Zakary2003
Well-Known Member
I have a black widow anemone that has been in my tank for around a month. It came from my brother's tank. The one in his tank came from a split from my tank, but my anenone died in the hurricanes last year. He gave me one of the offspring of my original clone. It is genetically identical to an anemone that did great in my tank for years, but this one was raised in his tank and has never been in mine before.
It started out healthy for the first few weeks. It was hanging out with my two nexus anemones just fine and my clownfish were hosting all three. Then just over a week ago, it moved into the rock structure and has been gradually shrinking. It is now constantly deflated and visibly smaller than before.
I'm not sure how or even if I can help it. Should I target feed it since it isn't photosynthesizing? Or should I just leave it be? I can't move it from its current spot without damaging the corals around it.
It came from a tank with very high phosphates and nitrates (0.64ppm and 35.0ppm) and low salinity (32ppt). My brother took the clone a year ago but he is a very lazy reefer and doesn't react unless problems arise. He doesn't test calc/alk/mag and does not do regular water changes. His lighting is two AI prime 16HD (the older wifi version). My lighting is one hydra 32HD (the newer model). I get a lot more PAR than the tank it came from, but it did well for a few weeks even under the more intense lighting.
The issue seemed to start when the clownfish decided to start hosting it at night instead of the nexus anemones. That seemed to upset it. I don't know why it is still in the same spot though.
The tank has SPS (digi, monti cap, acros), LPS (duncans, candycane, acans, cyphastrea, frogspawn), softies (palys, GSP, cloves, zoas), and anemones (2 nexus BTAs and 4 rock flowers). Everything else is currently fine. The bubble tip was touching the nexus BTAs for weeks with no issues. When it first started moving, it did touch pretty much all the acros, the cabdycane coral, the montiporas, the acan, and the cyphastrea, so damage from stings is definitely possible.
During the trip I went on to pick up the anemone from my brother, my pet sitter overfed the tank with pellets. Phosphates were .28 and nitrates were 15ppm. This is still much lower than my brother's tank. Nitrates are low again and phosphates have been steadily dropping this last month. While my phosphates are still high, they were higher when it did well, and even higher in my brother's tank.
I also had a kalk overdose a few weeks ago, but it happened after the anenone already moved to the cave. pH spiked to 8.5, alk went from 9.0 to 9.9, and calcium went from 380 to 420. The apex cut off the kalk pump when the pH reached 8.5 so total catastrophic damage was avoided, but it might still be relevant.
Current Params:
Salinity 34ppt (waterbox refractometer)
Alkalinity 9.1 dkh (hanna checker)
Calcium 420ppm (red sea)
Nitrate ~2.5ppm (salifert)
Phosphate 0.18ppm (hanna)
Magnesium 1280 (red sea)
Temperature 76-78°F (apex)
pH 7.5 (night min) to 8.3 (day max) (apex)
The tank is a heavily stocked 20 gallon cube. Stocking includes 2 sexy shrimp, two clowns, a pistol shrimp/yasha goby pair, and 4 chromis. CuC includes an emerald crab, some hermits, trochus snails, and an urchin. I used to have a peppermint shrimp but he has not been spotted in a while so I doubt he is eating the anemone. I also have a ridiculous amount of amphipods and tiny white snails. The amphipods have been crawling all over the anemone and may be irritating it.
I feed small amounts of frozen food 2x per day and live baby brine 2x per day. Before the phosphates were so high, I'd also feed 1/4 teaspoon of ReefRoids once a week for the corals and a few pieces of krill for the anemones, but I haven't done that since the petsitter overfed them.
I do weekly 20% water changes (but sometimes I go down to every other week when everything seems happy, which is not the case right now).
I run activated carbon and a skimmer.
I also currently have GFO in there to for the high phosphates, which is new.
I dose All for Reef for some calc/alk/mag and Kalkwasser for more calc/alk and a pH boost. I also carbon dose NP bacto balance for nutrient control, 0.40 mL per day.
These are the best pictures I could get of it in the current spot. It isn't healthy, but it is still sticking to the rock and still has good color. Looking from the back of the tank at an angle the camera can't catch, its mouth is slightly open.
It started out healthy for the first few weeks. It was hanging out with my two nexus anemones just fine and my clownfish were hosting all three. Then just over a week ago, it moved into the rock structure and has been gradually shrinking. It is now constantly deflated and visibly smaller than before.
I'm not sure how or even if I can help it. Should I target feed it since it isn't photosynthesizing? Or should I just leave it be? I can't move it from its current spot without damaging the corals around it.
It came from a tank with very high phosphates and nitrates (0.64ppm and 35.0ppm) and low salinity (32ppt). My brother took the clone a year ago but he is a very lazy reefer and doesn't react unless problems arise. He doesn't test calc/alk/mag and does not do regular water changes. His lighting is two AI prime 16HD (the older wifi version). My lighting is one hydra 32HD (the newer model). I get a lot more PAR than the tank it came from, but it did well for a few weeks even under the more intense lighting.
The issue seemed to start when the clownfish decided to start hosting it at night instead of the nexus anemones. That seemed to upset it. I don't know why it is still in the same spot though.
The tank has SPS (digi, monti cap, acros), LPS (duncans, candycane, acans, cyphastrea, frogspawn), softies (palys, GSP, cloves, zoas), and anemones (2 nexus BTAs and 4 rock flowers). Everything else is currently fine. The bubble tip was touching the nexus BTAs for weeks with no issues. When it first started moving, it did touch pretty much all the acros, the cabdycane coral, the montiporas, the acan, and the cyphastrea, so damage from stings is definitely possible.
During the trip I went on to pick up the anemone from my brother, my pet sitter overfed the tank with pellets. Phosphates were .28 and nitrates were 15ppm. This is still much lower than my brother's tank. Nitrates are low again and phosphates have been steadily dropping this last month. While my phosphates are still high, they were higher when it did well, and even higher in my brother's tank.
I also had a kalk overdose a few weeks ago, but it happened after the anenone already moved to the cave. pH spiked to 8.5, alk went from 9.0 to 9.9, and calcium went from 380 to 420. The apex cut off the kalk pump when the pH reached 8.5 so total catastrophic damage was avoided, but it might still be relevant.
Current Params:
Salinity 34ppt (waterbox refractometer)
Alkalinity 9.1 dkh (hanna checker)
Calcium 420ppm (red sea)
Nitrate ~2.5ppm (salifert)
Phosphate 0.18ppm (hanna)
Magnesium 1280 (red sea)
Temperature 76-78°F (apex)
pH 7.5 (night min) to 8.3 (day max) (apex)
The tank is a heavily stocked 20 gallon cube. Stocking includes 2 sexy shrimp, two clowns, a pistol shrimp/yasha goby pair, and 4 chromis. CuC includes an emerald crab, some hermits, trochus snails, and an urchin. I used to have a peppermint shrimp but he has not been spotted in a while so I doubt he is eating the anemone. I also have a ridiculous amount of amphipods and tiny white snails. The amphipods have been crawling all over the anemone and may be irritating it.
I feed small amounts of frozen food 2x per day and live baby brine 2x per day. Before the phosphates were so high, I'd also feed 1/4 teaspoon of ReefRoids once a week for the corals and a few pieces of krill for the anemones, but I haven't done that since the petsitter overfed them.
I do weekly 20% water changes (but sometimes I go down to every other week when everything seems happy, which is not the case right now).
I run activated carbon and a skimmer.
I also currently have GFO in there to for the high phosphates, which is new.
I dose All for Reef for some calc/alk/mag and Kalkwasser for more calc/alk and a pH boost. I also carbon dose NP bacto balance for nutrient control, 0.40 mL per day.
These are the best pictures I could get of it in the current spot. It isn't healthy, but it is still sticking to the rock and still has good color. Looking from the back of the tank at an angle the camera can't catch, its mouth is slightly open.
