sick anemone?

I have a long tentacle anemone that was healthy for a long time. Its been small and shriveled for the last two months..I give him silver sides...and try mysis shrimp... he refuses it all... I finally moved him from the sand up into a hole in the live rock to prevent constant beatings from the clowns... but he still won't eat...

Any suggestions? His mouth is closed..not gaping open..but he isn't filling out like he used to... he was easily 6 inches wide..and now he is only about 1.5...\

 

Oh man, sounds like the anemone is possibly being underlighted. Water quality I've seen affects their mood and overall health. What are your parameters? Lighting? Also, make sure your nitrates are low, I've seen anemones' health spiral downward with high nitrates and unhealthy water conditions.

 

I've got VHO lighting...

I have two other anemones in there that are fine... a bubble tip...and a florida condi..

Also..my other soft corals seem to be fine... including my xenia...its usually the first to look like crap if I need to do a water change

I do a 10% water change every week... will do some water tests tonite...but since the other stuff all looks good..I'm assuming they are fine...

 

looks to me like you have to many anemones. anemones will have a chemical war going on in your tank, and it my take months, even years to find out, but the weaker one will surely die. i would watch the anemone well, if it dies, it will pollute your tank fast, and the other anemones mite react to it. good luck

Mike

 

I'll keep a close eye on it..if it appears to be close to dying..I'll take it out...I've got him on a high rock in a crevice right now..and he seems content not to move from there..so will be easy to snag if I need to.

 

He is on his last legs. 2 months is way to long. He is not eating as he has shut-down all his chemoreceptors. If this was a week or two(max), like when they do WC (usually only a day or 2), I might say wait. It will not be to long before he just falls apart. They will actually look alive and even move but when you touch them they just come apart. So keep a very close on on it.

I hpoe I'm not correct and he makes it

 

Allow me to share my experience. I have a Carr. Giant Anemone for the past five months now. the tank in which he was in slowly began to get stocked with alot of coral. I noticed that the anemone kept hiding under the rocks and tended not to eat. this went on for about two months. Within the past 2 weeks my nitrates and nitrites skyrocketted due to what I have been told has been overfeeding. After treatment of the tank with frequent water changes, I have managed to come back to 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates. However the sea anemone had lost all of its tentacles, was not responding and the clownfish appeared to be bothering it more than anything else. I took it out of the tank, gave it its own tank-just rock, no sand with parameters in check. The anemone everted its entire body - basically has been throwing up. I do a water change each time to control for water quality. It gets 8-9 hours daylight, 10 hours actinic, 12 hours moonlight. No food because it wont eat. It appears to have come back to normal now however without tentacles and still not eating. The tank gets treated with Stabilizer to build up bacterial load and it gets a dose of phytoplex with every water change. The anemone swells up, appears to be doing well, not eating however but just hanging in. He is not coming apart yet and appears to be hanging on. I will keep up the water changes, the phytoplex and regularly check parameters without stressing anemone out until his tentacles grow back. Will keep you up to date on anemone's status.
Tony

 

Ehh... I've been also given an anemone, long tentacle (it was happy for 1 day) and he retracted his tentacles and sits quietly... I'm worried a bit. I also have to check water parameters... :-/

 

To 3Reef!!! ​

Salutations! Glad to see you found way here!

Notice first post.

Good luck with anem.

;D ​

The Tao of Marine Aquaria
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© 1997 Adam H. Whitlock
Edited By Elizabeth M. Lukan 11/25/00 ​

 

Anemone died. Poor guy. He tried. He just laid there mouth all agape and then just began to turn grey around the edges, coming apart. Would swell up every day but had gotten to the point where he did not have the strength to attach to rocks. I told him that it was okay to go and then the following morning took his limp form out of the tank and tossed him in the trash. He is now in the Great Beyond.

I will keep everyone up to date on the new ones that I am getting. They will be in a tank all to themselves with no clowns and will be hand fed.

Caribewolf