Rock anemone melting

[Baby Ray]

Ignore the porcelain crab molting.

This is an example from this morning where the anemone detaches from the rock, and then their foot swells up like this and they shrivel up if that helps

It seriously feels like whatever this is is spreading from anemone to anemone because they are getting ill one by one and the RFA that us away from the rest is still in normal health

 

[Rocks reef]

I just measured nitrates and they are pretty low. Only around 1 or 2

I do have some macro algae in the tank that could be using a lot of it ok.

I unfortunately don’t have a phosphate test.

Nitrites are harmless in a reef tank.
Nitrates are what we are asking for.
I would still like to know what your phosphate is.
If they are both bottomed out, they are starving to death.

 

[Rocks reef]

What lights are you running?
Type of filtration?
Any shrimp in the tank… most importantly peppermint shrimp?

 

[Baby Ray]

I feed all of the anemones several times a week. The porcelain anemone crabs also have to provide some sort of nutrients as well.

I have kept RFA in another system for years and years and fed them less than I have been feeding these

They are also photosynthetic so I just can’t imagine they are starving to death.

As I stated before, I unfortunately don’t have a phosphate test

 

[Baby Ray]

Well the last of my anemones just let go of the rock after not having looked well all day.

Like I said before, they’ve almost been systematically dying off 1 by 1.

Is there anybody who has had any experience with RFA anemone diseases because I can’t imagine it’s anything else.

If they were starving, or it was some change in the environment, wouldn’t at least some of them start to show signs at the same time?

It seemed like a chain reaction how one would start to look bad, slowly wither away, and as soon as it was almost fully gone, the one next to it would start to show the same early stage signs and then soon after left go of the rock.

 

[Baby Ray]

What is it with people reacting to posts

Some actual hell would have been nice.

Now I’m $160 down the drain and the favorite part of my tank is gone

 

[tbrown]

Unfortunately it sounds like you had a bacterial infection run through your RFAs. As far as treatment most of us have very little experience with treating Anemones. Sometime disease sets in and there's not much that can done once it starts running through the tank. I'm sorry for your loss. Something to consider might be a DNA test to.see what potential diseases are in your tank water or an ICP test to check for any parameters that might out of line.

Have you done any in-tank treatments for anything?

 

[BonnieB]

I don't know if this is what's causing your problems or not, but I remember a post from Randy Holmes-Farley that suggested that imported RFA's don't do well long term, and it's best to try to get RFA's that have been collected from the Florida area:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/rock-flower-anemone-deaths.1121580/post-13751696
If you need more RFA's in the future, @coralmonsters.judy often has stunning RFA's that they collect from Florida waters. If I can ever get my butt in gear I'm going to do a small tank focused on some of these RFA's and maybe some Sexy Shrimp. Check these out, she just updated their stock list with some RFA's this morning:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/c...looza-what-a-stock-list.1154450/post-14289154
Good luck!

@coralmonsters.judy is the best!

 

[Baby Ray]

Unfortunately it sounds like you had a bacterial infection run through your RFAs. As far as treatment most of us have very little experience with treating Anemones. Sometime disease sets in and there's not much that can done once it starts running through the tank. I'm sorry for your loss. Something to consider might be a DNA test to.see what potential diseases are in your tank water or an ICP test to check for any parameters that might out of line.

Have you done any in-tank treatments for anything?

I have never done any sort of treatment in this tank.

I considered Cipro but I figured the damage was most likely done and I didn’t want to put the health of the other inhabitants at risk.

Do you know of any time frame that I could wait to ensure this bacterial infection has fully starved itself before thinking about adding RFA again, instead of paying for a DNA test?

I would rather just wait it out to ensure that whatever this infection was is completely gone.

 

[tbrown]

It likely depends on the strain of bacteria if it is a bacterial infection.

@Jay Hemdal any thoughts on RFA potential infections?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

It likely depends on the strain of bacteria if it is a bacterial infection.

@Jay Hemdal any thoughts on RFA potential infections?

Sorry, I also don’t have experience with RFA diseases……it does sound like a primary bacterial disease.

 

[Rocks reef]

I feed all of the anemones several times a week. The porcelain anemone crabs also have to provide some sort of nutrients as well.

I have kept RFA in another system for years and years and fed them less than I have been feeding these

They are also photosynthetic so I just can’t imagine they are starving to death.

As I stated before, I unfortunately don’t have a phosphate test

The zoox needs food to "feed" the RFAs.... if nutrients are bottomed out...

 

[Baby Ray]

I feed all of the anemones several times a week. The porcelain anemone crabs also have to provide some sort of nutrients as well.

I have kept RFA in another system for years and years and fed them less than I have been feeding these

They are also photosynthetic so I just can’t imagine they are starving to death.

As I stated before, I unfortunately don’t have a phosphate test

The zoox needs food to "feed" the RFAs.... if nutrients are bottomed out...

Yeah, and like I said I had been feeding them several times a week.

And have had rock anemones in a different system that I fed much less and they did just fine until I broke that tank down

 

[Rocks reef]

Well the last of my anemones just let go of the rock after not having looked well all day.

Like I said before, they’ve almost been systematically dying off 1 by 1.

Is there anybody who has had any experience with RFA anemone diseases because I can’t imagine it’s anything else.

If they were starving, or it was some change in the environment, wouldn’t at least some of them start to show signs at the same time?

It seemed like a chain reaction how one would start to look bad, slowly wither away, and as soon as it was almost fully gone, the one next to it would start to show the same early stage signs and then soon after left go of the rock.

Are they melting or just releasing from the rocks?
You never mentioned your lighting and/or nutrients after I asked.

What is it with people reacting to posts

Some actual hell would have been nice.

Now I’m $160 down the drain and the favorite part of my tank is gone

We were trying to help you.
People asked you for more information, of which, it was not received. I'm sorry you lost your RFAs.

 

[Baby Ray]

I did in fact mention my nutrients

 

[Rocks reef]

I have never done any sort of treatment in this tank.

I considered Cipro but I figured the damage was most likely done and I didn’t want to put the health of the other inhabitants at risk.

Do you know of any time frame that I could wait to ensure this bacterial infection has fully starved itself before thinking about adding RFA again, instead of paying for a DNA test?

I would rather just wait it out to ensure that whatever this infection was is completely gone.

You can bring a sick gig or mag back with Cipro, the RFAs would have rebounded well....IF... it was a pathogen.
Also, where did you purchase these RFAs?

 

[Baby Ray]

I got one from my local fish store and the others from a Reefing USA frag swap.

I forget the vendor and I paid in cash so no way to go back and see.

 

[Rocks reef]

I did in fact mention my nutrients

Sort of... yes on one occasion.
You said your Nitrates are 'around 1-2'
Phosphates weren't mentioned
Nitrites which aren't a concern in a reef tank were ... 0.05
Temperature wasn't mentioned
Salinity wasn't mentioned

I inquired about lighting and filtration, not answered.

I know it is probably too late, but.

How old is the tank?
You said you had a clownfish that died and this when you started to notice a difference, correct?

 

[Rocks reef]

I got one from my local fish store and the others from a Reefing USA frag swap.

I forget the vendor and I paid in cash so no way to go back and see.

Is this the same place you purchased the clown from?

 

[Baby Ray]

I did in fact mention my nutrients

Sort of... yes on one occasion.
You said your Nitrates are 'around 1-2'
Phosphates weren't mentioned
Nitrites which aren't a concern in a reef tank were ... 0.05
Temperature wasn't mentioned
Salinity wasn't mentioned

I inquired about lighting and filtration, not answered.

I know it is probably too late, but.

How old is the tank?
You said you had a clownfish that died and this when you started to notice a difference, correct?

Yeah, the tank is around a year old. The clownfish jumped so it wasn’t like something in the tank killed it.

I did check everything and I said that all other conditions have been stable during the entire life of the tank.

And I said I don’t have a phosphate test and didn’t have a way to acquire one quick enough