Very sick LTA

[enigma32]

Hello all,

I recently (less than a week ago) introduced an LTA to my tank and its health has been slowly deteriorating since...
I'm here for help because I'm out of ideas and I think it's done for :-(

Let me explain:
30g long with ~20# liverock, one clown. Running a AquaClear 110 (500). Coralife 10k and color enhancer

A few days ago I brought a water sample to my LFS (which has a very good reputation in the state) and found that, regardless of what all of my tests told me, I had some ammonia and nitrate. (!)
I did a 1/3 water change that evening, being especially careful to match the parameters. (I usually do 10% - 20% depending on whether its been a week or more)

The anemone's tentacles are discolored and shrunken (although they can become extended and properly colored within minutes when it wants to).
The mouth has been fine... until this afternoon... and now it's wide open :-( I have never seen it expand as much as I expected it to. (or as much as it was at the store... I watched it in their tank for over a week) It also has been "shedding" since I got it home.

Have not fed it yet as it's been less than a week.


Parameters:
Temp: 79F
pH: 8.0
SG: 1.024 (I had it at 1.025 but was told that nothing they sell was in water that dense- they suggest 1.023-1.024 for invertabrates)
ammonia: 0-.5 (!)
NitrIte: .6 (!)
NitrAte: 6.0

I tried moving the anemone into the water flow a little more tonight, as it had ended up in a corner with very little water movement. It doesn't seem to be seeking shade, and doesn't seem to want to climb to more light either.

I'm thinking that perhaps the poor water quality was the reason for his deteriorating health... but it certainly hasn't improved any and I'm fearing the worst....

Thanks for any and all help!

-matt

 

[TOURKID]

I dont know to much about lta's... But he should stay on the bottom of your tank. They bury there foot in the sand. (btas like the rocks)

And his mouth was open today.. did anything come out of it? was it shrunkin at the same time?

When you change your water perimeters, sometimes an anemone will empty all the water out of its body and then fill back up so it equalizes itself with the water surrounding it.

If you start to see white curly -q's coming out of its mouth, thats a very bad sign.

Does it still have a good coloring?

 

[enigma32]

Brown stuff in the mouth...
The tentacles that aren't shrunken have ok coloreing... and the foot seems to be looking ok for color....

 

[TOURKID]

Oh good! it was pooping..... It will expell all the water in its body in order to push out the poop then it should expand agian within a few hours.

You might be able to get it to take food now.

Is it still floating around the sand? or has it started buring its foot?

 

[TOURKID]

just for silliness. hers mine pooping and here it is normaly. iis a bubble tip anemone tho

 

[enigma32]

hahaha

That very well may be what's going on... I hope you're right

It does look very much like the first picture.
Strange.. nothing I've read about anemones mentioned that....

I guess I'll see tomorrow morning whether that was the case?

He's just kind of been laying on his side........ hasn't planted or floated....

Thanks for your help, and I'll post again tomorrow!

-matt

 

[Sk8r]

I second the advice you're given. If you see any patch of outright dissolution, where the 'nem starts to disintegrate, get it out into a bucket separate from your system: it's pretty well a goner. But as long as it is 'cycling' and expressing and taking in water, it's just adjusting its internal pressure and chemistry: that's a healthy anemone.

 

[dantodd]

As tourkid said, your LTA will be most comfortable with at least 4" of sand to bury his foot. Mine, and many I've heard, like to have their foot sort of wedged up under a rock in the sand.

Anemone will occasionally shrink up like that when they are acclimating to a new tank but that shouldn't last very long. When it is spitting stuff out it is either excreting waste or expelling it's symbiotic algae.

Mine likes an area with relatively low flow in my tank.

Best thing you can do for it is to ensure your water is in good condition and start feeding him when/if he opens up.

 

[enigma32]

Yay!
He opened back up Saturday afternoon and appears to be doing ok now save for the continuing shedding issue....
I suppose I'll try feeding some silversides then and see what happens...

Do you think the Coralife 10k is sufficient or should I switch to a 20k lamp now?

Thanks for the help you guys

 

[dantodd]

10000K is generally better than 20000K as it has a greater PAR.

Post more about your lights, wattage, type, distance from surface, anything else you can think of that may be important.

Lighting will not make much of a difference in a week but will directly effect the anemones longterm survivability.

 

[enigma32]

Ok, here's all the details I can think of... and you guys can tell me how screwed up it is and I'll fix it as fast I can with my limited cash flow

30 gallon long tank
AquaClear 110 (500) with sponge, carbon, and "bio media" all present,
I *am* running an airstone, just in case...
There are two fluorescent strips sitting approx 2.5" above water surface. There is a glass top in between them and the surface.
1) CoraLife 10000k F30-T12-BP (I think this is a 30W lamp (!))
2) All-Glass 25W lamp (for "color enhancement") (!)

My 'nem is still shedding :-( and was deflated again a day ago but has resumed his normal size again now...

Other livestock includes an A. ocellaris clown, hermit crab and turbo snail, a tiny feather duster, and a larger feather duster which has gone missing (?) around the same time I added the anemone (it crawled out of it's tube and sat in the corner, alive, for a few days before disappearing alltogether)

Trying to do water changes every couple days...
Fed Krill (another LFS feeds their anemones that) but it was not accepted... still need to find silversides....

-matt

 

[dantodd]

You have way too little light on that tank.

You need at least 200w of Powercompact lighting and you have 55w of normal output lighting. Unfortunately it is not cheap to fix the problem.

I think your cheapest solution would be to build your own hood/canopy. You can get a 220w ballast that will drive PC for about $40. The bulbs will cost about $20 each and the bulb sockets will cost about $5 each.

Workhorse 7 ballast $40
2 X 55w bulbs 50/50 $40
2 X 55w bulbs daylight $40
4 X sockets $20

$140 total.

I think the 30 is 36" long. If so you can use something with like this 198w fixture: http://www.innovativelights.com/current-sat-296.html

 

[enigma32]

Ah, so I was correct in thinking that this was way too little lighting.
I suppose I will be purchasing some better lighting ASAP.

 

[sarahkucera]

Everyone else has already addressed the lighting issue, so you know about that.

One thing I haven't seen asked here is how long has your tank been running with your current load of live rock? Is it possible that your tank is still cycling and just isn't ready for an anemone? That could explain what's going on with your ammonia and 'trates.

 

[enigma32]

Interesting point.
The detectable level of ammonia, of course, shouldn't have happened because the tank has been up for 6 months (completely cycled for 5) and nothing new had been added for a number of weeks...
I'm not sure what exactly caused the ammonia reading, and I've since learned that my test kit isn't reading reliably... I intend it to compare it directly with another kit shortly. In the mean time I've been doing water changes every 2-4 days to keep the water as pristine as I can.
I have noticed an increase in the growth of algae in the last week or two also...
Baffled as to what would have triggered a cycle, though...
(the feather duster disappearing happened at the same time....perhaps it is decaying somewhere that I haven't found?) If anything I've been feeding less....
There's been some black colored bubble algae recently too. This wasn't there two weeks ago.