Shrinking Anemone

[samlowry12]

Our 32 gal tank where I work -- there is a guy who comes every 2 weeks to service it.

We have the anemone, one clown, and four other fish.

2 or 3 months ago, it almost seemed worrisome how the anemone was such a large size. And I'm sure they can alter their size.

But for weeks it's kept getting smaller, and lately it's reaching a maximum each day of ... I suppose about 1/8 the size I referred to. It seems to be now quite a distance away from the lights.

Is this anything to worry about? I give it small amounts of shrimp and it seems to swallow that. And sometimes a little piece of minnow. I almost never feed it more than once a week.

One factor may be that the service guy I think rotated the rock it's on at one point, so it's kind of facing into a corner. He did this I think partly because the anemone was blocking off an invert from the lights and it was dying off.

 

[Uncle99]

Most probable is insufficient light.
About 75% of the Nems nutrition comes from its zoo, processing light into sugars and amino acids for metabolic growth.

What lighting does it have, how old is tank, how long has nem been in?

I keep mine about 3 years now, 14" from 165watt Chinese Blackbox, yup, I too feed weekly.

 

[samlowry12]

It's a Coralife Biocube, still having the lights it comes with. We bought it less than two years ago.

We've had the anemone more than a year.

Hearing that it could be over time that the lightbulbs are becoming less sufficient, that has me wondering why it is in recent weeks (shrinking) in effect placing itself several inches farther away from the light. It could also get a lot closer to the lights if it climbed up rocks.

Though if the lightbulbs for instance are with age losing brightness/energy, then maybe the anemone is getting sickly.

 

[samlowry12]

Googling now I see there is a fair amount of internet discussion about ways to upgrade that tank including lighting.

 

[Uncle99]

Could also have shifted colour if more than 9 months and not LED.
Would likely shift to the red and this can increase algae as well
You never know with Nems, but all require strong lighting

 

[samlowry12]

The lights we have, which come originally built in, are LED.

Today I did some checking, looking at my e-mails, and about ten weeks ago the anemone was relatively giant size. Seemed like the definition of thriving.

The owners manual says to wipe down the "light cover" which I now finally did. But it looked relatively transparent to me before wipedown.

 

[rfgonzo]

I have the same 32 cube with the stock LED's and a RBT that has beed doing great under the stock light for years. I don't feed any more cuz I was tired of the RBT spliting. Lot's of people say the light are junk. I think they are just fine and get good Par readings on the bottom of tank.

 

[T-dub]

I've had this issue with my sebae for years. It goes from about 10"-12" across down to about 6". I used to worry about it but I don't anymore. As long as his color is good and not bleached out. I feed him some shrimp or clam once in awhile but if his color is good, I don't worry about it too much. He's been shrunk down now for about 3 months but I just moved to a new tank about a month ago so I'll give him some time.

 

[Uncle99]

If your lighting is not sufficient, in time, he will shrink to nothing.
May take a year or so

 

[samlowry12]

Continuing with this same issue, the anemone has shrunk even more. If a possibility is the lights changing over time, maybe dimming --

As an experiment for the short term, I wondered about positioning a portable light source outside the tank during the day. Our anemone is way over in a corner, so it seems exterior light could reach it.

This could be what I used to call a "trouble light" aimed at the nem. I fed it some shrimp this week, it seemed to close up and swallow it. But it is so small.

Maybe if this works it could confirm the lights and/or tank need replacing/upgrading. Do people ever find that for instance the ceiling or wall lights in a room being on or off can have some effect on the creatures in the tank, regardless of the tank's own lights?

If an exterior bulb is tried short-term (and I assume only during the day), what kind/type of bulb(s) should be used or avoided? Any advice about distance away?

 

[Uncle99]

Is there anyone in the tank that can attack him.....a large pep or crab?
I had a pep attack one of my nems, it shrank until is was the size of a dime, then detached itself and died.

 

[samlowry12]

It never gets attacked that I've seen. Our crab/shrimp are pretty small. The shrimp seems bonded to it. And the clown.

I believe the closest it came to being aggressive was 3-4 months ago it was big enough to block the light from our daisy polyp.

 

[rfgonzo]

Hows yor No3 and Po4? How about Alk? I'm leaning more towards your water parameters then lighting. What is your parameters?

 

[samlowry12]

I don't have much responsibility for the tank. In the offices where I work, a guy comes every two weeks to service the tank. He's due back here Wednesday.

I do own a thing labeled "master test kit" which I tried using at some point in the past. I just reminded him by e-mail that I have it, but it's hard to imagine what I could discover that will surprise him.

I think a factor in what's happening is he normally comes at about 8 am, so he never sees the undisturbed and fully "awake" anemone at mid-day.

 

[samlowry12]

The service guy is here today. He will test the water but he thinks that's not it because the corals seem otherwise happy.

Our cleaner shrimp we've had for a few months. I was not expecting how it soon came to spend its entire day next to or near the anemone. And I've read a little about how that's not unusual and saw youtube of one among the tentacles. Our shrimp stopped eating flake food, I'm thinking this was a week after its arrival.

He is suggesting the shrimp's constant attention is annoying the nem and may be the cause of it shrinking. I've never seen it walk on the nem, but -- before this shrinking got more pronounced -- it was endlessly running its feelers across the edge, etc.

It does seem to make sense from a timing standpoint, the shrimp's arrival.

We're taking his suggestion today to improve the meals. He recommends daily frozen, with a variety. And also daily flake. The shrimp seeing frozen food daily may get it to stay farther away from the nem. We had been feeding with shrimp only once a week or less.

 

[samlowry12]

Only today I noticed the long-lived thread about "dumping LEDs and going back to halides."

I'm trying to find out what to do about our anemone which has been shrinking for weeks. It lately, some days, has a lot of white, which I assume is not a great thing. A week ago I thought it was just going to die but it has made a minor comeback.

Since the nem is way over in a corner, how about I try getting something like a trouble light or other portable exterior light, and point it at the nem? Our Biocube of course still has its LEDs.

This tank is at my office. I have some minor responsibility, but a guy comes and services it every 2 weeks. He's checked the water parameters. It is odd to me how the nem has positioned itself about as far as it can get from the LEDs, but it's been in that spot for a long time. About 3-4 months ago it was so big I was getting worried.

Because another interest of mine is trying to use light sources in my home which are most beneficial for health, I've come to believe one of the best bulbs is a clear incandescent. This is because the light will be relatively similar to sunlight.

 

[Uncle99]

Only today I noticed the long-lived thread about "dumping LEDs and going back to halides."

I'm trying to find out what to do about our anemone which has been shrinking for weeks. It lately, some days, has a lot of white, which I assume is not a great thing. A week ago I thought it was just going to die but it has made a minor comeback.

Since the nem is way over in a corner, how about I try getting something like a trouble light or other portable exterior light, and point it at the nem? Our Biocube of course still has its LEDs.

This tank is at my office. I have some minor responsibility, but a guy comes and services it every 2 weeks. He's checked the water parameters. It is odd to me how the nem has positioned itself about as far as it can get from the LEDs, but it's been in that spot for a long time. About 3-4 months ago it was so big I was getting worried.

Because another interest of mine is trying to use light sources in my home which are most beneficial for health, I've come to believe one of the best bulbs is a clear incandescent. This is because the light will be relatively similar to sunlight.

Sunlight is the worst possible light to give a reef tank. You will get a ton of green hair algae. I had a BTA which shrunk down to the size of a coin and then let go of the rock. There were two BTA's in the tank, the other, remains healthy. Two identical animals, one thrives, the other dies. Such is the hobby.

If your getting white then this is "bleaching" and yes, is a sign the animal is sick. Bleaching is when the animal expels its zoo, zoo mostly appears brownish and is used for photosynthesis.

Bleaching is generally, but not limited to, the result of too much light or incorrect colour spectrum.

Nems like perfect on-point water with vey little flux in salinity, ALK, temp, nitrate and phosphate. Since it appears some else manages your tank, the risk of larger flux is of concern.

There is very little you can do, if he starts to "fall apart" remove him before he causes stress to everyone else.