Sad anemones

[ReefJCB]

I’ve got 3 clones of the same anemone. 1 is thriving and the other 2 are just doing terrible.

A little background:

Last October I completely redid my rockwork and sand. I had cycled the rock in brute cans with bacteria and ghost feeding die about 2 months. My corals struggled after the change but nothing died. 2 of my 3 anemone clones have just withered away to nothing shortly after and have been the size of a dime since.

One clone is doing really well, and all my corals have bounced back.

Any suggestions for helping them out?

Alk 10 dkh
pH 8.0 8.2
Phosphate 0.10
Nitrate 15
Calcium 400
par 300-350 ish

 

[chizerbunoi]

My suggestion is to look at your fish tank routine. Go back to the pure basics of WC, maintain the big 3 Cal, Alk, MG and keep No3/P04 in good measure. Have stable temperature, salinity, lighting and flow. Don’t feed them. Don’t add extra doses of stuff that is not needed unless for your other inhabitants.

See if there is any improvement. If the mouths are gaping and they are expelling then it’s possible that they could be sick. Search for pics of sick anemones as comparisons.

BTA are pretty bullet proof. They can go through powerheads and survive as multiple pieces. Best of luck.

I personally think the shock to the bacteria in your tank caused an upset. But since one is still doing well, I recommend this to bring them back.

 

[Taylor t]

When ever there’s a problem, the most sure fire way to stabilize is consistent water changes. Do consistent water changes to stabilize the system. Use your gut feel. When I have issues, water changes always brings them back. It’s work. Even when your test kits say everything’s ok, there’s other things that go on that can’t be explained with tests. Water changes for me always works. For me, once things are stable, I can go long periods with no changes at all. It’s a constant balancing act. For me, I’ve had times where water changes for weeks on end were needed, then many months can go by with none. It’s not a one size fits all.

 

[ReefJCB]

When ever there’s a problem, the most sure fire way to stabilize is consistent water changes. Do consistent water changes to stabilize the system. Use your gut feel. When I have issues, water changes always brings them back. It’s work. Even when your test kits say everything’s ok, there’s other things that go on that can’t be explained with tests. Water changes for me always works. For me, once things are stable, I can go long periods with no changes at all. It’s a constant balancing act. For me, I’ve had times where water changes for weeks on end were needed, then many months can go by with none. It’s not a one size fits all.

I’m doing weekly 15-20% water changes. Almost every weekend. Test parameters weekly too, everything has been pretty dang stable.

 

[ReefJCB]

My suggestion is to look at your fish tank routine. Go back to the pure basics of WC, maintain the big 3 Cal, Alk, MG and keep No3/P04 in good measure. Have stable temperature, salinity, lighting and flow. Don’t feed them. Don’t add extra doses of stuff that is not needed unless for your other inhabitants.

See if there is any improvement. If the mouths are gaping and they are expelling then it’s possible that they could be sick. Search for pics of sick anemones as comparisons.

BTA are pretty bullet proof. They can go through powerheads and survive as multiple pieces. Best of luck.

I personally think the shock to the bacteria in your tank caused an upset. But since one is still doing well, I recommend this to bring them back.

My husbandry isn’t perfect, but I’m pretty on top of things. Mostly Stable parameters (with the exception of a pretty big Alk swing last month due to a screw up in my dosing schedule). Weekly water changes, weekly water tests, even sent in an ICP test.

Everything else seems to be doing really well with the exception of one monti cap. Even my Acros have been growing like weeds the last few months. These 2 clones just don’t want to bounce back like everything else.

 

[chizerbunoi]

I see your journal that you had Dino’s last month. What did you do in response to it? There must be a link towards the anemones reason and changes last month. Another is if the angels decided to nip on the nem.

Nice tank build BTW.

 

[athew]

Have you tried spot feeding the anemones? I feed mine with frozen shrimp bought from grocery store. I slice shrimp and use wooden skews to feed. This may help your nems and it definitely help my nems though I have different kind of anemones.

 

[ReefJCB]

I see your journal that you had Dino’s last month. What did you do in response to it? There must be a link towards the anemones reason and changes last month. Another is if the angels decided to nip on the nem.

Nice tank build BTW.

Thank you!

My Dinos are large cell amph. I’ve been dosing silicate to get a diatom bloom, dosing phytoplankton and copepods, and dosing macrobacter7. Recently got new powerheads, the increased flow seems to be helping.

I haven’t noticed the pyramid butterfly nip, and they are normally considered reef safe but it’s always a possibility.

These nems definitely struggled with my redoing the rockwork, that was the start. But they haven’t bounced back like everthing else, especially their 3rd clone.

 

[ReefJCB]

Have you tried spot feeding the anemones? I feed mine with frozen shrimp bought from grocery store. I slice shrimp and use wooden skews to feed. This may help your nems and it definitely help my nems though I have different kind of anemones.

The two small ones definitely wouldn’t be able to get anything in their mouth. There’s virtually no tentacles. I do feed the clone that’s doing well reef roids occasionally.

Yours look great though!