advice needed with anenome

[salt newbie01]

I have a green bubble tip anenome and it seems to be acting weird to me. But as previously stated I am a newbie so I may be worrying for nothing. I have had it for approx 2 weeks. When I first put it into my tank it rolled around for a short time before securing itself to the side of a rock with a kenya tree coral on top. They are several inches away from each other. I target feed the anenome brine shrimp approx every 3 days. And I target feed other corals with liquid DT's every 2-3 days. It grabs several pieces of the shrimp every time. Over the first week it "deflated" 2 usually 24-36 hours after feeding. I assumed this was get rid of waste from the feeding. The last couple of days it has "deflated" almost every days something brown and solid has come from it's mouth. It almost looks like solid waste?? When it is expelling this brown substance it's mouth is open, but then closes back. When it is "normal" or inflated it is 2 1/2 inches across and the mouth is tightly closed. It has never moved since getting into the spot it is in now. Should it be "deflating" and "inflating" this often? Over the last few days all of the "tenticles" are nor inflating. A few remain "flat". Does it sound like something is wrong? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

oh yeah just tested my water
ph - 8.2
phosphate .5
nitrate between 0.0 - 5.0
nitrite 0.0
calcium 460
amonia 0.0
salinity 1.023

[RCS]

What corals are you feeding the DTs to? Some corals will make use of it but not all. The tree coral likely will, while most SPS and LPS will not.

As for the anemone, brine shrimp is not a suitable food for it. Larger chunks of meat are what anemones will eat. Bulb-tips do best on a diet of mostly shrimp (1/4-1/2" pieces or larger, depending on the size of the anemone) supplemented with things like lancefish, silversides and krill. Even small chunks of regular whitefish (orange roughy etc.) will be good for it. See what it will take it, and get the feedings to the point where they're accepted 3-4 times per week.

Ife the pieces of food stick to the tentacles, it's a good sign and normally indicated a healthy specimen. If it refuses to take the large pieces of food, you've got some work ahead of you.

I would stop trying to feed it the brine shrimp right away, as truly all you're doing is polluting the tank. And I would make sure the corals you've been suggested to feed the DTs to are corals that will actually utilize it. I've seen lots of people trying to feed carnivorous corals phytoplankton based on the advice given by some pet stores and again the only outcome is excessive waste in the tank.

[salt newbie01]

Thanks for the quick response. The main thing I target feed dt's to is my goniapora. I also give some to the kenya tree and brain coral if it's mouth is open. I give some to the candy cane corals though I'm not sure if I need to or not. I also squirt some over the big green star polyp - again not sure if it is using it or not. When you say shrimp for the anenome can I use dried shrimp or krill? Or should it be fresh shrimp like I would eat?
What about a small toadstool coral? would the dt's benefit it?
Thanks again - It sucks to be a newbie.

Here's what I have in the tank

green bta
red/green brain coral
kenya tree
green candy cane
purple candy cane
green star polyp
hammer coral
bulls eye, green, stripped mushrooms

[salt newbie01]

Is the bta supposed to "deflate" like it is doing? And how often?

[salt newbie01]

my first try at a pic....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/thegoogers/gbta2a.jpg

another

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/thegoogers/gbta1a.jpg

[salt newbie01]

It worked!!

Here's a full shot - And yes I am getting more LR.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/thegoogers/fulltank02-25-06.jpg

[RCS]

Looks hungry. Likely it's been starved before you got it, so you're doing the right thing. I would start off feeding it maybe 2-3 times per wek small bits and see how it comes around. Eventually if it will take the food there's nothing wrong with feeding it every day.

As for the picture, it looks fine to me so far, if a little starved. Keep feeding it.

AS for the DTs, let me save you a lot of time and a lot of DTs. The Goniopora, candy cane and brain are all carnivorous corals. I doubt any of them are getting anything from the phytoplankton. The tree coral I would continue to target feed with it, but that's the only one from the list that would benefit.

The brain and cancy cane can pretty much be fed the same as the anemone, which small chunks of shrimp and fish. The Goniopora will really depend on species. I've seen them eat in a range from largish chunks to small crutaceans such as Cyclop-eze, baby brine and rotifers all the way down to DTs Oyster eggs. Do you have a picture of the Goniopora? I couldn't make a good feeding suggestion without knowing what species.

[RCS]

Before I take off here (I'll be back later) I'm going to venture a guess that the Gonipora is in the middle of the tank on the top? If so, it's more than likely a Goniopora stokesi. A mixture of blended fish pieces, mysis shrimp, regular shrimp and some additional vitamins (Selco, etc.) should be it's staple diet (you'll want to target feed the polyps) and supplemented with LiquidLife MarinePlankton (you can get this locally at the Aquarium, only place I've seen it...it's the one with Cyclop-eeze as the main ingredient and includes a bunch of vitamins as well) a couple of times per week. It doesn't take much, and a bottle should last a good 4-6 weeks.

[gflat65]

Mine deflate every night when the lights go out, though not completely. They pull into the rockwork and lose a little size. Like frwed said, if it accepts food (sticks to tentacles), I wouldn't worry too much. If it refuses to eat (food rolls off the base), you may have a sick anemone. I don't feed mine at all any more, so they will do fine under good lighting (I have mine under 250W DE's and VHO's). I only feed my fish at most once a week with frozen (flakes every now and then in between), so that is as often as I used to feed my BTA's. I'd drop one or two pieces of frozen (thawed and soaked in selcon like all of the other frozen) on each one. I then ran an experiment on cloning and found that once they got used to a feeding schedule and quantity, I was able to force a clone every time (tried four separate occasions) within 12 days by increasing feedings to every other day and three to four krill per. Your's looks a little lighter than mine are, so it may have been stressed at some point, but overall, it seems to be okay (from the pics). Food will definitely help it along if it has been stressed and slightly bleached. Don't be too surprised if you come in some day and it looks like total hell with some black goop coming from it's mouth (which is also ripped in half) and stays that way for a few days/week. They look pretty bad when they split, but they recover. I haven't had a split since I stopped feeding mine, but I did get a bud from mine recently...

[salt newbie01]

here's the goni

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/thegoogers/goni1.jpg

when it is out it is approx 3-4 inches wide and the tenticles are approx 1 1/2 - 2 inches tall

the shorter the tenticles the greener they are.

[salt newbie01]

when ya'll say frozen shrimp or krill - do I get that at my lfs? I want frozen not dried correct? I have never seen the mysis shrimp are they bigger pieces of shrimp than brine? Could I buy frozen shrimp from the grocery store , and feed them to the anenome?

Thanks for the help guys!!!!

[ReefRacer]

feed it frozen uncooked shrimp, thawed and cut into 1/4 inch cubes, one or two per feeding., from grocery store.

[salt newbie01]

That should be easy enough. If I am reading all this info correctly I can soak the piece of shrimp in a vitamin solution like selco. right?

Thanks, hopefully this will make it perk up a bit.

[RCS]

Yep, should work out fine.

As for the Goniopora, it's definitely a G. stokesii . I'd say the most common Goni imported.

Feed it 3-5 times per week with the meaty "mush" i mentioned earlier along with the MarinePlankton supplement a couple of times per week. You may want to consider moving it down in the tank as well, as they don't really like a lot of light and prefer being on the substrate. I'm not sure what type of lighting you're running, so this may or may not be applicable.

[salt newbie01]

Thanks for the help Fred. I want to make sure I am feeding all these guys the correct food. I have read the goni's can be difficult to keep so I am trying to make sure I am doing things correctly. I am running vho lights 440 watts ( 2 aqua suns and 2 actinics ) & moon lights at night. I can move it to the sand if that would be better. I had it up on the rock for the flow. I am adding a seio 820 pump in a couple of weeks so I will be able to put flow on it wherever I put it.
about the mush you talk about - Can I just take uncooked shrimp, mysis shrimp and vitamins and blend it all together? It sounds like it needs to be pretty mushy or liquidy is that correct? Would adding some of the cyclop-eeze that I read about be good for it? The selco vitamin you mentioned - is that something I order online? Is there a certain type of vitamin supplement I need to use?
Would it be ok to feed the candy canes and the open brain, brine or mysis shrimp. I have half a trey of the brine left, I was trying not to throw it away.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[RCS]

You can get Selco at any of the LFS easily enough. The ingredients you mentioned would be fine for the food. I would just toss the brine in there with it. Brine is high in protein but not much else. You can add the Cyclop-eze in there as well, though the LiquidLife is mostly Cyclop-eze as well. You can feed the mush to any of the LPS in the tank (candycanes generalyl extend their feeding tentacles at night).

Goniopora will do best under a moderate random flow. Their polyps can be very fragile and too much flow can damage them. I would move it to the bottom and give it an indirect flow from all sides if possible.

[salt newbie01]

Thanks again Fred for all your great info and advise!!

[salt newbie01]

Well I picked up a couple of raw shrimp today. Cut a good 1/4 inch chunk and the anenome ate it like a champ!!! I also gave some small pieces to the candy canes. My lfs is ordering the liquid life and he was out of mysis shrimp. But both should be in by wed.
Thanks for the help!!

[ReefRacer]

Glad to hear about the BTA! If you feed it like 3 times a week and do a water change (aged and aerated and heated) once a week it will probably split in two. It may take a while though since it may have been starved. I would expect the tentacles to lengthen considerably.

[salt newbie01]

What if I don't want it to split? I would just like it to grow and get bigger. Is there a way to feed them so they won't split? I do hope the tentacles will get longer and maybe my clowns will host in it.

[ReefRacer]

There is a nice web site about anenomes with lots of info linked in the Anenome forum. I guess if you don't want it to split only feed it once or twice a week. Good luck.

[gflat65]

A split may be inevitable, but lower feeding schedules will reduce the inevitablility. If you get it used to a low feeding cycle (I don't feed mine at all any more), you shouldn't have to worry too much. Another thing that triggers a cloning epidemic is water quality issues. I had something eat a hole in my RO membrane and flushed everything that had been stripped from the water for the first six months of the membrane life into my 'filtered' water. The tank looked worse and worse as I did more and more water changes. In that time, I went from two to 8, so they may clone due to stress, also.

[salt newbie01]

I was going to feed every 3 days to get it good healthy and big but now I'm wondering if maybe only 1 or 2 a week. Oh well. I will live and learn. I just hope everything in my tank does too.