Anenome help (1 Viewer)

[aqua-nut]

I have a bubble tip anemone in my 20 gallon cube at home with a mated pair of maroon clown fish.

Over the course of the last three months, I've watched the anemone shrink from an animal the size of my open hand to that of a nickel and remain that way.

It eats a piece of thawed clam or raw table shrimp every other day.

I do a 25% water change every three to four weeks, even though I built an ecosystem into the back of the tank.

I have a chiller and heater on the tank, and the temp stays between 76-79 degrees.

I have 200 watts of 50/50 corallife PC lighting in the tank. I keep the tank lit for 8 hours per day.

Water parameters are good. Calcium is 400 or so, and alkalinity is 12.

Got any input for me? I went to very expensive and time consuming lengths to set up a second tank at home (big one is at the office) to enjoy clowns and anemones in the evenings with my wife and golden retreiver. All I'm missing out on right now is the anemone... fish and dog are fine. Wife is not fine though... wants "a big, living shag rug" back in the tank so she can watch the clowns rub in it!

 

[Guest]

When you feed it, are you feeding a whole shrimp, or just a small chunk? I only target-feed my anemone (LTA) once a week, and even then just half a silverside. Ask anyone who has seen my tank - the thing is huge. When fully stretched out, it's easily 10" across.

I just bought a new RBTA a week ago, and I target-fed it for the first time on Friday and it stayed shrivelled up all weekend. I don't know if it was because it was digesting, or just still acclimating to the system. Anyway, it might be worth a shot to cut back on the feedings for a week and just see if there are any improvements.

Only other thing I can think of is salinity - I think that's one thing that determines how much they are expanded.

 

[KarenHorn]

Unfortunately I don't have any answers for you, but I know ours is full and happy during the day and shrinks to nothing at night. Drives me nuts.

 

[Guest]

I don't know if it will help, but I found this in the Anemone FAQ from RC:

Why does my anemone shrink up during the day?
All anemones shrink down periodically to flush wastes and balance water chemistry. However if your anemone does this frequently (more than a couple times per week) or stays shrunk for more than an hour or two at a time, you need to look for other factors that are stressing the anemone. In most cases the anemone is not happy with the water conditions (chemically) or it is not receiving proper lighting (too bright or wrong
spectrum). If the anemone shrinks only when the lights come on, this is almost always a sign of light shock where the anemone either isn’t fully acclimated to the lighting in your tank, or the lighting is too intense or too yellow. This behavior is often seen with bright metal halide lighting, especially (for whatever reason) if the bulb is a 10K or lower (white to yellow) bulb. Try replacing your bulb with a bluer bulb or moving the anemone to a darker section of the tank.

 

[Guest]

I agree with mikester about the feeding. Don't feed it for a week or so. Theoretically(in my mind, never read it anywhere, but makes sense in my head) if you feed it that much, then it is getting plenty of nutrients and doesn't have to open up to receive light for nutrient uptake from photosynthesis.

I never feed my RBTA's at work. They get plenty of light and plankton(cyclopeeze and Artemia nauplii) and are always open.

 

[Guest]

are the clown very rough with it?

 

[HolyBanana]

My guess is the type of lighting. Ive read that anenomes are picky about that. And that the best lighting you can provide for them is MH.

 

[Guest]

I keep an LTA under T5's with no problem, and a lot of people keep BTA's under marginal lighting. They are the least demanding anemones when it comes to lighting, and I would think 200 watts of PC over a tank that small would be plenty.

What Josh said makes a lot of sense (and not just because he backed me up ) - if the anemone is getting all of it's nutrient needs met from target feedings, it doesn't need to expand to get light for photosynthesis.

 

[Guest]

I doubt lighting is the problem, unless the bulbs are over a year old.

How long has the tank been up??

Stop feeding for at least a week and see what that does.

 

[aqua-nut]

Thanks for all the advice thus far. I'll try to knock out the various questions posed thus far...

1) Tank has been up about four months. Is the tank simply not biologically mature enough to keep an anemone yet?

2) Salinity could be a problem in that some times, I find that a half gallon of water has evaporated in a 24 hour period. (Tank is too small for a top off system because it's "sump" is partitioned at the back of the tank.)

I will certainly begin topping off the tank at least once a day if necessary to keep the salinity as stable as possible. I do know it is in the "green" area of my hydrometer.

I will also stop feeding it for a week. Overfeeding might just be why its retracted so much. BTW, it's always the size of a nickel now... so lighting probably isn't the problem.

One additional question though... should I increase my lighting to 12 hours a day? Could this be part of the problem?

 

[Guest]

I don't think upping the lighting to 12 hours a day will change it.
How much flow does the anenome get?

Take a water sample to an LFS and get it tested.

Your system isn't too small for an auto-topoff.
Just have to find the right auto-topoff setup.
I use a syphon top-off on my 20 gallon tank and it works great.
5 gallons lasts about 10 or 11 days on it.

 

[aqua-nut]

I don't have a sump. So, a siphon system would require that my 5 gallon (or whatever size I used) jug and hose would have to be above my tank.

It's in my den and that would be oh-so-ugly. The wife would have a fit!

Any other ideas for a top off system?

 

[Guest]

I don't have a sump. So, a siphon system would require that my 5 gallon (or whatever size I used) jug and hose would have to be above my tank.

It's in my den and that would be oh-so-ugly. The wife would have a fit!

Any other ideas for a top off system?

Me and you both.
I keep looking, and if you come up with anything, let me know.

 

[incysor]

I just use a small float valve, a rio 50, and about 4ft of airline tubing. It's simple and has worked fine for over 8 months. I haven't seen the setup you have at home with the nano, but my boss at work basically used the same type of system I'm talking about with a little 1gal rubbermaid jug as his r/o water reservior. Just depends on how much you regularly lose to evaporation.

If you want to come over and take a look at what I'm talking about drop me a line.

Brian

 

[Guest]

One of these connected to a float switch would do the trick:

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...OD&Product_Code=AM-70100&Category_Code=Dosers

 

[Guest]

I've got a top-off system that would work on your setup, plus it's cheap. I'll get some pics and diagrams of it for you sometime this week when I get a chance.

 

[incysor]

One of these connected to a float switch would do the trick:

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...OD&Product_Code=AM-70100&Category_Code=Dosers

Is there some advantage to using dosing pumps? All the one's I've seen are fairly expensive. I bought a float switch for $5, an extension cord for .99, and I already had the little rio 50, but if I'd had to buy one they're only $10. I can put kalk, or calcium or whatever in my top-off water and it gets dosed slowly.

I'm not trying to be snarky, my system is pretty basic, (no reactors, uv, ozonizers, etc...), so I'm sure there could be good reasons to use them that I'm missing.

Brian

 

[Guest]

How is the anemone doing?