Sick fish and/or anemone?

[cyberpunk]

My tank is getting healthier by the day after a very stressful move and problems with filtration. I have a few questions that I hope are routine.

I noticed that one of my fish, don't know the species yet but I think it's a wrasse, sat under a rock for about 8 hours yesterday and developed a webby looking slime coat (I think that's what it's called). I was worried he was dying because he was zipping around the tank the night before playing with other fish.

I woke up this morning expecting him dead and he's zipping around again and ate this morning. Is this type of behavior normal or indicative of a problem?


Second question, while the fish are showing very positive signs the few anemones that I have aren't looking so good. They're open and the clown likes two of them but they have a whitish film on them and the green bubble one isn't nearly as big as he was when we took the tank down.

Is there something I can get to put on them or does it just take time?

[steelhead77]

No disrespect intended here, but after reading several of your threads, you really need to do A LOT more research than what you'll be able to get here. (www.wetwebmedia.com for instance) As someone else posted in one of your other threads, I think you're in WAY over your head. Hopefully you can get everything straightned out before the tank crashes.

Anemones are NOT creatures for a beginner. They require good husbandry and stable tank parameters to survive. I don't think you are anywhere near there yet. What is your lighting like? Anemones need bright light. Do you have test kits? Do you know what your water parameters are (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ph, salinity, phosphates, etc.)? In order for the living things to survive (let alone thrive) all of those parameters need to be in check, otherwise bad things happen. Fast. Ideally, you should not have anything living (other than rock and sand) in your tank until EVERYTHING is stable for at least 4-5 weeks. Your tank inhabitants are very stressed. You need to stabilize everything and let things settle before you can make an honest assessment of your tank.

Again, I don't mean to be a downer dude, but please do yourself (and your tank) a favor and do A LOT more research before adding anything else to your tank.

[Sugar Magnolia]

I noticed that one of my fish, don't know the species yet but I think it's a wrasse, sat under a rock for about 8 hours yesterday and developed a webby looking slime coat (I think that's what it's called). I was worried he was dying because he was zipping around the tank the night before playing with other fish.

I woke up this morning expecting him dead and he's zipping around again and ate this morning. Is this type of behavior normal or indicative of a problem?


Some species of wrasse create that slime bubble as protection during sleep. Perfectly normal, however, it would behoove you to know exactly what your tank inhabitants are. Please research any future purchases so you are able to provide them with the optimum environment for them to thrive.

[cyberpunk]

No disrespect intended here, but after reading several of your threads, you really need to do A LOT more research than what you'll be able to get here. (www.wetwebmedia.com for instance) As someone else posted in one of your other threads, I think you're in WAY over your head. Hopefully you can get everything straightned out before the tank crashes.

Anemones are NOT creatures for a beginner. They require good husbandry and stable tank parameters to survive. I don't think you are anywhere near there yet. What is your lighting like? Anemones need bright light. Do you have test kits? Do you know what your water parameters are (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ph, salinity, phosphates, etc.)? In order for the living things to survive (let alone thrive) all of those parameters need to be in check, otherwise bad things happen. Fast. Ideally, you should not have anything living (other than rock and sand) in your tank until EVERYTHING is stable for at least 4-5 weeks. Your tank inhabitants are very stressed. You need to stabilize everything and let things settle before you can make an honest assessment of your tank.

Again, I don't mean to be a downer dude, but please do yourself (and your tank) a favor and do A LOT more research before adding anything else to your tank.

If you read all of my posts you would see that I bought an existing setup from someone else who clearly didn't know what they were doing. I'm merely trying to learn quickly and not kill anything. You could say that I should've have bought the setup until I was ready, but how many people doing this can say they were ready for everything they needed to know. I found a good deal and I jumped on it.

I've read Saltwater for Dummies twice at the suggestion of the LFS for getting the basics down. All my chemicals were in line (except salinity) and I'll be checking them again tonight.

[cyberpunk]

Some species of wrasse create that slime bubble as protection during sleep. Perfectly normal, however, it would behoove you to know exactly what your tank inhabitants are. Please research any future purchases so you are able to provide them with the optimum environment for them to thrive.

Thank you. Again, I didn't buy fish and add to an unready tank, this fish came with the tank and all the lady told me was it was a "blue one". I'm not making that up.

[Sugar Magnolia]

I believe it.

FWIW, that book you read is not a very reliable source. Read through all the stickies at the top of this forum. If you really want a great book, look into The Concientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner or one of Paletta's books.

[hm66204]

Do you happen to know what the salinity of the tank was before you moved it? You are also likely going to have some bacterial die off in your live rock from the move, and if the canister filter had any media in it that will change things too. Nems are sensitive to swings in salinity, and there is also the danger that they have a perforation in a foot or something.

I would recommend testing vigilantly on this tank to make sure you dont end up with an ammonia spike, ideally lightening the fish load would be good, but for sure you need to keep a very close eye on the nems, they go very quickly and release alot of toxins that can cause the tank to crash, do you still have the canister and can you run carbon in it? its not ideal but it can help, also something like seachem that binds ammonia will help in an emergency but some test kits will still register it and you will need to do water changes to bring it back down.

Id recommend keeping at least 30 gallons of water handy for an emergency water change and if you have the funds to buy and set up a hospital tank do it now and set it up that way you can move things if a problem develops...you should always keep one anyway.

What lights are on the system? sand? how much rock? do you have aeration? what is your temp? did the animals get cold during transfer? did you acclimate?

[chubby hugs]

There are always things to learn in this hobby and you have a steep curve, but from your posts I can tell you are trying to get things straightened out. I am a nooby too, but here is my $.02: Is there any local fish shop that could hold the anemones for you while you get things under control? Some places will do this and it might be a way to protect them while your tank stabilizes. I don't think the anemones are nearly as tolerant of poor parameters as the fish are. I don't know of any additives that would assist them, maybe stress coat, but I doubt that would give you a huge benefit. Agree with the advice above on the different books. I read one of Palettas which was a good intro, but have heard great reviews on the Fenner one. The stickies are also a wealth of information.