sick anemone? please help

[Diane]

I am new to saltwater fish.

I have a -55 gallon, 10 gallon refugium, 10 gallon sump, protein skimmer, mag 7 pump,2 power heads, 2 atinic bulbs, 1 10k day and 1 12k day with slight pink tone. I bought the tank privately, it had been set up for a while. I have had it 2 months.

There is live sand & rock, 2 clowns mated to 4 RTBAs, 2 reef chromis, 1 blenny, 1 flamefish and 1 neon goby. The RTBAs have spit several times (wound up with 8). Removed 4 from the tank. There is torch coral, snowflake coral and a few other small corals. 2 feather dusters along with several crabs, snails and 2 peppermint shrimp.

Water levels are all good except for nitrates which run between 10ppm - 5.0ppm.

About 2 weeks ago I added a new anemone to my tank. I posted a picture of it - it really doesn't look good at all - can anyone tell me what is wrong with the anemone? or what I can do for it?

Sorry for such long post, but wanted to get as much info in as possible.
Any help will be appreciated.

Diane

 

[softchxntaco]

sounds like you need more lighting or you need to feed it, someone else who knows more about nems can chime in

 

[Salty B]

Gonna need a bunch more info on this one. Whats all your params? How long was it previously set up for? Did you reuse the water when you moved? Whats the source of the water now? You know, those kinds of ?'s lol. Anemones need very good water quality to survive. Sounds like the move may have stirred up some nasties and that will be bad. When an anemone dies, it can release enough toxins to kill everything in the tank. I would suggest finding the nems a temporary home till you get things straightened out. Post up all the info (no matter how insignifigant it seems) and we'll do our best to get you on the right track to a happy reef. Welcome to the site BTW

 

[AmberSunrise]

The fact that the 4 split into 8 tells me its not your water parameters. It could be stressed from moving sometimes the store doesnt have it long before you buy it and that is a lot of stress.

It doesnt even look like an anemone in the picture what kind is it exactly?

Is it attached to the rock at all? If not I would say you should remove it because it could be giving off ammonia in your tank. I lost one and it caused all sorts of trouble for me it had to run carbon and do huge water changes. It killed my pipefish and almost killed my mandarin.

 

[softchxntaco]

now that the pic loaded for me your right, it dont look like a nem at all more like a sea cucumber, which can also be just as bad as a nem dying

 

[Salty B]

Does kinda look like a dendro

 

[Diane]

Hi Salty B,

The tank was set up for a couple of years before I brought it to my home. We reused most of the water (40 gallons) put new salt water in like we were doing a water change. I have had the tank for 2 months now. I just bought and added the nem about two weeks ago. I do a five gallon water change every week with salt water from fish & reef store and top off with r/o water from store at least once a week and clean skimmer every other day and change sock two to three times a week.
All parameters are good except for nitrates which I consistently have trouble with - usually runs between 5 - 10ppms; pH runs 8.2 to 8.4; ammonia 0ppms; nitrite 0ppms. Along with my testing the water I have the water tested once a week at store and everything is fine.
I just started using live marine phytoplankton, I alternate between frozen reef plankton and marine spectrum pellets for feedings.
Thanks for your help.

 

[ccCapt]

Even if the lights are T5HO, which you don't say if they are, a 4 bulb fixture really isn't enough light for an anemone. Anemones split for 2 reasons. To propagate when healthy, and when unhealthy, they split in hopes 1 of the splits will survive. Yours looks very unhealthy. There is no anemone that is naturally colored yellow like that. It's artifically dyed...and unfortunately looks near death.
ColoredAnemones

 

[Diane]

This is a picture of whole tank and what the anemone looked like before it shriveled up.
The anemone hosts a porcelain crab.

 

[ccCapt]

That is\was an artifically dyed sebae anemone.

 

[AmberSunrise]

Yeah they did something weird to it that is not natural looking

 

[Bifferwine]

Dying anemones is an unethical practice. It always results in the anemone's death, and only serves to allow the fish store that sold it to get more money for its "unique" coloration. I would not shop at that store again. The people that sold you that anemone knew it was dyed. They knew that dying it would kill it. And all they cared about was getting your money.

 

[Salty B]

Also...a little off topic, but a 55 is too small for that yellow tang.

 

[FishyReef]

Too bad nems don't naturally come in that color - and I totally get why you bought it - it looks gorgeous, especially when the LFS tells you how unique and special it is.... yeah they totally took you for a ride on that one. I am so sorry :( It really sounds like you otherwise have a decent set up and are doing everything right (checking params, using ro water, cleaning your filter socks, etc). Did you reuse the sand from the old tank? If so, that could be your source of nitrates. Do you have a sump on your tank? If so, you can try adding some chaetomorpha algae to help consume nitrates. Keep up with the water changes and you'll eventually get them down. And by the way, welcome, we are glad to have you aboard!

 

[salt_for_brains]

It looks pretty bad and I don't understand why a seller would dye one(yes I do $). It is a long road to recovery bringing one back that is still fairly healthy unfortunately it looks as though yours does not fit in that category.

 

[Diane]

I just want to thank everybody for trying to help me with my anemone.....
He did die on me, I was really upset, but the good thing is the rest of my tank was not affected by it. So far everything else has survived.

 

[Ted]

Sorry for your loss...they are hard to keep especially in a newer tank.