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#1
11/08/2006, 11:01 PM
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Anemone
I was wondering how many you guys have anemones? I recently obtained one and it was fine in the beginning..eating well and everything.. then it started to shrivel up and now the bottom part is blown up like a balloon. Any ideas what's going on? Thanks
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#2
11/08/2006, 11:14 PM
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They do a lot of funny things...Today my gbta looked like it was a raisin. Now it looks like a million bucks, wait and see if it looks sickly for an extended amount of time before worrying. Also check your water quality as anenomes like clean water. If it stays looking bad beware... a dying aneneome can cause problems for the rest of the tank.
Hope that helps, Paul
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Mike did it! |
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#3
11/08/2006, 11:43 PM
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Good advice Paul. They have a horrible track record with new tanks, I hope yours has been well established! Water quality indeed is important, when the nitrates start to go above 20ppm they start shuttin down for business, if kept lower they open back up. If fed to much they mary regurgitate, inturn being very stressfull. Small frequent feedings are ideal, for example 15-20 mysid shrimp, or 1 piece of krill every 3-5 days.Or, 5-10 mysid every other day or half a piece of krill every other day. This is how I feed mine and mine is pretty dang big right now approx 7-9" across, and Im sure he'd be able to eat more now that he's so big, but thats why Im controlling his diet.But that would be an acceptable diet for an anenome thats 4+" If smaller just cut the portions by a 1/3. For me it was finally getting one, then it moved to just keeping one alive, then it went to making it beautifull and thriving and now it finally sunk in(3 years later
 ), that anenomes just dont make good mixed reef candidates. Is it possible?Totally.Would I encourage it, not anymore. Like Calfo says, which is soo true; It just takes one B-line turn from an anenome, to lose hundreds of dollars in livestock.-Justin
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Proud member of M.A.R.S Marine Aquarist Rountable of Sacramento since Apr.'05 |
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#4
11/09/2006, 12:13 AM
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I had a LTa in my tank for a while and he was huge and beautiful. All of a sudden he starts walking all over the tank and messing with my stationary corals. Sad to say but I dont like emm in my reef tanks they have the potential to destroy it.
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#5
11/09/2006, 12:44 AM
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I had heard so many sad stories about wandering anemonies that I set up another tank when I decided to get one. I haven't had any problems at all.
My RBTA has exhibited a few strange behaviors including twisting. I feed small pieces of mixed frozen food 1-2 times a week. I found when I fed larger pieces it didn't do well. Lots of regurgitaion occured with too much food or when the chunks were too large. Regurgitation stopped when I switched to a smaller size of food. Swelling could be caused by overfeeding, feeding large pieces or problems with water quality. Of course it could just be playing too. I read somewhere (I think it was written by Anthony Calfo.) that anemonies in the wild rarely get a chance to eat large pieces of food. Living near the ocean floor they only get the leftovers that trickle down. It made good sense to me. Good luck with your anemone. |
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#6
11/09/2006, 02:56 AM
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I went through a few myself before I realized some things I was doing wrong and spent hours watching their behavior. What I learned:
Anenome don't conciously do anything....but more react to the enviroment. Once you realize that the anenomes actions are a direct corelation to its enviroment, the happier you both will be. Anenome when purchased are usually stressed due to shipping and are not in the best of health usually....they are weak from lack of light and worse dyed to give them a more appealing color......so assuming your tank is optimal, most anenome will be a little on the "sick" side for a little while until established. As mentioned anemome only react to the enviroment, so if the water quality, flow, or light is not adequate, they will pull up stakes and wander until they find it, unfortunatly they are trapped in you tank. A wandering anenome is not good,(BTAs seem to wander the easiest though), if not happy they will wander and wander feeding off themselves for months and wither away, all the time "appearing" healthy and the owner is perplexed why it died. Unfortunatly, by the time the owner notices the signs of an anenome starving, ie bleaching or withering away its on the fast downhill slide....at that point it is too weak to fight off an infection or heal a tear and dies. Probably the most IMPORTANT and NEEDED thing to consider is lighting. Intense lighting. I was very stubborn when I first got into anenome and killed my fair share....because I didn't have enough light.....Metal Halides are intense enough to keep anenome long term, and would not suggest keeping one in any less than that. Sure, intense PCs and obviously T5s would work, but you will rely on supplemental feeding more and increase the odds its not getting its needed daily requirments. And yes, I have heard of the guys who had 10 BTAs that split umpteen times under N.O. lighting and never were fed........but remember that these suckers live for decades in the wild and five years is considered a "success" in the hobby, and stories are just that...stories. Sorry for the rant, but a majority of the time its inadequate lighting and most do not like to hear that and tend to argue that they don't need it......but don't know why their anenome are clear or white and are constantly taking a stroll. Some enflate to equalize water....I don't think it should happen with that much regularity and is a possible sign of agitation....once in awhile no biggie. Check your water, lighting, and feed it and it should be alright if all are to spec..... If its not taking food, offer more pieces more often and hopefully it will start eating again.....A turkey baster and some mysis go a long way. As with the above post, the feedings are to supplement the light energy, but not be the main source of energy like you and I get ours from. Most with slightly sub par lighting conditions can get away with more regular feeding to offset that lack, but in the long run I don't think the anenome is effecient enough (or fast enough) to convert the food into energy that it needs to thrive and eventually starves anyway, just more slowly which again perplexes the owner. There are a couple of other signs like panning for light(looking nice and swelled up but increasing the surface area to catch more rays), gapping mouth(stressed)....etc....Good Luck!!
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Fresh out of catchy one-liners today.... Last edited by dots; 11/09/2006 at 03:11 AM. |
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#8
11/09/2006, 03:43 AM
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Yeah its a hot button for me and I aim to please by answering all questions as completly as possible, don't want to cheat anybody!!! I can be as vaque and as cryptic as the best of em, but I need to practice my typing and love to see my witty vocabulary in black and white......
.......most people have blinders on when it comes to keeping anenome because the whole reason they got a tank was to have a Nemo and a Anenome, and have the totaly wrong set up and refuse to admit it and go through anenome after anemome and never question why they are dying in the first place. Kinda the same as using Damsels for cycling....but what gets me is most usually stick there fingers in their ears and cover thier eyes and refuse to admit they don't have what they need. Na Na Na....I can't hear you!!! After replying to simmilar questions on the "anenome forum" and getting very stuborn people saying that it isn't important, the only thing I can do is wait and in six months ask how the anenome is doing and they say something like "traded it off" or "sold it". And because they die SO SLOWLY....nobody realizes what is going on and puts two and two together. But the problem is EVERYONE wants the cool anenome but doesn't want to pony up for the correct equipment. Like I said though, couldn't keep em myself until I did also......so please learn from my mistakes and observations. Your just jelous that I am using your soapbox Justin, aren't you? Here you go, you can have it back!!!! I aim to please, I don't want to cheat anyone on thier thread......I give my all and would do it for you too.......anytime buddy!!!!  (sarcasm is so hard to write to get the proper inference)Watch this.....he has MH's and my little essay/rant is all for not!!!
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Fresh out of catchy one-liners today.... Last edited by dots; 11/09/2006 at 04:11 AM. |
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#9
11/09/2006, 12:18 PM
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I agree about the lighting, I have 5 roses and a green bta in my tank and they have all placed themselves in the rockwork to get good lighting from my 250w mh. They don't like to be directly under the hot spot yet (focal point of L-3) but they're headed that way. I also was in the lucky position of being able to place the nems BEFORE adding much coral to my system so I got to see where they'd go first. I feed mysis once a week (not too much, maybe 6-10 shrimp per nem) and do 25% water changes weekly.
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#10
11/09/2006, 01:56 PM
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i feel the most important thing when acquiring a new anemone is not to take one from the wild! find a clone that is several generations removed from the wild that has been living under similar conditions that you wish to keep it in.
!~)
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It gets easier the more you do it!-) |
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#11
11/09/2006, 04:08 PM
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Doug had a loooooonnnnnnggggg week, that's why.
I want get rid of my anemone, because when I put any other coral close to it, it will just extend the closest tenticles just to try to kill off the intruder, so I need a large space for it. but my clowns love it, I hate to see they lose their lovely home. anemones do weird stuffs, as long as u keep water good, decent feeding, and decent lighting, u should be able to keep them, but keeping them from killing another stuffs in the tank will be the hardest of all. just my $.02 |
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#12
11/09/2006, 08:58 PM
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well, sad to say... the anemone died. I don't know. I check all the water parameters and they're fine. I have PCs and the anemone was sitting fine near the top of my tank... I fed it mysis every other day.. i have no idea.. sucks.
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#14
11/09/2006, 10:22 PM
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Is your tank new? If so that is the culprit. Sorry to hear nonetheless.
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#16
11/10/2006, 02:00 PM
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eagleone, You might want to upgrade your lighting. before when i have pcs, non of my anemone made it. now that i have mh upgrade they are healthy and well.
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#17
11/10/2006, 02:09 PM
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Sorry to hear about your loss.
Doug-My rant is very similar to yours. My belief is that observation is a huge part of reefkeeping. Education BEFORE taking responsibility for an animal should be manditory. I appreciate your efforts to help with education. |
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#18
11/10/2006, 02:23 PM
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Quote:
IF not what size tank and how much wattage were they My GBTA ive had since WMC and it just split into 2... I got a 50 with 260w Pc's
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_____________________________ Edwin Its Only $100 Dollars dear.... ______________________________ |
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#19
11/10/2006, 02:34 PM
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Thank you I really appreciate that!! The last thing I want to sound like is a blowhard. I was in this same postion not too long ago and hopefully can save some people from the frustration I had. Because when I was first starting out, my girlfriend joked and said my tank was the place fish, coral, and anenome went to die....
Fragaholic asked for that article I was referring to, amazingly enough I found it interesting read. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/in...ipanemones.htm And I am soooo not trying to be a killjoy Edwin, but when I had PCs only, mine split also.....but unfortunatly they need just that more energy to heal up and mine just wandered and wandered around until the shrank and shrank to nothing from eating off themselves. Not too mention when small, clown fish can get a little too aggressive and make things worse. I believe the attached article says the split out of survival due to stress....or was that another? I only have a few polarized opinions on a few topics such as this one.....because I am very stubborn and when I realized I couldn't keep one alive it was as if I was running into a brick wall and liked it...and did it over and over and over......I was that PC guy......this is one case where watts/gallon isn't a good measument, but rather intensity is the key. Trust me I want to be wrong about this and hope you are successful were I failed many many times. IMO anenome and SPS are in the same degree of dificulty classification. In fact as mentioned I am moving mine into a 29g Nano with a MH light soon....I have to admit that I am nervous about putting it into such a smaller tank and upsetting its balance. I don't like posting embassing pics, but will do so to help explain why I am so opinionated on this subject....(I already can see the beating the deadhorse .gif)   In the above two pics there are a total of 4 anenome taken at two different times, yes I was very uneducated,(and obvioulsly wasn't dating the photographer girlfriend at the time), all died within six months. I am sure there were more than 4.....I don't want to think about it. It was naive and cruel of me to kill so many, so as my penance I have to help others from doing the same. I apologize for my unmoveable position on this. In fact I thought the guys on wetwebmedia were crazy and ultra conservative when I first read the same things....... After I switched lights, I was instantly able to keep one alive more than six months......taken in April, it is bigger now. If I had lower light and it was forced to pan for light it would be about 2 feet wide.  However, Condys do GREAT under PCs and would recommend them 7 days a week. Only they are Atlantic and clowns don't host to them normally. Jimdog187 I believe had simillar problems when he moved his out from under the halides and into a PC FOWLR tank.....and his is now on the mend......Sorry Ill shut up.....
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Fresh out of catchy one-liners today.... Last edited by dots; 11/10/2006 at 03:28 PM. |
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#20
11/10/2006, 02:51 PM
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Thanks Doug!
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#21
11/10/2006, 03:38 PM
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Sac,
what size tank did you have them in and what wattage was the PC's. It looks very deep for the height. I do know that MH's give a better light intesisity and the type of light helps. One thing That I think is helping mine, is that it is up higher closer to the light and my tank is about 13 inches deep with the 260watts. And, also feeding it shrimp every other day. I am going on 7 months now, Hopefully I am doing something right. I am sorry about your loss eagleone.
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_____________________________ Edwin Its Only $100 Dollars dear.... ______________________________ |
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#22
11/10/2006, 04:06 PM
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Please call me Doug.....I know my screenname is a pain. Thats another story.
Oh that was a perfect example of the wrong setup for what I wanted, it over illustrates my point of needing the correct tool for the job. Granted, your set up is WAY closer to optimal and in no way shape or form am I comparing the two systems.....as mentioned above, supplemental feeding can offset the lack of intensity PCs provide, the attached article stated the same also. But in the end you could be only providing 98% of the required energy needed daily and a 2% deffiecency per day is just a slower rate of delcine, but still a decline. And as I was saying, its on average people with PC's loose them.....you are probably at the head of the class as I very well expected.....being a MARS member, you are just about garunteed success....(shameless plug) Oh yeah, dont laugh too much...... My first tank was a 37g tall with an eclipse 3 hood. By the time I got rid of it I replaced the lights with the 65w retrokit(which catch fire and melt the lens/hood do not recomend and which are about 1/2 the watts/gal you have) and hacked in a CPR bak pak into the Eclipse 3 hood. A glorafide FW tank converted to a nano, very poorly.
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Fresh out of catchy one-liners today.... |
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#23
11/10/2006, 05:03 PM
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Yeah I can see what you are saying and I agree, I hope I am doing something right, with it close to the top getting light and feeding it plenty.
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_____________________________ Edwin Its Only $100 Dollars dear.... ______________________________ |
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#24
11/10/2006, 05:30 PM
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I agree whole heartedly Doug it was late in the day and I playfull
 This subject deserves any and all the rants it can get. It takes years to grow in the wild what the industry and hobby snatch up within minutes and kill within days and months. And like you and alot of other regretfull folks I have I have the weight of of the ones Ive lost on my shoulder too. I will also share hopefull what will be my last learning curve for this beautifull animal.  This shot was taken a month after I recieved a HO light fixture after about 6-9 mo. use on the T5 fixture it had finally started to get a shade thats comparible to Edwins, thats when I finally was able to retro it with reflectors and took approximatley another 7-8 to bring it to what it is today. This shot was about 3 weeks ago  -Justin
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Proud member of M.A.R.S Marine Aquarist Rountable of Sacramento since Apr.'05 |
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