Shriveling Bulb Anemone

[DavidHorsey]

I put a bulb anemone in my 75 gallon tank yesterday, and placed it on one of my rocks in a small crevace for it to sit in. It seems to enjoy the spot as it opened up fully within a few hours. Woke up this morning and it was even bigger, got home from work and it was still all spread out. An hour later, I walked back by and found that it had fallen to the bottom and is folded over and looks shriveled up.
I checked my Ph, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites and specific gravity, and all numbers are perfect.
Should I be concerned at this point, is it possible that it took a fall and it in shock of sorts?
Any thoughts?

 

[Bifferwine]

What kind of lights do you have? And welcome to the site! :D

 

[the reef kid]

And what else do you have in the tank with it?

 

[Bifferwine]

And how long has the tank been set up?

And what are your nitrates reading?

 

[cthegame]

Biff's questions are critical. What kind of lighting do you have?

 

[daugherty]

what kind of lights
how long has the tank been running
what is the prams of the tank

 

[DavidHorsey]

Sorry for the slow response, but the responses got spammed on me!!!

I have a four bulb set with 2 12k 54W T5 HO compacts and 2 54W T5 HO Actinics for a 216W total. Also have a few blue LEDs for moon light at night.

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20ppm
SG 8.2
Temp 78

The bulb is a funny creature to me...I have heard (although I don't know how true) that they bulb up when they are looking for food. So, if they are fed either directly or through photosynthesis, and are satisfied, that they will pull the bulbs back and kind of shrivel up. Is that true? Mine seems to be all over the place...sometimes it is a 6" diameter and sometimes it is a shriveled up blob that looks almost dead, then two hours later it will be really big again. It really is not moving around much, so I don't think it is unhappy.

Does this all sound pretty normal?

Also, I placed a Clarkii in there, and it took him one day to take to the bulb on top of my rocks, then the bulb decided to go down to the sand bed, and the Clarkii has not touched it since....hopefully, he will get interested again!!

Thanks for any further advice or help.

Dave

 

[Bifferwine]

Your nitrates are quite high. Too high for an anemone, which requires nitrates close to zero to do well. Your lighting is also quite low for an anemone. If your anemone continues to appear to not be doing well, I'd bet it's a combination of those two factors. Work on improving your water quality in the meantime -- nitrates at 20 can start to be fatal to corals and inverts. And with those lights, you may be limited to low to moderate light animals only. No high light animals like SPS, anemones or clams.

 

[DavidHorsey]

I do not plan to go with anything that requires intense lighting...not in my plan. Nothing bigger than bulb, long tentacles or mushrooms in this one!!

From what I researched, bulbs and long tentacles require 2-3 watts per gallon, which I am about dead on the high side, so I thought the lighting was fine.

I need to check my nitrates again, as I have a nice bed of chaetomorpha in my refuge that should be zapping out a lot of nitrates....need to double check.

What is another good solution to keep nitrates down?

Dave

 

[Bifferwine]

Anemones are some of the most light demanding animals in the hobby. Anemones requires stronger lighting than most corals. Even stronger than clams and SPS corals, in some cases.

Bulb and long tentacle anemones require upwards of 8 to 10 watts per gallon. 2 to 3 watts is on the low end, even for low light corals.

The best way to keep nitrates down is regular water changes. And using good quality water, not tap water. If you use RODI water, then water changes of 10 to 20% of the tank's volume each week is usually sufficient. But nitrates can be hard to beat since there are so many things that cause high nitrates. Overfeeding and overstocking of fish are usually the most common causes.

 

[DavidHorsey]

I am using good filtered water, and am changing 5-8 gallons of the 75 every week.

I have done quite a bit of research, as I always do before introducing any new member....and this is the only time I have heard a bulb needs 8-10 watts per gallon....that is some pretty intense lighting for a creature that is supposed to be a moderate light need.

Everything I have seen says that 2 is light, 3 is sufficient and 4 is all they need. Is your thought of 8-10 based on experience, research, or where?

Thanks for your help.

Dave

 

[ErinCahir]

Most site recommend "moderate to high" lighting for anemones.
2-3 watts/gallon is definitely low light in my opinion. I had two anemones that died in my care. I believe lighting was the issue. We were running 3 watts/gallon at the time. Our new anemone was doing much better under our new lights (5 watts/gallon). He died recently along with a frogspawn when our tank was contaminated with a bad batch of nori.

 

[DavidHorsey]

I am going to get the nitrates under control and see what happens....from everything I have researched, I don't think lighting is the issue.

There is no fact to this...but I would assume that if the light was a problem, the anemone would climb to try to get closer to the light....mine is content to stay on the tank bottom.

 

[Chris_150G]

Well hopefully it will survive in 2-3 watts. But, I'm sure they normally need high lighting.

I did a google search just to try to figure out how you got your info...and most everywhere I looked listed their light need as high/intense. The only time a site didn't list them as high or intense they instead said something ambiguous.

 

[cthegame]

i doubt that it will last long with 2-3 wpg. 2 is barely enough to keep some softies.

Biff is correct 8-10wpg is what nems like best. Sometimes you can get way with less with some nems but its a risk. And the risk of a nem nuking your entire tank is not worth it with 2-3 wpg