My bubble-tip had been in tip-top shape for several months. He moved around occasionally, but has finally settled in on a spot. He hasn't moved in 6 months. He has been an upstanding member of my tank for 8 months now. The past month, however, he has seemed to be on a slide, and I cannot figure out why. He is now "deflated" much of the time. This happened occassionally originally, as is normal, but he has no longer been coming back to his gigantic, poofy self. His tentacles have contracted, and are no longer arms, but little stubs. I think that something is missing in the tank, from depletion, I just can't figure out what.
Last night, I did a water test. Salinity, Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitirites, all in excellent shape. My calcium was a bit low (330 ppm). Will this cause problems? I am doing another water change today, but I have been on schedule with changes since the beginning of the tank.
Any advice is welcomed! I want this guy back in form!
The anemone is bleached pretty bad. In other words, its ability to obtain energy and nutrition from the light has been greatly compromised. Until it regains its zooxanthellae, it will need lots of nutrition/food from you. Otherwise, it's likely to continue to feed on its own tissues and shrink, until it simply has nothing left, and dies.
Most scheduled water change procedures are sufficient for keeping up with routine maintenance, but when there's an unknown problem, we may need to step up water changes, or do one LARGE water change. Maybe you're right and something's missing. Maybe some harmful substance has slowly accumulated to problem causing levels. We just have no way to be sure. There's a gazillion different elements and compounds that could potentially cause us problems but we don't have test kits for them.
I was feeding him direct about once a week. Frozen brine shrimp, and he seemed to love it. The bleaching is his body, so I am not sure if that is the same concept or not. When he was healthy, his tentacles were the creamy tan-brown color. I think he just looks bleached now because he is withered down to nothing but a core.
I will plan on increasing feeding to be direct daily, and will also begin some calcium dosing. Probably do an additional 5 gallon water change this week as well.
what kind of lighting do you have, they can live a year or more under bad conditions and slowly go down hill.
Bleached Anemone:
The lost of color or “bleaching” is a result of the loss of an anemone’s zooxanthellae. This can happen for a number of reasons such as excessive temperature changes, excessive lighting, insufficient lightning, physical stress, excessive salinity, etc.
Just like corals, anemones use their zooxanthellae to feed on light. The other part of their nutrition comes from meat. Unfortunately, they cannot survive solely on captured prey as their primary source of energy. An anemone without zooxanthellae is usually on the brink of death so:
Bleaching can be reversed, but it takes commitment and time. First thing to do is to is to provide excellent water quality and optimal lighting. If you fear your light is too strong, you can simply reduce the photo period and increase the time slowly over a couple of weeks. This will allow the anemone to addapt. When the light is too strong, the anemone will usually hide from it. The anemone should also be feed in small quantities on a regular basis (3-4 times a week) until it’s color recovers. This will keep it from starving since it dosn’t have it’s symbiotic algae to help out.
I have T5 lighting, 4 ballasts, 48" long. I run 2 actinic bulbs, 1 10,000k ocean sun bulb, and 1 Ultra-Sun Super Daylight bulb. The actinic lights are on from 7am to 9pm. The day lights are on from 8am to 8 pm.
T5 or T5HO, how deep is the tank. For anemones to flourish they need much more light than you think, they can survive in less light but even the slightest water issue will start them downhill. I had 2x250 MH on my 125, the lights were only 3-4 inches off the water and my nems were at the half way up in the tank. When I switched to 2x160 Maxspect Razor LED's, I was concerned about burning them, but after 2 weeks they were basking un them at 100%, they seem to take as much light as you can give them.
Almost a full month later, and I still have a live nem. He is not doing any better, however. I have tried targeted feeding, and even used some specific dosing of minerals right at him. He seems to be maintaining, but not getting better. I am coming to terms with him dieing soon, I don't think there is anything else I can do.
My tank is a standard sized 55 gallon, so it is pretty deep. Maybe the T5's I had just aren't good enough for him. I was so hopeful too, since he was doing so well for so long.
still didn't answer if its T5 or T5HO? And how old the bulbs are? I bought a nice T5HO unit on e bay for my 55 for about $120, came with 2x 10000K and 2x actinic (need to swap these out since its over my FW planted tank).
what do you mean specific dosing at him? Even if you had a healthy nem it would slowly die as you just do not have the proper lighting, nems feed off of lighting, so it is like starving it slowly to death. My nems are now under 320 watt high end led's at full power just 6-7 inches away.
dosing will only create my issues, are you testing calcium? Nems MUST have stable water conditions and parameters. Heres a pic of mine, I have never dosed anything
I have been testing calcium. I was running at the low end of the recommended range. That is why I began dosing once a week. The water paramaters have been stable for the most part, I have been doing regular changes and tests. Even did an additional 5 gallon change to see if that helped.
My nems used to look glorious like that... But now not so much :,( *Tear.
Are we thinking the lighting is the issue then? Maybe I should look to the LED path?
I went from 2x250 MH to 2x160 Maxspect Razor LED's. Yes it was $1000 but with the electric bills and $150 every year for new bulbs, it was time to do it, that picture is under the LED's, at 100% power
how old are your bulbs? I don't know what the expected life span of a T5HO bulb is, just know I've read many times that people say to replace them because they get weaker... so if your bulbs are 4-6months+ (guessing - someone else will have to fill in the recommended replacement timing) then its time for new bulbs...
Just made me think about what a terrible decision I made buying the T5HO for my FW planted tank =( I don't want to replace bulbs all the time...!
I will almost guarantee it is your lights. Anemone's need very good lighting. Calcium being low will not do that to the anemone. BTA's will stand poorer water quality than most anemones. Also brine shrimp does nothing, it has no nutritional value. you should never have to feed a healthy BTA or most any anemone. it is also toward to bottom and if your lights will not reach that low attempt to move it by pointing a powerhead at it. the change in waterflow could make it move and hopefully toward the top. I would still suggest an upgrade in lighting.
So I purchased a 10" LED light for my refugium. Decided it would be a good idea to just put the light on the side of my tank, right by the nem... Figured I would give it a shot, to see if the additional lighting would help him. I put it on him yesterday. Checking on him today, and he doesn't seem to be getting any more filled out or anything, but I did notice that his tentacles appear to be actually inflating for the first time in a long time. Is this good?
What do you think of this idea for having the additional LED on the nem for now? If he begins to get better, I will take the leap into a full LED system.
it would be good if the led you bought was a 3 watt cree, many led are advertised as reef capable, but they really are not, nee more information on the light
The light is a Finnex "Fuge Ray", 4 watt LED light bulb, designed for refugiums. I have not wanted to move him closer up to the light. I don't really trust him being able to re-attach at this point in time. I would rather try to stabalize him before moving. Also, I heard that forcefully moving him would cause stress that he probably wouldn't be able to handle.
Also, the LED light is wedged between the tank and the wall, so it is literally on the other side of the glass from the nem... can't get him any closer than that. I don't want to forcefully move him in the tank to get him closer to the primary tank light source.
you can move a powerhead and point it toward the nem to change the flow which will probably make him move. a 4 watt LED is not much of anything for an anemone.
consider the conditions where they are moving. Is it lighter/darker? More/less flow? crevices between rocks they can hide between? Recreate those conditions where you want them at and they are more likely to stay where you want them. Otherwise they will keep moving back to where they like the conditions at...
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