Bubble Tip Anemone Looking Unhealthy

[jradishness]

Hey all,

We've had a nano reef (13gal) for a little over five months now and have slowly been adding livestock to it. We currently have acans, some ricordia and rhodactis, xenia, a couple different zoas, a small hammer, a goniopora, and 3 leathers. We also have a small derasa and an even smaller maxima, as well as a peppermint shrimp and assorted cleaning snails and crabs. Our fish include a pair of clownfish and a yellow watchman goby. Besides a hiccup over a long winter vacation, which cost us our blood shrimp, we've kept the levels and nutrients pretty steady and have experienced growth.

Everything seemed happy, and so we thought we were ready for an anemone. We picked out a smaller one from one of our many LFS after touring the metroplex, and drip acclimated him for about an hour before putting him into the tank on a small clay dish.

The first night, he crawled right onto the rock and seemed happy. Unfortunately, we've had something of an algae outbreak and so I used a bag of phosguard to try to lower phosphates (to get it down from .28 to .15, where it has been since) overnight the next night, and when we woke up, the anemone looked upset. I was worried I dropped phosphates too quickly and removed the phosguard.

Today, he looks worse, and my girlfriend really wants me to get some more opinions if possible. She's been feeding him pe mysis about every other day, but now from what I've read around the web, maybe we need to let it be for a few days and see if it comes back any. I don't want him nuking the tank, but I want to give him every shot to come around. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Parameters
Alk 9.4-10 (not autodosing, so trying to keep it close by dosing daily)
Ca 445
Mg 1540 (I know its high, but I don't dose it, and I wonder if its a testing accuracy issue)
ph 8.0
NO3 3ppm
PO4 0.15ppm
Temp 78

Thanks!
-Jradishness

 

[Zack K]

What kind of lights at what percentage and what is your light cycle? Also what was the hiccup over winter break?

 

[jradishness]

What kind of lights at what percentage and what is your light cycle?

The stock lights on the fluval sea evo. I saw several build threads successfully keeping bta's with them. As far as the light cycle, its honestly probably a 14 hr cycle at the moment. I know that's long, but everything else has eaten it up until now. Do you think it's too much light?

The hiccup over winter break was our friend overfeeding, which raised our nitrates and phosphates, caused an algae outbreak and (I suspect) killed our blood shrimp. We went two weeks and it didn't get a water change in that time. I normally water change 20% every 5-7 days.

 

[DMG Reef]

I'm sorry to say that the stock lighting is most likely not strong enough to support an anemone or clams. It's probably fine for soft corals and some LPS. Anemones and clams need a high quality spectrum. Are you seeing any white, new shell growth on the clam when it's closed up? Your parameters are fine. It's the light that needs to be upgraded.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Lighting in part is an issue (needs more blue) and letting it be a couple days would be good. I feed mine 1-2x weekly IF I EVEN REMEMBER to with no issues- it won’t starve.
Verify their happy parameters:
Salinity - 1.025-1.026
Temperature: 78
Ph 8.0- 8.2
Moderate water flow
Nitrate : less than .05ppm

 

[Allen glover]

When My bubble tip looks ill I just Feed it something solid It gets fed solids normally every 2 days

 

[Cell]

Stop feeding it every other day. Once a week at most is sufficient, or not at all is even better if you have sufficient lighting. I wouldnt feed at all in a small tank like yours.

As for now, leave it be and monitor.

 

[jradishness]

Thanks everyone for the replies and advice.

As far as the lighting is concerned, I have taken a few photos of the two clams. They each have what I would describe as white around the top edge of the shell. They both seem happy and stretch out their respective mantles on a regular basis.

I'm gonna leave it be and hope that stability will cure him. If I have to buy a light, I'd rather do that than lose the nem, but I'd also rather that money went to other more helpful things if the current light will suffice. I do keep it clean on a regular basis to make sure salt creep isn't covering the LEDs.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Allen glover]

Stop feeding it every other day. Once a week at most is sufficient, or not at all is even better if you have sufficient lighting. I wouldnt feed at all in a small tank like yours.

As for now, leave it be and monitor.

What should I look for re over feeding it seems quite happy with the regime and goes all sloppy and looks near death if I leave it too much longer than 3 days

 

[Allen glover]

What should I look for re over feeding it seems quite happy with the regime and goes all sloppy and looks near death if I leave it too much longer than 3 days

 

[Cell]

I mean, you dont need to feed them at all to have a happy and healthy nem so I doubt it's the lack of feeding every 3 days but who knows, if its working for you so be it.

 

[CuzzA]

A couple thoughts, you're probably not going to want to hear. "Giant" clams don't belong in nano tank, IMO. The maxima is a rock boring clam and will die in the sand bed. It needs to be on a rock crevice or clam dish/rock. The latter would be best so it can be rehomed since it won't survive long term in this tank.

The bubble tip nem is also questionable as half the tank will become anemone as it grows and you'll need to be prepared for when they split. One can become five pretty quick.

Nevertheless, I have serious doubts that light will support the clams and anemone long term. I'd guess overfeeding is probably the immediate cause of it's decline. I rarely feed my nem. They will capture food when feeding fish and when they're that small they don't need a lot of food considering they get plenty of nutrition from zooxanthellae. Your best bet for now is to leave it alone.

I would buy an appropriate reef light and try to get your water closer to NSW parameters, particularly the alk.

 

[Allen glover]

I mean, you dont need to feed them at all to have a happy and healthy nem so I doubt it's the lack of feeding every 3 days but who knows, if its working for you so be it.

I may cut back the hand feeding a bit