Umm is my 'nem okay??

[stlblufan]

So this BTA has been doing weird things lately. He started by moving into a dark area and shriveling up to almost nothing, so I moved the rock he was on into the light. Today I tried to feed him some brine shrimp and he sort of went nuts, opening his mouth and expelling a bunch of slimy nonsense. This is what he looks like right now. Water parameters are all excellent, weekly 25% water changes, etc. Is he dying? Should I get him out?

Thanks.

 

[dubs]

that guy might be on the way out just my op.... but to me it dont look good

 

[RAYS REEF]

if u start to see the anemone breaking apart i would remover him it means hes dieing,i would just leave it alone if its not breaking apart .i also have a anemone that went into hiding mode and shrunk to half an inch in size when i got him he was about two inches big but if u see him breaking apart remover him quickly....

 

[RAYS REEF]

what kind of anemone is it

 

[johnny roastbeef]

Looks like the beginning of the end.

 

[stlblufan]

what kind of anemone is it

It's a BTA

 

[KathyC]

How long have you had him?
Has it been shrinking since you purchased it?
What method are you using to feed it the brine shrimp?

It is not uncommon for them to expell the brown-ish goo, that is how they defacate, commonly their tentacles also shrivel up.

If an anenome moves, it is best to let it go where it wants as it is unhappy in it's current location. They tend to go towards darker areas of the tank when they don't feel well, so your moving it back into the light puts it under even more stress.

Better to let if find what lighting & flow it is happy with right now.

If the foot lets go of the rock and doesn't immediately reattach somewhere else, you will want to take it out of the tank as they can wipe out an entire tank when they die.

 

[stlblufan]

How long have you had him?

About a month.

Has it been shrinking since you purchased it?

Not really. It has been doing a lot of weird things. Since I purchased it, it has sometimes shrunk, sometimes blown up, sometimes been reaching for the light, sometimes been hiding in the darkness....maybe it was in bad shape when I purchased him, but the LFS that I got him from has a pretty decent reputation. Who knows. This makes it sound like it moved around a lot in my tank, which it really didn't. The foot stayed in basically the exact same spot; only the direction of the mouth/tentacles changed.

What method are you using to feed it the brine shrimp?

For brine shrimp, I take a syringe and shoot it into his tentacles at a very close distance. Sometimes I feed him a small piece of fresh shrimp, which I give to him with tongs, holding it in his tentacles until he closes up around it. I tried that the other night, though, and he did not respond to the shrimp. It was then that I blew the brine at him and he responded in the way depicted. It was a white goo that was expelled--looked almost like a bubble, but it was stringy. I sucked it out of the tank (and off of the 'nem) with a baster.

It looks a bit better today. It's half inflated again and the shriveled tentacles are more full and have better coloration. I am still thinking this one might not make it though. it's just never seemed happy in this tank.

 

[rookie07]

Good luck, nice gold torch and scoly.

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

IF it doesn't look better in a day and is still falling apart it's seriously F'd and it's best to just remove it before it contaminates the whole tank..better to lose just an anem than everything in your tank and starting from scratch.

 

[bigdog1428]

If the sides aren't melting ,, or his foot melting ,, u have a chance ,,just put him as close to the light as possible


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[Mikei70]

I wouldn't move it at all.

Leave it be, and try to feed once in a while.

Assuming your water and lights are good, that's about all you can do.

 

[stlblufan]

I took the anemone out on Saturday. He was shriveled up to next to nothing and things weren't looking good. I cleaned off the rock that he was on using a tank-only brush and put it back in the tank. I did a 10% water change on Sunday.

This morning (Monday) I woke up to find a dead cleaner shrimp. It also appears that my scoly is looking worse for the wear, it is a bit wrinkled and generally looks like pictures I've seen of them as they die. I have a zoa colony that also appears to be dying. Other things seem fine: two clowns, two other zoa colonies, a torch and some xenia.

I tested this morning. Numbers look good to me:

Temp: 77-80
pH: 7.9-8.2
sg: 1.025
kH: 9.0
Ca: 450
NH4: 0.0
NO2: 0.0
NO3: 0.0
PO4: 0.05

All tests are Elos except PO4 which is by a hanna checker.

The only other thing that I have recently changed was to add a phos reactor. I have carbon and rowaphos in it.

Anyway, I think I'm on the verge of a crash here. I am contemplating moving everything to a QT this evening. Worst part is that I will be gone for a week beginning next Saturday, so I really need to get this sorted quickly.

 

[akma]

I'd do a huge water-change and run carbon.

 

[prattreef]

When was the last time you changed your carbon before this recent change? If it has been awhile, you may have light shocked the system from a rapid removal of yellowing agents in the water this could explain the anemone retreating into the dark and the Scoly closing up. The Scoly might also be reacting to a rapid lowering of nutrients from the Phosban. Are you sure the shrimp is dead or did it just molt?

 

[stlblufan]

When was the last time you changed your carbon before this recent change? If it has been awhile, you may have light shocked the system from a rapid removal of yellowing agents in the water this could explain the anemone retreating into the dark and the Scoly closing up. The Scoly might also be reacting to a rapid lowering of nutrients from the Phosban.

I used to run ChemiPure Elite (in the sump), but just added the reactor -- prior to that, I had never run carbon (or rowa) in a reactor. That is all new. So maybe that is the problem? It sort of makes sense. I was having a little bit of a dino problem, which has incidentally retreated dramatically over the past few days, just as the other problems manifested themselves. Should I shut off the reactor for a while?

Are you sure the shrimp is dead or did it just molt?

The shrimp was for sure dead. It has molted numerous times before, so I am familiar with that. This time, it was the shrimp itself, covered in snails. The other shrimp (they were a pair) looks fine, but it was acting sort of scared -- usually it comes right up to me when I approach the tank, but this morning it retreated a bit.

 

[prattreef]

Now that you mention Dinoflagellates, that is another option. Some forms are toxic and a Dino die-off could have stressed things.