Green bubble tip anemone

[TAANG]

Hello all, I have been having some trouble with my green bubble tip anemone. I've had it for about 3 weeks now, and it has never really seemed to look right to me. This is my first anemone, so I'm looking got answers. When first purchased, out would shrivel up and expel brown stuff from it's mouth. I assumed this was waste. It usually kept it's mouth closed unless it was eating or expelling. The last few days it has been moving around the tank, looking for the perfect spot to live. After being gone a few hours today, I come home to find it almost at the top of the rock, shriveled up, mouth open and it's skin appears to be coming off. Clear fleshy looking material around the bubble tips. The mouth seems to be puckered and protruding. When I saw this, I did an immediate 5% water change. Out has been eating phytoplankton I spot feed it twice a week. The water parameters are perfect, everything else is thriving, including a mushroom coral, orange sea whip, and rock anemone. I have a 20gal tank which is about 6 months old with 23 pounds of live rock nd 1. inch live sand bed . My lighting should be more than enough for this size tank. Someone, please help!

[justthewife]

well that doesn't sound very good. Do you have a picture?

[TAANG]

Here is the picture.

[Fsarmien]

What exactly are your water parameters? Bad water = unhappy anemone. What kind of lights are you running. Anemone's don't usually eat phyto, you can give it mysis/pellets. But yeah it definitely does not look good. Oh yeah how's the flow?

[shifty51008]

what are your water parameters? numbers help alot more than just saying perfect.

also what is your lighting?

[TAANG]

Ammonia is 0ppm, nitrites are 0ppm, nitrates are <2ppm, phosphates are .01. Salinity is 1.025. My current lighting is a 108 watts t5. ATI true actinic and ATI coral plus. I don't have a copper test, but I only use RO/DI water tested with a TDS meter.

[ocellaris123]

To me it looks like your anemone is starting to rot/decay. Is it still attached to the rock?

[TAANG]

Yes, it was attached but we thought the same thing about it starting to rot. Removed the anemone from the rock and put it in a separation/breeder container incase it takes a turn for the worst and we need to remove it quickly before it can cause any damage. The anemone doesn't have a bad smell, as I have read that is a bad sign. The mouth is no longer open, but the skin still looks like out is falling off the foot.

[butters417]

Do you use RODI water? Could be copper in the water..

[TAANG]

Yes, only use RO/DI water

[t4zalews]

What is your lighting? 20g is very tough to keep anemones, can be done, but tough. What did you feed it? To be honest, I wouldn't feed this anemone in such a small tank as it will foul the water quickly.

[TAANG]

We fed phytoplankton at the instruction of the LFS. I left the lights off for 2 days to reduce a bit of cyano on the sand. Could that be the cause of the issue?

[t4zalews]

bta's eat meaty items, dont know why the LFS would tell you feed it phytoplankton. I wouldn't listen to their advice. Come here for information. Not knowing if you have a sump or skimmer but phytoplankton in that small of a tank can quickly foul water depending on the amount you used. What are your lights? looking at the picture the live rock looks fairly unestablished as well. Having been in this situation with BTA's, this will be a long road back to recovery...looks pretty beat up. I'd def keep the lights on, I'd check parameters daily. A 1 gallon daily water change wouldn't be a bad idea either.

[Fsarmien]

yeah stop feeding phyto. feed more mysis/silversides/pellets. lights on too and flow.What is the flow in your tank? You didn't state it yet.

[justthewife]

What kind of water flow do you have in the tank? Meaning is there good water circulation?

[TAANG]

The water flow is pretty strong. Maybe I'll get a second power head, to be safe. Would it new a good idea to try to feed the anemone right now, or is that to much added stress?

[t4zalews]

No, I would not feed it. I doubt it would take anything anyways. It would reallllly help us if you gave us more information about your lighting and flow, more than just good light and pretty strong.

Do you have a sump or protein skimmer? Or is it a biocube?

[clovers89]

Don't worry. as long as your BTA mouth does not open up real big and it is still attached to the rock. just leave it there. I had an exactly same anemone as yours. It was doing fine for the first few days but after a few days it look real sick. All its guts coming out and it does not form any bubble anymore. After a week or two it split into two and both of them are doing fine now.

[Fsarmien]

But usually anemone may split due to stress.

[TAANG]

As far as equipment goes, we have an AquaticLife 115 mini protein skimmer in our overflow area, a rena xp2 filter which has, seachem matrix, flugen carbon, phosguard, and purigen, (no floss or anything other mechanical filtration in the canister) We have a heater to keep the water temperature at 76 degrees. Our lighting consists of a one dual t5 48” fixture equipped with ATI true actinic and coral plus bulbs.(108w) Currently have hydor Koralia 425 powerhead with the flow crossing the outflow of the canister filter, pointed toward the front glass. We are thinking of adding a second to minimize any remaining dead spots in the tank.

[Fsarmien]

Hmmm, yeah maybe i would try adding more flow. Because 425 doesnt give a really good turnover rate.

[justthewife]

First off, I am not an anemone expert but...The first thing I thought of when you said it was rotting was a bacterial infection or that it is poisoning itself somehow from it's own toxins from being stressed out or that it got stung or damaged by another coral toxin, or powerhead. Also, you said you had a cyano outbreak in the tank. How bad is the cyano and what are you doing to get rid of the cyano beside lights out for two days (are you siphoning it out? There is a disease they get sometimes called Rapid Tissue Necrosis. Maybe someone on here can speak to that. Are you running any carbon in the tank?

From what I have learned from research (because I own one), a healthy BTA anemone has sticky tentacles and will grab onto food if fed. It will be attached to a rock and show good color. It's mouth will be tight. It should have a pretty good amount of tentacles and not be stubby or sparse. It will show a shock response (retract) if touched by you. They survive in very good water conditions and don't do well in high nitrates or phosphates.

Things that are not so good:
The anemone is not attached to a rock or can be easily removed from a rock.(This does not include moving around to find a better place.)
The anemone is floating around or upside down.
The anemone is bleached (loss of color from stress, too little or too much light, not necessarily a death sentence).
The anemone has sparse short tentacles (an indication it is starving and is eating in on itself to survive). This is usually caused by poor lighting.

From my observations on Anemone's. They need a pretty good size tank to survive well. At least a 50 gallon. The food they eat needs to be a little chopped up to digest well unless they are a big anemone (I do not feed mine silversides anymore because I don't trust the packaging and shipping quality). Food should be no bigger than the mouth of the anemone. They need an anemone "house" where they can attach to the bottom on the rock and extend and contract according to their needs. You can do this by taking three rocks and placing them around to make a cave like structure. The flow should not be directly on them. It should be strong enough to make sure they are getting food from the water and for keeping them clean from excess detritus. A random flow in the tank seems to work well. They don't like to be moved around manually a lot. If the light is too strong for them, they will retract and hide under a rock and only come out partially. If they need more light, they will position themselves to get more light and extend out more. If an anemone is going to die, it will go downhill pretty quickly, and basically turn itself inside out, spill it's guts and rot and it will stink and turn the water around it mucky. If not, it may have a chance.

[TAANG]

Thank you so much. I appreciate any help that you can give. I do not want this little guy to die and I am doing my best to keep it alive. As I said, it was attached to the rock, but we pulled it off to put it in a separate area, in case it died. We didn't want it to cause our tank to crash. This morning, the water is still not bad smelling. The mouth was slightly open with some whitish looking stuff coming out. As far as the cyano outbreak, we read online that reducing the lighting helps with that. We have been manually removing it as well, and it has been decreased a substantial amount. The startle reflex seems to still be there. It is no longer losing fleshy stuff from the foot.I am very hopeful for it's survival. We also have a rock anemone, and it seems to be doing fine. In my opinion, the bubble tip always seemed to be kinda sickly. But, I don't have much experience with them. I have been doing a lot of research, though. I think the anemone was probably pretty stressed because of the lights being turned out. It was wandering around the tank quite a bit looking for a good spot. Also, since we have been feeding it phytoplankton, it is probably hungry.Previously, I saw it eating the left over food that we fed the fish. I did a 1 gallon water change yesterday and I plan on doing another on this evening.

[TAANG]

I have some sad news, the anemone is dead :( Man. I did everything I could for it. That's a bummer. I hope the rock anemone doesn't start declining. Now that I know they don't eat phytoplankton, I will be sure to feed it mysis tonight. Are rock anemones more suitable for a 20 gal tank? I was told that bubble tip anemones were fine to keep in this size aquarium...live and learn I guess. I just hate that the poor thing died. Thanks everyone for your help. I am still going to invest in another power head in hopes that the rock anemone will survive.

[t4zalews]

If the anemone is eating left over fish food then there is no need to spot feed it. Cyano is usually a sign of poor circulation. Whats the dimensions of this tank out of curiosity if you're using 48" lights. IMHO, this lighting is not enough for an anemone. You only have one bulb for main light source as actinic light typically has very little useful light for photosynthetic animals.

[TAANG]

The dimensions of the tank are 30"L x 4.25"W x 10"H. The light fixture we have was originally for a 55 gallon tank, but we couldn't afford a different one at the time, so we just bought different bulbs for it. The light has a small overhang on both sides of the tank. We had been dicussing the fact the we need better flow because of the cyano, so this just confirms our thoughts. We got the lights to grow coral, originally. We have a mushroom coral and two orange mini sea whips. I am thinking that another power head is a must!

[t4zalews]

Too bad to hear it died....I've lost anemones before, part of the learning curve, eventually you're going to have stuff die on you.

Rock anemones are very hardy and some come in brilliant colors, unfortunately they typically dont house clowns if that's what you want an anemone for. If you want something to host clowns, for this size tank, a frogspawn or torch coral could do.

[TAANG]

Thanks! I think it would be so cool if we could get something to house our clowns. We are going to be moving soon, so we don't want to get anything new at the moment. But, I will definitely keep your suggestions in mind. We want to upgrade to a bigger tank soon too.

[justthewife]

Sorry to hear of your loss. I don't know if you should blame yourself though. It might have already been sickly at the LFS. Many people have different ideas about the size of a tank the anemone can survive in. It also depends upon your expertise. Bigger tanks are more forgiving. Smaller ones are often harder.

[TAANG]

I think it was kinda sickly to begin with. It never really fully expanded or bubbled up. I just figured it was getting used to it's new home. I am glad that it didn't decompose so fast that it caused our tank to crash. I have definitely learned a lot so far, I just wish I could have saved him!

[justthewife]

Please remember Tube Anemones may require different care. This might be where your LFS was suggesting zooplankton? I don't really know anything about Tube anemone's. I would suggest you post in this forum to ask specifically about the care of Tube Anemone's. I have heard they are difficult to feed because they retract when lightly touched and are nocturnal but I really don't know if this info is correct as I have never owned one.

[TAANG]

I don't have a tube anemone, I have a rock anemone...minus the green bubble anemone that was just lost. Will be doing lots of research before getting another anemone. I guess this was kinda just a jump into it excitment stage. Was told that it would do great in a nano tank. Live and learn

[justthewife]

ooops, :spin2: sorry, I read that incorrectly. I don't know anything about rock anemone's either.

[ReeferBill]

You should not try an anenome until your tank is at least six months old. Something about having the mature beneficial bacteria established before adding one. Sorry you lost it, I have done it in a twenty long but I would only add one anenome because two separate species can do chemical warfare.:deadhorse:

[TAANG]

yeah, initially we ordered a nano reef clean up crew kit and the anemone came with it. The company we ordered it from messed up and sent us two shipments. We really had no choice but to put both. It was definitely not preferred, but we couldn't exactly send it back. We were supposed to get the rock anemone with the kit, but they sent us a green bubble tip instead. So, long story short...our tank was probably not suited for two anemones, let alone of different species. Definitely won't be adding anything for a while!

[t4zalews]

Typically when you first receive a bubble tip, after acclimation it will completely deflate pushing out all of its water and then reinflate with the surrounding waters. Some anemones are just doomed from the beginning have it be transit or poor LFS conditions. Like I said, if you're just looking for something to host your clowns, there are a bunch of "imitation" anemones in corals. IE hairy mushrooms, frogspawn, torch, ricordias, hammers. I'd stay away from magnificent corals tho. Tank upgrade is always a good idea, more water so you can slack off a little more

[shifty51008]

your tank is only 4.25" from front to back?

[TAANG]

I'm sorry about that. I just copied and pasted the dimensions off of the internet. Must have been a mistake. My tank's dimensions are 30.25" x 12.5 x 12.75". Glad you caught that. 4.25" would be pretty crazy!

I am definitely going to look into false anemones that will host clowns. There are so many beautiful possibilities. I love this hobby!