Washed out Sabae Anemone

[wm23oh]

My tank is a newly setup tank http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/reef-chronicles/47588-my-29-gallon-tank.html I know Anemones need a well established aquarium but it was a mistake made when I purchased it. I didn't realize I ordered it at the same time as my fish. I was researching them and didn't remove it from the basket before purchasing.

I have had anemones in the past and know somewhat what to expect. Sadly they didn't make it but I now know what NOT do do. This anemone was as white as white could be with it's purple tips. I know bleached out anemones are not normal in the wild and know it's not in the best of health.

The anemone is attached to the glass and a rock in the top of my aquarium. I know the sabea prefers sand so I'm not sure if this is good or not. I feed it 1 fresh feeder guppy every other day and it does take it quite fast to it's mouth. I must stand and guard it from the hermits and the cleaner shrimp to prevent them from steeling it's catch.

As of now my parameters are and so far have been:
0 ammonia
0-5 ppm nitrAtes (can't seam to keep it at 0)
0 ppm nitrItes
8.4 PH (used crushed coral in the HOB filter)
Temp 76-78

Please don't beat_dead_horse I know it needs a better home but no one seams to want it around where I live. If you live near Delaware, Ohio and are able to pick it up and are able to remove the anemone off a rock and glass without tearing it apart it's your FREE. I would rather not kill it by accident. I posted this offer on another forum as well but was told that by even moving the rock it may rip it in half.

I have 2 96 watt PC lights, 1 10,000K ,and the other actinic over my 29 gallon tank. I just upgraded from 1 96 watt pc.

Any suggestions or comments are welcome I just don't need any

James

 

[WhisperinLoudly]

Knowing what you did wrong and trying to get it a good home is a step in the right direction. to you for doing this. I would gladly take it but too far of a drive for me. Good luck on finding it a good home.

 

[tektite]

Good luck finding it a new home. Meanwhile, I would change its food to something saltwater based. Fresh water food doesn't provide the right nutrition to saltwater animals.

 

[wm23oh]

Good luck finding it a new home. Meanwhile, I would change its food to something saltwater based. Fresh water food doesn't provide the right nutrition to saltwater animals.

Duhh... I should have thought of that. Sometimes the mind just doesn't work. Thanks for the reminder. :smack:

James

 

[wm23oh]

I've noticed on some of the new corals I have I have aiptasias. Since I still have the Sabae what can I do to kill them? I was able to kill 3 so far by pulling the coral out of the water and squishing and wiping the area off where it was but this new one is in between the corals out of my reach. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

James

 

[lcstorc]

I hate to telly you, but they are not that easy to kill. The ones you squished will be back quickly enough.
Some options include
Peppermint shrimp
Joe's Juice
Aiptasia-X
Inject lemmon juice or boiling water.
Cover with kalc paste.
None of them is a sure thing.
There are the Berghia nudibrach that are a sure thing but they only eat aiptasia so once it is gone, they will die.

 

[wm23oh]

I hate to telly you, but they are not that easy to kill. The ones you squished will be back quickly enough.
Some options include
Peppermint shrimp
Joe's Juice
Aiptasia-X
Inject lemmon juice or boiling water.
Cover with kalc paste.
None of them is a sure thing.
There are the Berghia nudibrach that are a sure thing but they only eat aiptasia so once it is gone, they will die.

Won't any of those issues kill the surrounding coral or kill/eat the Sabae Anemone? They are litterly up against the Corals so injecting boiling water would surly kill the corals too wouldn't it?

I did just pick and pick over the corse of an hour at one in a plastic jug until I finnally got it off. It was inbetween corals in a super small space. At first I thought it was on a coral.

James

 

[fivel]

James - How is the anemone doing now? When I first got my purple tipped sebae, it was also bleached. I fed it every single day with frozen brine shrimp from an eyedropper and now, 4 years later, he's at least 7" on average in diameter, a nice tannish brown color and a very comfy host for my 4 year old ocellaris clown.

I live a couple hours north of you in Findlay and my tank has been established for 4 years now, so if you need a place for him to camp out until your tank is more established, I could help out.

Rich

 

[DrHank]

Please listen to what Lynn has advised you on the Aiptasia. She is right on target. As far as the anemone is concerned, if you don't have T5 or MH lighting on your 29 gallon tank, find it a new home. Also, with the proper lighting and water conditions, the anem will completely take over your tank.

 

[wm23oh]

Hi,

The Anem is still doing?? It eats as fast as food touches it tentacles. I have no problem with theft of food by the cleaner shrimp anymore.

The Anem has chosen a place between the glass and a rock to put it's foot. It opens up every day and squishes down at night.

I have 192W's of Power Compact light above it. That should be enough light and intensity for the Anem from what I have seen. That is 6.62WPG. If this thinking is wrong please explain so I know what I need to look for.

As far as finding it a home I have not found anyone who is interested OR has any idea how to get it out of that corner without tearing it apart. By moving the rock it will pull away from the glass and he is really in their. Any ideas Rich? I have tried adjusting the flow their and it seams to actually like it. It has come further out but not enough to safely get ahold of it. The foot is still holding to the glass and the rock out of reach of my fingers.

I did listen to what Lynn has said and it sounds good but I have also read that those shrimp can eat/damage an Anem. As far as gluing it's mouth closed I will have to wait until I see one again. So far I am lucky and when I pulled them out of the main tank to squish them nothing has returned (yet).

My hope is the Anem will take over the tank. It may sound crazy but I really like it. I hope it gets up to a foot round but realistically I know it needs a new home for now.

I have been able to keep my water stable at 0 NitrAte, 0 NitrIte (was 20ppm before fish/Anem/HOB+filter), 0 Ammonia, 8.5 PH. I actually have 2 filters on the Aquarium a HOB sump and a Aquaclear 30 hanging on the HOB filter. So far this is working to keep the water in good condition. I have to clean the crud out of the skimmer cup every 4 days but I empty the nasty smelling yellow liquid/chunks it builds up every 2 days.

I have been using a feeder syringe (long one) to blow off the Live rock and keep any collection of crap suspended in the water so it can get taken out.

Of course any help is appreciated. I do appreciate everyon's input so far.

James

 

[fivel]

The main thing about moving them is patience... When I got my new bubble tip from the LFS last week, the kid helping me admitted he wasn't comfortable removing the anemone because he hasn't worked in the saltwater section for that long, so I did it myself and it took about 10 minutes of slowly running my fingers around his foot - gradually working my fingers further under him each time. You just have to go slow and eventually he'll come loose after he's been annoyed enough.

Really though, if he's happy in that corner and doing well, I would just leave him there since he seems to like it there. Have you noticed him getting any tan pigment to him yet? My bubble tip was slightly bleached when I got him and already can see new specs of tan in his tips. Keep hand feeding him and watching him.

Keep us posted... And show us pictures already

 

[wm23oh]

Here is the Anem when it was first put in the tank and to the best of my knowledge it's first poo in the tank.

The Anem started to move up the rock but then went back down. Here is the highest spot he was at. NOTE: I upgraded my lights and he went down but I no longer have that fixture.

A pic of the filter on the hob filter. NOTE: that the Aquaclear is sitting on the glass top of the tank.

Jumping way ahead to yesterday it is now on the glass and the rock near the back of the tank. Bluntly impossible for me to get him off as my fingers are just WAY too fat to fit in their.

The rock is actually up against the glass on the side and the back of the tank. So to move the rock means pulling the Anem away from the glass. :smack:

The Anem does not look like it's turning brown/tan a slight grey/blue? color in some areas (may be the lights).
James

 

[Woodstock]

Leave it alone. You'll only stress it more by relocating it.
Feed it small pieces of thawed seafood to help it regain its strength and color.
Hopefully, it will make it.

 

[wm23oh]

After looking real closely I thought I was seeing a reflection but their are real SUPER small brown spots on a couple of the tentacles. They are not connecting dots, it looks like pokadots. They tend to get smaller the larger the Anem gets (spreading out) as though they almost disappear. The dots are WAY smaller than a pencil tip and that is why I thought it was a reflection. But my wife said she sees them too.

The reason I didn't say this in the last post is because I have a brown wood grain... thing? blocking the light from that side and I thought it was some kind of reflection. I was hoping it would get the Anem to move back up thinking it was the light from the outside that drew it over their in the first place. However the Anem only dug in deeper and is not willing to move. The woodgrain has been their for 3 weeks now so I know it's not hurting anything.

James

 

[wm23oh]

Still learning how to use the camera but here is a dark (really dark) photo of the anem. In this photo you can at least see the color coming back into the Anem.

And yes this was taken WITH the lights on. I still just can't figure out this Fuji finepix s1000fd camera. If I take a close up photo using the macro settings everything turns out really dark/black.

James

 

[l3fty999]

Duhh... I should have thought of that. Sometimes the mind just doesn't work. Thanks for the reminder. :smack:

James

There are some live bearers that already live in brackish water, if I'm not mistaken. They may have some of the nutritional value your nem needs.. or you could try pieces of silversides. Just a thought.

Good luck
Aaron

 

[WatchinFish]

ya i say feed little peices of silversides every other day. and make sure to not let other things in the tank stress him out. he should get more healthy and grow in size super fast. that is if your light and water quality is good. oh and are you dossing calcium, mag, etc.? ummm as for the aptiesa. look those things will multipy like crazy. and i know you are removing them but if even a lil tiny piece is not removed or a piece brakes off in the water, then you will have more. i suggest aptesia X. it can be pinpointed very well and even if your corals are super close to it, you probably can avoid getting any on them. if your still worried then get a couple pepermint shrimp. they will eat the aptesia and most likely leave evrying else alone. they are super cheap to. something like 6 dollers. oh and when you put them in dont feed the tank for a couple days. otherwize the shrimp will eat the food you put and avoid the aptesia.

i see you have 3 clowfish in there. do any of them get ruffed up?

 

[wm23oh]

Thank you for your comments Aaron and Watchinfish.

I plan on getting silversides as soon as I get low enough on other stuff to make an on-line order worth the price.

Guppies are a brackish water fish or at least most everything I have read says they actually like salt in their water. This is why I chose them at first. I know Mollies and Platties are better well known for this but Guppies do to.

The anem is fed every other day right now same with my corals. I dose purple up every 3 days to help buffer the water but I also use reef crystals.

The anem has easily doubled in size since I got it so it must not be in too bad of shape. But then again I'm no marine scientist either by far.

The aptiesa's are gone. I kept after them pulling them out of the main tank working in a small bucket with a bright light and they have not come back since I got their bases off the rock. I even killed an orange bulb anem not knowing what it was by accident thinking it was an aptiesa too. The aptiesa was actually growing ON one of the branches of the corals I have between them so I elected to rip it off at any cost and was able to not damage the coral.

I've read that peppermint shrimp MAY also attack my anem so I elected not to get them just in case. Good hint on not feeding though.

When I setup the tank and got my clown fish I purchased 3 from an on-line dealer. They all made it (I thought I would loose at least one) and 2 became mates so the 3rd wheel found a home locally here. He started getting beat up on so I put him in my HOB filter/sump right away and posted him here and on a local board. He has mated with the female clown the new owner had and is doing just fine.

James

 

[BigAl07]

The anem is fed every other day right now same with my corals. I dose purple up every 3 days to help buffer the water but I also use reef crystals.

Are you testing what you're dosing for? Reef Crystals is a pretty good salt mix and with proper water changes should maintain your current tank very well with no dosing needed. If you'll do a search on Purple Up most will agree it's a waste of time and money.

The anem has easily doubled in size since I got it so it must not be in too bad of shape. But then again I'm no marine scientist either by far.

Not all the time but often times when you see one "doubling in size" like that it's not a sign of health but a sign it's trying to get more surface area exposed to the light due to lack of PAR for the animal. Many soft corals do this same thing. When they have a lack of light they will flatten and or expand to try and get more of their photosynthetic Zooxanthellae exposed to the light.

One of the common misconceptions about anemones is that they are "Healthy" because they lived past that critical 1 month mark. In reality they have an extremely slow metabolism and can appear healthy (even seeming to grown and some even split which could be a means at attempting to survive) for several months only to suddenly (almost over night) go down hill and nuke the tank. I'm NOT saying this is the case with your tank but you do need to at least know these details.


Good luck and Happy Reefing

 

[wm23oh]

My GH and KH stays at the same number and has been at that same number for the past few months. I believe if calcium would be fluctuating it would make them change or cause some sort of issue with the buffering of the tank. The small amounts I add shouldn't make things go way out of whack anyway BUT then again I'm new to this and do appreciate the information. If I'm wrong that extra calcium wouldn't increase one of these please let me know.

I did make a mistake it is Kent Purple Tech not Purple Up. I have a freshwater aquarium and know how important certain chemicals are to a healthy plant. Purple Tech contains K2O and Magnesium which are important for healthy plant growth. The extra calcium is low considering the low dose I place in the aquarium. I do NOT dose as suggested on the bottle. I dose 5 drops and consider it to really only be a supplement for the K20 and Magnesium. These should help with the Anem., corals, and the algae basically any plant based life in the tank.

If my understanding of an Anem is correct the photosynthetic Zooxanthellae in mine was lost and that is why it was bleached completely white other than the very tips which were purple which are now almost glowing purple instead of a pale purple. Since mine is getting it's photosynthetic Zooxanthellae back doesn't that mean it is getting enough light to help it re-generate? I'll be blunt, I'm learning as I go with the Anem and from what I have read it seams to be getting better BUT I understand what you are saying about the size and agree that the size may mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. The only thing that makes me believe it's doing good is it's photosynthetic Zooxanthellae which is coming back and turning it slowly brown (looks like polka-dots all over) and continually spreading. If it were not coloring up I would be more concerned but if you saw just how stark white with NO brown photosynthetic Zooxanthellae that could be seen and believe me my wife and I have both agreed that it was 100% white when we got it. Even the photos shows it as a white mass.

Please help me understand if I missed your point anywhere. With everything in the tank growing and I have already fraged a coral I believe everything is just fine but more than likely far from perfect.

This does NOT mean I haven't heard your concerns. Believe me using Purple Tech was a big concern of mine after reading several posts including one post about it being only sold for fools to buy but the fact that it contains several important nutrients can't be ignored.

This is a photo of my 125 gallon planted aquarium.

The chemicals I put in their are rather close to the chemicals in the Purple Tech. I like that the Purple Tech only contains very small amounts as to keep other bad algae at bay.

If I have misunderstood your concerns or if something I have said does not sound right to you I'm all ears. I DO appreciate any and all help and the kindness of your advice. I just want to explain why I'm doing what I'm doing so if someone else has additional knowledge I can use it to help understand what I'm doing wrong and right. Thanks again for your advice.

James