Not sure what to do

T

Tango451

New member
I did have bad water. I had nitrites at 0.25 and nitrates at above 140 ppm which I know is very bad. I did fix this. I did a major water change yesterday and now nitrites are 0 and nitrates are at 20 (which Is confusing to me considering I did change so much water - currently keeping algone packets in my tank too). I also posted about my water issue in the reef chemistry forum to try to figure out exactly where my tank is going wrong.

anyway for my main question: I am wondering if you think this anemone is just stressed or does it also need treatment with cipro? I'm looking for reasons why exactly an anemone would shrink up like this (I know poor water quality is one) and what are the best steps, other than good water quality, to take to help him.

It may also be important to know before the water went bad it also started eating much slower. It used to grab food and eat like lightning and now it takes him a very long time to eat and also his mouth was slightly open for awhile. (I also replaced year old mh 400 watt bulbs with new ones a few weeks back and when that happened he shrunk up very much but then after acclimating he seemed to get used to them)


Other anemones look fine but that could be because they are haddoni and this one I believe is a gig (it acts more like a haddoni sometimes and has no spots on it's underside) I've had the one in question for 3-4 months.

This pic was taken this morning
 

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Tango451 said:
I did have bad water. I had nitrites at 0.25 and nitrates at above 140 ppm which I know is very bad. I did fix this. I did a major water change yesterday and now nitrites are 0 and nitrates are at 20 (which Is confusing to me considering I did change so much water - currently keeping algone packets in my tank too). I also posted about my water issue in the reef chemistry forum to try to figure out exactly where my tank is going wrong.

anyway for my main question: I am wondering if you think this anemone is just stressed or does it also need treatment with cipro? I'm looking for reasons why exactly an anemone would shrink up like this (I know poor water quality is one) and what are the best steps, other than good water quality, to take to help him.

It may also be important to know before the water went bad it also started eating much slower. It used to grab food and eat like lightning and now it takes him a very long time to eat and also his mouth was slightly open for awhile. (I also replaced year old mh 400 watt bulbs with new ones a few weeks back and when that happened he shrunk up very much but then after acclimating he seemed to get used to them)


Other anemones look fine but that could be because they are haddoni and this one I believe is a gig (it acts more like a haddoni sometimes and has no spots on it's underside) I've had the one in question for 3-4 months.

This pic was taken this morning
Click to expand...

Established tank should never have traceable nitrite and with nitrate at 140 im surprised its still alive
 
The tank is established and has been running for years. And yeah I'm glad it is still alive and all my others are doing well. The problems with nitrite came about when I started vinegar dosing.
 
As of now,poor water quality is no longer a factor. During the day it opened up nicely and now (Lights are still on - shrunk back up small again to what it was like this morning) - would this be an indication of an inflate/ deflate cycle that demands treatment or is it simply stress induced from the above explained situation and should be left alone? I know it is impossible to know 100% what exactly it needs, just would like to hear what everyone has to say (especially if treatment is recommended so I can start asap).
 
So the first picture posted up at the top was from this morning. This picture was taken about 7:00 pm
 

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I'm not sure. He was looking smaller then normal before the water change and today did the same thing - morning shriveled up like the first pic, afternoon looked good, by the end of the light cycle (before I turned off the halides) small again. So if it is stress it won't need treatment right? Or would it since it's immune system would be down and could be sick now?
 
Water has been stable and very good. The three others look great. I fed them all tonight. It is still the same, the purple will look small and shriveled in the morning and then open up great. Tonight after seeing him open up like normal I ran to the store to get some salmon to feed them all. By the time I got home, it was shriveled/shrunken up again but I dropped a piece on it anyway to see if the anemone would eat.The piece stuck and it slowly ate it. It took forever for it to eat it and forever for the mouth to close over the piece of salmon. Its mouth finally closed over it and then a minute later opened up its mouth to spit out the salmon (I inject all salmon with selcon before feeding - was hoping it would have been a good boost in the right direction, guessing it didn't work).

I am definitely all about patience and I know that is the best advice, I just do not want to wait too long if treatment should be deemed necessary and then loose it and not be proactive if need be.

So all of this behavior is accompanied simply with stress and not illness? (I am just worried all of this stress will lead to it getting sick/ if it may already be sick). Took some picture of it eating, will try and post them soon
 
Still trying to spit it out. This is a picture of the anemone trying to eat the salmon
 

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This is a picture after it closed it's mouth over the salmon

(I know the piece may look a little big, but when it's fully open like normal it can eat even larger ones very quickly )
 

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stop feeding it and let it stabilize to the conditions, theirs been debate on how feeding causes it to expend more energy to consume over energy from light. How long has it been since the water change?
 
Anemones are also sensitive to water changes, how big was the major water change, and have you changed the water since, like daily 10% changes? How is it today?
 
Last water change was easily 80%- 90%. Drained down, filled, turned on, and then drained again. The following day I did a 20% water change due to some nitrates and then two days after I did a 25% water change. All was done with nsw. Water that was used was same temperature and salinity
 
is that what you normally feed it? scale is tough to see, but that piece of salmon in post #14 looks really big compared to the size of the nem.
 
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