green bubble tip anemone question

[mujtba]

i bought a green bubble tip anemone 7+ months ago..

when I purchased it, it was neon beautiful bright green..

after just a few weeks, the anemone has been brownish and looks real bad.. its tentacles used to be THICK and green and closer together, and now they are thin and far apart...

it has been alive for 7 months or more, and opens up and everything, BUT whats with the color??? i have a clownfish host in it also for 7 months..

what chemical or nutrient or vitamin does this anemone need that I do not have? Or do I have TOO much of a chemical that is causing it to discolor?

I waited so long for it to change back to its bright colors, but nothing is happening...

what do i do???

its under 500 total watts of MH.. 75Gallon tank...

i have many other corals, which are all healthy.. and this anemone is alive too, just that dang color..

parameters:

Nitrate:0
Ammonia: 0
PH: 8.0-8.2
nitrite: 0
salinity: 1.024
calcium: 400

[capncapo]

For one, you can get your salinity up to 1.025 - 1.026. It might not be causing your problem but ALL of your animals will benefit.

How large is it and how large is the clown?

Are you feeding it? If so, what and how often?

Tank temp?

It certainly isn't for lack of light.

[rshimek]

Hi,

capncapo, [thanks]

The questions that capncapo asked are good ones, and those data should be posted if you want a more complete answer. Also, boosting the salinity to what is normally found on a reef will help.

The brownish color is likely due to a good, healthy population of zooxanthellae in the anemone. These anemones generally live with the column in a crevice or cave and only the tentacles exposed to the surface. If the animal is exposed to the amount of light in the system, I suspect the excessive zoox growth is what changed the color.

[mujtba]

Temp: 80 deg
Anemone is about 5-6 inches.. its a nice size. the clownfish (nemo) is about 3 inches..

i just checked my salinity, and its reading 1.026.. i was wrong before.. so this isn't high? i should keep it at this?

yes the anemone is mounted on a rock and only the tentacles are exposed to the light..

also, like i said before, the tentacles were thick and close together and the tips were sort of like a roundish bubble and it was all neon green.. now tentacles are further apart and thinner and longer and all ugly brown..

however, i do not feed the anemone.. its been alive for so long, i assumed my clownfish feeds it..

i also have a crocea clam that i do not feed at all. its been alive and well and kept its colors.

plus, i dont know how or what to feed it or how often or how much..

[rshimek]

Hi,

Well, malnutrition is likely part of the problem.

See here for some information on the husbandry of these animals.

The sp. g. is fine.

The clam probably also needs food, regular feedings of phytoplankton are pretty much a necessity for small tridacnids.

[capncapo]

You may want to feed the anemone some lancefish or at least attempt to feed it. If the clown is feeding it all it needs it won't eat. I've got a feeling that it will eat. Your clown may be feeding it but there's a good chance that it's not enough. Anemones are fairly heavy feeders.

The clown hosting in your anemone is pretty big for an anemone of that size. If the anemone isn't in perfect health, the clown could be "loving it to death".

It's possible that you may actually need to reduce the amount of light the aniimal receives in order to get the anemone to "color up".

[mujtba]

how do i feed it? my hand? where do i get lancefish? how often??? please give details because i never did it before.

[Letmegrow]

Place a thawed fish, with your hand into the tentacles reach, they should grab and pull in the food quickly. For an anemone that sized 1 - 2 lancefish or silversides a week is a good start.
Your LFS store should have them in their frozen foods section.
Make sure no fish or crabs try to rob the anemone of the food.

[tigerarmy40]

you can use a turkey baster to blow chunks of silversides or lancefish on it lightly! I also use mysis in the baster and just lightly blow them in the tentacles and it will grab them all up and curl up to eat them! maybe twice a week!