I can't Keep an anemone alive, HELP!!

[jvhou]

I have been in the hobby for about two years now. I have a 40 gal AIO tank. For lighting I have an AI Hydra 26 that is about 12 inches over the water.

Water stats:
Nitrate 5 ppm
Phosphate .03ppm
Calcium 350 ppm
Alkalinity 9.7 dKH
Salinity 35
Temp 78

Over the past year I have gone through 6 bubble tip anemones from different sources. They never survive for more than a month. Meanwhile my giant clam is doing well, so are various other leather corals, mushrooms, duncans and zoes. I even have a rock flower anemone that is doing fine. I wonder if my lights might be burning them. Included below is my lighting program. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Saltyreef]

I dont think your lighting is the issue.

Are you getting wild nems?

 

[jvhou]

I can't say for sure. I have gotten a couple from Corals Anonymous. And a few from LFS. But I do not think they were wild.

 

[Dolphins18]

I can't say for sure. I have gotten a couple from Corals Anonymous. And a few from LFS. But I do not think they were wild.

Definitely not lighting, you'll want to provide them with some more white light however, ime. Finding one that is established in tank life is so important. One that has been shipped from place to place 3 times will be stressed.
I'd have to imagine that not all 6 were wild, or from all over the country.
They like a lot more po4 than that, same with nitrates, but that should not be killing them.
What happens to them as the begin to die (are they melting away, falling off rocks, etc)? Do they move much after putting them in?

 

[jvhou]

After acclimating with a drip system I place them under a ledge out of the light. I figure they will move where they want to be to get the amount of light they need. They usually don't move much. For the first week to two weeks they will come out and look half way alive in the mornings, then by late afternoon they completely deflate. If I try feeding them while they are out, there will be very little reaction. I am used to anemones grabbing on to things, especially food. By about week three they barely come out at all. And soon it looks like they melt away. The last one I had, as soon as I knew it was not going to make it I tried to remove it, but it was firmly attached. It was a deep purple when I got it. By the end it had turned white.

As far as changing my lighting would you bump up the CW (Whit channel) to 15%? Any other suggestion on changing my light setting?

 

[Dolphins18]

After acclimating with a drip system I place them under a ledge out of the light. I figure they will move where they want to be to get the amount of light they need. They usually don't move much. For the first week to two weeks they will come out and look half way alive in the mornings, then by late afternoon they completely deflate. If I try feeding them while they are out, there will be very little reaction. I am used to anemones grabbing on to things, especially food. By about week three they barely come out at all. And soon it looks like they melt away. The last one I had, as soon as I knew it was not going to make it I tried to remove it, but it was firmly attached. It was a deep purple when I got it. By the end it had turned white.

As far as changing my lighting would you bump up the CW (Whit channel) to 15%? Any other suggestion on changing my light setting?

I'd bump it up to 20-30% and put them directly into the light instead of the edge, also don't direcrtly feed at all, not necessary, especially early on.

 

[jvhou]

Will bubble tips and rock flower anemones filter feed, or mostly photosynthesis?

 

[MartinM]

- Definitely more white light (heavy blue just isn’t as healthy for anything, but especially anemones). My anemones definitely prefer white rather than blue

- Put the anemones under light when you introduce them. BTAs, probably 150-300 PAR. Check with a meter.

- Are other invertebrates doing fine in your system? Sometimes heavy metal contamination could be killing more sensitive invertebrates but not affecting others. I’ve had this happen in a system where all snails always died, but everything else was fine.

- What salt mix are you using and how often do you do water changes?

- Using any chemical media? If not, I would use small amounts of quality carbon (I prefer Sechem’s Matrix carbon, changed weekly) I’ve noticed when I don’t do this, my carpets get less happy

- Make sure the anemone isn’t getting blasted by any laminar water streams

- There could be some kind of bacteria in your system that’s infecting them. How long between anemones have you been waiting?

- BTA’s are not filter feeders. Of course they can absorb compounds from the water column, but their primary source of carbon is from photosynthesis

Hope this helps! Anemones are more challenging than most other invertebrates.

 

[BAMatter]

After acclimating with a drip system I place them under a ledge out of the light. I figure they will move where they want to be to get the amount of light they need. They usually don't move much. For the first week to two weeks they will come out and look half way alive in the mornings, then by late afternoon they completely deflate. If I try feeding them while they are out, there will be very little reaction. I am used to anemones grabbing on to things, especially food. By about week three they barely come out at all. And soon it looks like they melt away. The last one I had, as soon as I knew it was not going to make it I tried to remove it, but it was firmly attached. It was a deep purple when I got it. By the end it had turned white.

As far as changing my lighting would you bump up the CW (Whit channel) to 15%? Any other suggestion on changing my light setting?

I’ve read a bit about not drip acclimating nems. I float/dropped mine and it’s doing very well going on 4 months. My clowns finally started hanging out in it the other day actually. Maybe check out your method of putting them in the tank…

 

[MartinM]

Good point, I don’t drip either.

 

[Jimmyneptune]

Have you tried a nem basket? I have one and place it at the top of the tank waterline. I have rubble rock, broken frag plugs, flat frag plugs on the bottom. You can spot feed and they can move around getting the light they want

 

[aimed]

I have been in the hobby for about two years now. I have a 40 gal AIO tank. For lighting I have an AI Hydra 26 that is about 12 inches over the water.

Water stats:
Nitrate 5 ppm
Phosphate .03ppm
Calcium 350 ppm
Alkalinity 9.7 dKH
Salinity 35
Temp 78

Over the past year I have gone through 6 bubble tip anemones from different sources. They never survive for more than a month. Meanwhile my giant clam is doing well, so are various other leather corals, mushrooms, duncans and zoes. I even have a rock flower anemone that is doing fine. I wonder if my lights might be burning them. Included below is my lighting program. Any help would

Hey! I’ve bought from corals anonymous as well. None of the nems I bought from them survived. I bought a couple from members here, and so far so good. Just another data point.