Carnation Anemone

Racing_hotty

New Member
Good Day,
I have a 75g, anemone & clown fish tank, Parameters are: Ph 8.2, Amonia: 0, Nitrites: 0, Nitrates: 5, Phosphates: 1.5. I have had this tank going for over a year now, we have an had carnation anemone for a little over 6 months and I have a maroon clown and ocellaris clown both hosting it. It seemed to be doing great at first, but over the last couple of months she keeps getting smaller and skinnier. She started out a good 2 inches across when fully extended, and now she is barely 1/2 inch and does not take fish anymore. (we were feeding her little rosies) any ideas as to what is going on? I feed the tank microvert and phycopure as well for my CUC, so I am hoping she is eating some of that.
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
-L18A2cfb0hOlNDNHcyJ4srv5ySnWtg7r4gerH6JLsUE0Xnc3


Hopefully some can advise...
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
The photo you supplied isn't good enough to identify the anemone. Try getting us a photo from the top, looking down into it's mouth.

The first issue here is the identification of the anemone. If it's actually a carnation anemone, it doesn't require light, but it is a plankton feeder. To survive it needs massive amounts of plankton type foods. It's almost a filter feeder.

Things are not that simple though. This could also be a completely different species that is possibly bleached. In this case it's going to need more conventional food it can handle, and will need excellent light.

There are a couple other possible things to check out. The clowns might be bothering the anemone, and the anemone might be retracting because of that. I also see that you have a yellow tang and a niger trigger in the tank. These are big dirty fish and create a lot of waste. It's possible that your water quality isn't high enough for the anemone. You can check this to some extent by doing a large partial water change and see if the anemone perks up bit over the next day or two. If this seems to be the case, we'll talk about your filtration system, and see what can be done to improve things.
 
Top