Help! BTA Anemone looks like its dying then comes back to life

GWL · 01/24/2015, 10:14 PM

Hey guys I need help don't know if I should try to save him or get ride of him. I have a bio cube 14g that I had taken over from my girlfriends sister, she has lost interest. The tank is a little over a year old and has much changed a lot since I took over. Parameters are 1.026, Ca 420,PH 8.0, ALK 9, AMM 0, NIT 0, MAG 1300. I have (fish)1 Clown and 1 Fire fish (coral) Blasto, RB Acan, Plays, Frogspawn, Red Mushroom, Dragon soul, Xmas, and Zoas (inverts) Blood shrimp, 2 BTA's, Electric hermit, and Turbo's.... I purchase my first anemone at my LFS 5 months ago, along with the second a month later. They both moved around for the first week and then settled in. They haven't moved much since then. I feed them small pc. of silver's and do a water change every week.

About 8 days ago I saw that my first anemone had his mouth wide open and was getting ready to take him out the next morning, when i woke up he was back to normal. its been happening ever since, he looks horrible then fine again. You can see tears and stuff around his mouth and then they disappear. It looks like he's falling apart, then puts himself back together. The other BTA is a little bigger and he's doing just fine, so is everything else in the tank. I can't find anyone else that has a post like this... please HELP!!

FraggledRock · 01/25/2015, 12:53 AM

First, Thats a lot for 14g...

Are you spot feeding them? How often you feed the tank?

Learn about the habits if each organism before you simply "get rid of it".

It could be splitting. Asexual reproduction.

Research.

GWL · 01/25/2015, 04:16 AM

I spot feed all the corals (reefroids) and do a 1/4 cube of mysid every 2 days. nitrates get up to 10-15 by the end of the week, then i do a water change. only additives is buffer and dr.'s phytoplankton

dkeller_nc · 01/25/2015, 08:42 AM

Looking at the time stamps on your photos, I'm not surprised to see the anemone looking as it does. It's not the least unusual for an anemone to retract during the night hours.

If that's the condition during the day, then observe your clown's behavior closely. It may simply be that it's trying to host in the anemone, and since they're too small for this, the clown's essentially harassing the anemone. That could eventually lead to the anemone's death, btw.

GWL · 01/25/2015, 02:18 PM

I don't really ever see the clown fish even go near that anemone
but I'll keep my eye out. thanks

01/24/2015, 10:14 PM	#1
GWL Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Posts: 3	Help! BTA Anemone looks like its dying then comes back to life Hey guys I need help don't know if I should try to save him or get ride of him. I have a bio cube 14g that I had taken over from my girlfriends sister, she has lost interest. The tank is a little over a year old and has much changed a lot since I took over. Parameters are 1.026, Ca 420,PH 8.0, ALK 9, AMM 0, NIT 0, MAG 1300. I have (fish)1 Clown and 1 Fire fish (coral) Blasto, RB Acan, Plays, Frogspawn, Red Mushroom, Dragon soul, Xmas, and Zoas (inverts) Blood shrimp, 2 BTA's, Electric hermit, and Turbo's.... I purchase my first anemone at my LFS 5 months ago, along with the second a month later. They both moved around for the first week and then settled in. They haven't moved much since then. I feed them small pc. of silver's and do a water change every week. About 8 days ago I saw that my first anemone had his mouth wide open and was getting ready to take him out the next morning, when i woke up he was back to normal. its been happening ever since, he looks horrible then fine again. You can see tears and stuff around his mouth and then they disappear. It looks like he's falling apart, then puts himself back together. The other BTA is a little bigger and he's doing just fine, so is everything else in the tank. I can't find anyone else that has a post like this... please HELP!!

01/25/2015, 12:53 AM	#2
FraggledRock Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: New York, New York Posts: 2,185	First, Thats a lot for 14g... Are you spot feeding them? How often you feed the tank? Learn about the habits if each organism before you simply "get rid of it". It could be splitting. Asexual reproduction. Research. __________________ “For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it.”― Jacques-Yves Cousteau MarineBio.org Current Tank Info: 40 Gallon Breeder w/ Bean Animal Overflow 20G Sump, Mixed Reef.

01/25/2015, 08:42 AM	#4
dkeller_nc Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Central NC Posts: 5,062	Looking at the time stamps on your photos, I'm not surprised to see the anemone looking as it does. It's not the least unusual for an anemone to retract during the night hours. If that's the condition during the day, then observe your clown's behavior closely. It may simply be that it's trying to host in the anemone, and since they're too small for this, the clown's essentially harassing the anemone. That could eventually lead to the anemone's death, btw.