anemone - Is he dead????

[megatron8121]

No pictures because he kinda looks normal, his tentacles aren't deflated and look nice and puffy like usual.

The problem is he is not hooked onto anything and just floats around the tank when my powerhead is on. I turned it off and he just sank to the bottom with his tentacles on a rock and didn't move at all.

My clownfish stopped hosting in him also. It's a condy anemone and ever since I got them together the clownfish has not left him other than for feedings.
I did a water test and the ammonia is high and nitrites off the chart ,they are the only 2 things in the tank and just last week everything was 0.

Should I just cut my losses and remove the anemone, and move the clownfish to my other tank or do a big water change and see if that helps then decide on throwing him out and moving the clownfish?

[megatron8121]

Well now he looks like he is attached to the glass...

Still though not sure where the huge spike in numbers came from, if he is dying would he be releasing bad stuff? I read somewhere it's best to ditch them if they are dying because of the fact it could make the tank go real bad. Don't want to throw him out if there is nothing wrong though.

[L_Spec]

If you aren't sure, try placing him in a small hospital tank. I like using a 5 gallon with a small PC light over it. The tank is shallow enough that the light will be fine for a short time (long enough to know if it will be okay or not. I place rock rubble at the bottom of the tank, so when it is time to place the nem back into the tank, I can just take the rock that it's on and not stress it out further by prying it off. A small filter (like an aquaclear 20) that adds water movement and of course filtering. This is what I used to watch my RBTA after it wasn't doing so well.

..but if your Condy attached, that's a good sign that it will be okay. Personally, I would never give up on an anemone, because they are so hardy, I think that it's always possible to save them.

[Ron Reefman]

If it's still attached to the glass, I'd leave it alone. Do a water change to get the ammonia down. If doing one isn't enough, do a second one (be sure to mix the new water well and give it a couple hours to cure). I'll kind of disagree with L Spec in that I wouldn't call annemones hardy (they don't do well in bad water) but they can recover from some really bad physical damage (like getting tentacles cut off in a powerhead).

[Sk8r]

Do not detach a nem. He's trying to stabilize. He needs to change his water for your water, find light he likes, find a place food collects, and settle in. He's perfectly capable of crawling to a better place---just be SURE there's no intake he can't get into with ANY part of his body. Intakes are deadly for a nem. Shield it with plastic needlepoint canvas (yarn or hobby store) cut and stitched with fishing line and glued in place.

[Tschupe]

My RBTA moved around for 5 weeks before it found a spot it liked

[megatron8121]

Well he moved a little bit, but now his base thing is weird looking. Is this normal or should I be worried? His tentacles look really good though.

[miamiaquarium]

it fine but next time you should post in "anemone and clownfish"

[Sk8r]

A dead nem starts to shred and smells bad beyond belief. THey constantly expand and contract.

And I agree---go over to the clownfish forum: you'll get more help.

[BigCountry74]

yeah that is definitely not dead. looks good to be honest. nice size foot, it's gonna take a decent size rock hole for it to anchor, can u post a pic of your full tank? i hope its not too large for your tank/rock work, hard to say by that pic.

dead ones will inside out and start to fall apart (deteriorate literally, leech puss etc), and smell like *** like sk8r said. a large and in charge dead one can crash a tank overnight. lol

[w16227]

what sized tank?
what lighting?
how old is the tank?
how long ago was the nem put in tank?

all important -