Sick Anemone

[discretekarma]

I've had a GBTA for about 6 months. Up till about 2 months ago, he was 3-4" across. One day I remember that it got all balled up and went to hide. It stayed like that for most of a month. Since then it's been aout 1" - 1.5" and it's been completely white body and light brown skinny tentacles. I have two Tomato Clowns that host in it. One of the clowns is about 2" and the other is 1/2" from someone elses tank. I have a 180 with 2 x 400w lights. Nothing has changed in at least 4 months. I'm hoping to get help before it dies. I don't have a camera that can take pictures of it.

I'm looking to find out what to do more so than what happened unless it can't be avoided.

Scott

 

[garygb]

Are there other inhabitants that could be irritating it (allelopathy)? Could the lighting be too strong for it? Also, have you checked the water parameters and are they all within normal limits?

 

[discretekarma]

I don't know of anything that's irritating it but I guess it's possible. I have a small RBTA on the other side of my 180 that's doing fine so I don't think it's the light. They're in the exact same spot but on opposite sides. They've never come close to each other so I know they aren't bothering each other.

 

[rssjsb]

Any big softies like sinularia or colt corals or lots of mushrooms?

 

[discretekarma]

I have a lot of mushrooms but I haven't noticed any near the anemone. I just remembered that I used to have a large arrow crab. After I had been having problems with the GBTA I was target feeding the GBTA when the arrow crab was coming over to the anemone to try to take the food so I shewed the crab. It went behind the anemone and stopped. The next day I found the crab dead. I figured the crab went back to mess with the anemone after I left and the Tomato killed it. The anemone was already having problems when this happened but is it possible this wasn't the first time this occured? The crab is dead now so it can't happen again. If this is the problem, what should I do?

Thanks

 

[garygb]

Another BTA would be the last thing I would worry about irritating it. Mushrooms may be though, are you running activated carbon constantly? That supposedly helps remove noxious chemicals that softies and mushrooms are notorious for releasing.

I would definitely make sure that the clowns can't get to the anemone. A BTA should be twice to three times in diameter the length of the clowns; otherwise they can irritate the anemone to death.