Dying Carpet Anemone

Caesar305

Member
Hello, finally purchased a green carpet anemone for my perculas, however it doesn't seem to be doing good. :(
Not sure what is going on, I test my tank about twice a month and never had any issues.

Latest readings are:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0.25
Salinity: 1.025
Temperature: 79


I have the Red Sea 250 which comes with 5 T5 bulbs (one purple, 2 blue and 2 white). I replaced the stock protein skimmer with a octopus BH50 which is been working pretty well. I still have diatoms or algae on the glass which I have to scrape off about once a week but people I have spoken to say this is normal (is it??).

I am running activated carbon which is replaced twice a month and recently purchased a phosban reactor with GFO media.

Here are pictures of the anemone.

Any help would be appreciated.
IMG_20151013_200651.jpg IMG_20151013_200646.jpg IMG_20151013_200646.jpg
 
Last edited:

DaveK

Well-Known Member
The anemone is unlikely to survive. Still sometimes you get lucky.

If you just got it, return it to your LFS. A colored carpet anemone is difficult under the best of circumstances. You need just about perfect water conditions, and excellent lighting, You also need a tank that is well established, and stable for about a year. I suspect your cominig up short on many of these requirements.

You can give the anemone the smell test. If you smell a terrible rotting decay smell, the anemone is dead or close to it. Remove it from your system. If it just smells bad, there is still hope. For the time being, do not attempt to feed it. You'll do more harm than good. Wait for it to recover and look fairly normal before you try to feed it. It takes awhile for an anemone to starve.

Lastly, and this applies to everyone. Clownfish do not need an anemone to keep them healthy. Do not add an anemone to your system unless your sure you meet all the requirements for keeping it. Start with a fairly easy anemone such as a BTA or LTA.
 

Caesar305

Member
The anemone is unlikely to survive. Still sometimes you get lucky.

If you just got it, return it to your LFS. A colored carpet anemone is difficult under the best of circumstances. You need just about perfect water conditions, and excellent lighting, You also need a tank that is well established, and stable for about a year. I suspect your cominig up short on many of these requirements.

You can give the anemone the smell test. If you smell a terrible rotting decay smell, the anemone is dead or close to it. Remove it from your system. If it just smells bad, there is still hope. For the time being, do not attempt to feed it. You'll do more harm than good. Wait for it to recover and look fairly normal before you try to feed it. It takes awhile for an anemone to starve.

Lastly, and this applies to everyone. Clownfish do not need an anemone to keep them healthy. Do not add an anemone to your system unless your sure you meet all the requirements for keeping it. Start with a fairly easy anemone such as a BTA or LTA.

Hi, thanks for the information. Can you elaborate on perfect water conditions? I posted my test results and they seem normal. The tank has been running for 6 months and my lighting are 5 T5 bulbs. What am I missing?
I know you don't need an anemone for clownfish, I just love watching them together. My main reason for getting the tank. I also have a red BTA and it is seems to be doing well. I will take a picture tomorrow.

Thanks!
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
Just because your water test read within normal ranges doesn't mean you have good water conditions. There are all the things you can't test for. 6 months is still too new a tank for an anemone. You might get lucky, but I'd not recommend trying.

As for the lighting, it might be ok, but it's tough to tell. You may have too much blue, depending on the bulbs and their age. However, this is not a factor at this point. Lighting problems are something that affects an anemone over the long term. It will then tend to bleach or shrink with lighting problems, not go bad on you in a short period of time.

I will also add that your anemone may be damaged. This could have occurred quite some time before you got it. It's also possible the acclimation method was not quite right, but usualy the anemone would just retract rather than seem to be turned partly inside out.

Yes, I know anemones and clowns together make a fantastic sight. Yes, it's a very popular thing to do. In my opinion, most people should stay away from the anemone side of things until they have quite a bit of experience. Clowns will host in a lot of other corals, so you can have the same effect without the risks.
 
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