crispa when fully extended has an oral disc diameter of about 12 inches and his tentacles extend up to another 4 inches on the sides when he's really showing off.
You nem looks like it's either bleaching or recovering from a bleaching. What has it been doing colorwise recently? If it's been getting darker that's good, but it looks like it's in the process of getting lighter and that's not good. Which moves me over to lighting.
Your lighting is flat out insufficient to support an anemone. The stock biocube features 1 - 36 watt 10K bulb and 1 - 36 watt actinic. You've got 2.4 watts of light per gallon.
The biocube also features only wet/dry filtration. I don't know enough about wet/dry filtration to talk about it, but I wouldn't want to keep a nem without a protein skimmer.
Which moves us along to the next thing.....you say nitrites and ammonia are ok. What exactly does OK mean? Has it changed or fluctuated in the last few months? In other words, how stable is your tank?

Can't think of anything else, it's early in the morning for me.

 

[saltwaterfarm]

Thanks all for the tips, I have tried to "bury" it... hope it takes!

Sarahkucera- Thanks again... I have a protein skimmer on order. The full pic of the nem was taken about a week, or two after I brought it home. I hadn't noticed it before, but the color is a deeper/darker purple now. It seems to look lighter when he is showing off and spread out to about 6". Is that a problem? Ammonia and nitrites have never been over .25, or .3, respectively.
I am also checking the www for lighting upgrades... If you know of anything, let me know!
Any advice on raising ph, I tried "seabuffer" once before and my nem did NOT like it at all?
Thanks,
Lisa

 

[hansonfam]

Lisa:

You want to bring up your ph slowly. Don't nail the tank as it could definetly upset everything. Try a different buffer. YOu can also go to the Chemistry forum and they are great help at figureing out "Why" your ph is so low. The one time i had to bring up my ph they instructed me to use baking soda. Can't remeber the amounts and my tank is much larger than yours so check that out with them. As for the nem getting darker that is a good thing. Skimmer is a good idea and upgrading those lights will make all the difference. I noticed a large change when i upgraded my lights. And your nitrites and ammonia need to be 0 at all times. I would worry that you are either A: Still cycling or going through a mini cycle for some reason. Has anything died in there lately. Missing crabs.snails anything like that>


Lisa

 

[SuperNerd]

Not sure if it was posted. What's the alk level, how deep is the tank and how old are the lights? Look into MH...either single ended or double ended.

 

[saltwaterfarm]

supernerd- the ph is 7.7... I know a little low, 11 kH. I am not sure how to get it higher. I tried seabuffer a month or so ago and the anemone HATED it. The lights were brand new in August. The tank is 19" high. Hope this helps...
Lisa

 

[saltwaterfarm]

hansonfam- Thanks for the input. I will check in with chem... It is possible that I may still be cycling, the tank isn't very old.
I have been having some invert losses. Nothing seems to survive a shed, with exception of my crabs (who have reproduced). Maybe it's because they keep having shrimp and lobster dinners? Anyway, I have lost several scallops lately. I never realized I was having so many issues until I start naming them off.
Thanks,
Lisa

 

[SuperNerd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8438647#post8438647 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saltwaterfarm
supernerd- the ph is 7.7... I know a little low. I am not sure how to get it higher. I tried seabuffer a month or so ago and the anemone HATED it. The lights were brand new in August. The tank is 19" high. Hope this helps...
Lisa

That's pH. What is your alkalinity (the thing that stabilizes pH)?

Try randy's recipe in the chemistry forum. Baking soda is one of the products he suggests. Get the right one though, not just any kind.

Exactly how old is the tank?

I wouldn't use watts per gallon to measure how much light you have. Go by depth. In general, the depth penetration of a MH bulb is proportional to the wattage of the bulb...but this isn't the same with PCs. PCs do not penetrate nearly as deep as MHs.

 

[SuperNerd]

Oh okay you just edited it :lmao:

 

[sarahkucera]

When I said the lighting was insufficient, I took the stock measurements and depth of a 29 gallon biocube into consideration.
19 inches of depth under 2x36PC lighting for a sand dwelling anemone is insufficient. I'm sure that there are the occasional lucky people who successfully keep an anemone alive under these conditions, but for every person who succeeds there are 99 other people who have dead sea creatures on their hands.
I actually had to check the facts on the biocube because the OP said that she had 36 watts of light, not 2x36.

But given that the list of death in her tank keeps growing and growing, there's probably something more tankwidely problematic here. Yeah, the lighting could probably stand to be better, but I don't know that it would solve any problems?

How old is the tank?
How long was your cycle?
What are you using for water changes?
How often are you doing water changes?
What percentage of water do you change?
How about a nice large picture of the whole tank taken recently and then a nice large picture of the anemone today too!

 

[maww]

The bump on the pedal disc is a hole with acontia poking through. It is not a good sign, but I have a BTA which recovered from the same issue. It could be damage from collection, or something could be nibbling, or it could be digesting itself away. The lighting is low, but with feeding it could be fine. It will more than likely lose the bright purple coloration and pick up brown coloring as it increases its zooxanthellae. Losing flame scallops is not an issue of tank parameters. They are nearly impossible to keep alive as they require loads of microplanktonic food.