A precautionary tale of anemone woe

[mamasmith]

I recently purchased a cute little anemone for my 36g bow front tank. The local store “expert” said it will grow to be a great home for my clown fish. It looked a little slimy and curled up in the bag (this store has a once a week ½ price sale and bag these ahead of time for the sale). Our “expert” said it was fine, just a little stressed. Just do the normal acclimation water change out and put him in the tank. I got home and did as he said. All looked well so off I went to run errand for about 6 hours.

When I came home all the fish in the tank were dead with the exception of one very hard clown fish! Devastated and crying I call the expert and he said I should have used better judgment before adding the anemone to the tank! I had the water checked at the store and it was in perfect condition. The “expert” said the anemone release all its poisons upon dying.

I stayed up all night doing a complete water change, washed off every piece of equipment, every rock, coral and even all the sand. Needless to say, this was the last visit to this store. Lesson learned.

This is in tribute to a Six Line Wrasse, a Purple Dottyback, a Royal Gramma Basslet, a Sailfin Blenny, 3 Blue/Green Reef Chromis, a Flame Angelfish, a Pink Dwarf Feather Duster, a Yellow Dwarf Feather Duster and 2 tiny Tank Bred Aiptasia Eating Peppermint Shrimp. May they rest in peace in my compost for the spring garden.

[BigAl07]

So sorry for your losses. Hang in there and don't give up.

[DaveK]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss.

Perhaps we can get at least some good out of this. Could you tell us about the species of anemone you purchased and about your tank, especially it's size, filtration and lighting, livestock, and how long it's been set up? Details on how you did the acclamation may help also.

Try not to let this get you down too much. Almost everyone that's been in the hobby any length of time, has had a complete or almost complete wipe out. Some people quit, others use it as a chance to redo some things in the system.

[nanoreefing4fun]

+3 ^ thanks for sharing & hang in there - so sorry you lost your fish !!! I think we have all listened to lfs & regretted it as we learned.

[reefer gladness]

Wow, that's really a bummer but thanks for sharing. Let's hope this helps others from having a similar experience. Unfortunely the LFS usually isn't our best source of information.

For those who do want a nem buying a stressed one is a bad move as it often takes expert care to save. Unbelievable they 'pre-bag' them, it sounds to me that it's more likely they just had them dropped off from their wholesaler and haven't even acclimated it yet.

I was pretty fortunate to be able to buy my RBTA in under ideal conditions, that means it had been in my LFS for awhile and I had been able to observe it there for several weeks in a healthy condition before taking the risk of bringing it home.

When they do start to die the fastest way to get the waste out is with a turkey baster and suck it up. They have the consistency of jello and it doesn't take long before the remains spread all over.

[mamasmith]

Thanks for your support. I will post more info on the tank and parameters. The silver lining to this dark cloud is the response from liveaquaria.com Some of the fish were less than 2 weeks old. They were genuinely upset about the loss and will send me replacement fish at no charge, not even shipping as soon as my tank is ready for new inhabitants again. This was by no way their fault and gave me alot of good advice on re-establishing my tank and still will send me replacement fish. Not that's good customer service!

[wscttwolfe]

thats too bad man. how old was your tank?

[reefer gladness]

Here's a great source of information for keeping BTA's: karensroseanemones.net - INTRODUCTION

Aside from having sufficient lighting the most important thing is having a mature and stable aquarium, for most that means a good year. You want your tank to have been fully stocked with fish long enough for the live rock in your tank to be able to handle the bio-load. It sounds like your tank was young, and/or you were recently stocking fish and that's not a good time to add a nem.

Again, so sorry for your losses. Check back with us when you're ready to try another nem and we'll try to help make sure your tank is ready.

[NanoGeek13]

Bummer!

[mamasmith]

Thanks for all yalls support. Here is how my tank was set up at the time of its demise.
36 gallon bow front aquarium set up for 6 months. Water checked 2 twice a week including the day the Caribbean Carpet Anemome was placed in tank. Water check when anemone was purchased. Parameters were; Ammonia – zero; Nitrite – zero; Nitrate - .25 ppm; PH - 8.0; Temperature - 76F; Salinity - 1.025.
Specimens in the aquarium - The current tank inhabitants are 3” live sand/ gravel mix, 30lbs live rock, clown fish, Peppermint Shrimp, Six Line Wrasse, a Purple Dottyback, a Royal Gramma Basslet, a Sailfin Blenny, 3 Blue/Green Reef Chromis, a Flame Angelfish, a Pink Dwarf Feather Duster, a Yellow Dwarf Feather Duster and 2 tiny Tank Bred Aiptasia Eating Peppermint Shrimp, Green Flourescent Mushroom, Green Star Polyps, Cabbage Leather, Button Polyps, Flower Ricordea Mushroom, Yellow Scroll Coral, various Zoanthids, various snail and crabs. I had a aqueous filter, H.O.B. Red Sea Max Skimmer, 2 Marineland Maxi Jet 600, unknown light bar (freebie that works, have not looked at it closer.)

[reefer gladness]

A caribbean carpet nem is a fairly difficult species to keep. They're difficult to collect in the wild without ticking them off and an already stressed nem is a sure recipe for disaster. Considering the 'pre-bagged' situation I really think it was just dropped off the truck and had already been traveling for awhile when you got it. They're not known for hosting clownfish either though some have been known to.

All nems tend to wander around when they're first added to the tank too so you really need to be around and prepared to move corals out of the way. They have one of the more potent stings that irritates humans and kills fish. Powerheads need be covered because the nem has the consistency of jello and can be sucked it and spit out in little pieces.

Your lighting certainly wasn't the reason the nem died but it is a major factor for keeping one successfully. The unknown light bar needs to be identified and possibly upgraded before you try it again.

The only other thing that comes to mind is the acclimation process. Since their bodies are 95% water it's more critical that temps, ph and alkalinity are slowly equalized by drip acclimating. I acclimated mine a good 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Even with all that being done correctly your LFS really set you up for failure by sending you home with a stressed out nem that's recommended for experts. Your water parameters are okay, nitrates a bit high but not so much as to explain what happened to the nem.

[wscttwolfe]

+1 to what reefer gladness said. it also looks like your nitrates (.25ppm) were pretty high. consistent water changes and less feeding should bring that down

[DaveK]

...
36 gallon bow front aquarium set up for 6 months. ...
... 3” live sand/ gravel mix, 30lbs live rock,
... clown fish, Peppermint Shrimp, Six Line Wrasse, a Purple Dottyback, a Royal Gramma Basslet, a Sailfin Blenny, 3 Blue/Green Reef Chromis, a Flame Angelfish, ...

A major factor in the total loss you had was that your tank was running right on the edge before you even added the anemone. You have a 36 gal tank, but but the time you add the 3" sand bed and 30 lbs of live rock, the volume of water is only about 25 gal, at best.

You had 9 fish in the tank, even if we figure an average of about 2 inches per fish, you had 18 inches of fish. The typical "rule of thumb" for fish capacity in a SW tank is about 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. With your tank holding about 25 gal of water, you should have had about 5 inches of fish in it. As you can see, your tank had 3 to 4 times the recommended amount of fish in it. It was way overcrowded.

This next time around, I recommend you keep only about 3 fish and give yourself some margin for error. Remember too that the fish are going to grow, so you need to account for that also.

If you do have plans for another anemone, look for a species that doesn't get too large. Some of them can get way too large for your tank.

[mamasmith]

Thanks,
I do have to watch home much I feed. I keep a log just in case I forget I already fed (early onset Oldtimers LOL). I will probably not get another anemone till I get me 65g tank up, running and acclimated for at least a year. Next time I plan to get bubble tips.
I do use a drip system most of the time. I was going by what the local "expert" advice at the LFS. Next time I will consult the anemone board here before I proceed.

[mamasmith]

Dang! I did not realize my tank was overcrowded! The tank looks good. The surviving clown fish and shrimp are doing well. The soft corals are still stressed but starting to open. Will stick to the 3 fish limit. Any ideas as to what would entertain my grandkids? OK its for me, not them. I am a confirmed, confessed refaholic.

A major factor in the total loss you had was that your tank was running right on the edge before you even added the anemone. You have a 36 gal tank, but but the time you add the 3" sand bed and 30 lbs of live rock, the volume of water is only about 25 gal, at best.

You had 9 fish in the tank, even if we figure an average of about 2 inches per fish, you had 18 inches of fish. The typical "rule of thumb" for fish capacity in a SW tank is about 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. With your tank holding about 25 gal of water, you should have had about 5 inches of fish in it. As you can see, your tank had 3 to 4 times the recommended amount of fish in it. It was way overcrowded.

This next time around, I recommend you keep only about 3 fish and give yourself some margin for error. Remember too that the fish are going to grow, so you need to account for that also.

If you do have plans for another anemone, look for a species that doesn't get too large. Some of them can get way too large for your tank.