Sick bubble tip anemone?

FreedomLantern · Apr 2, 2020

We have a 60 gallon tank that has been setup for roughly 3 weeks. We have some older fish (two clowns and a damsel) that we transferred to a smaller tank for ich treatment, and we emptied the display tank. (Kept empty for two months). After finishing the ich treatment, we refilled the 60 gallon display tank; added those fish back in and they're doing fine. Two weeks ago we purchased an anemone and some other fish (these are in quarantine right now being treated for ich). Well the anemone doesn't seem to be doing so great, the clown fish love it but some of it's tentacles appear to be shriveling up.

We've been feeding it shrimp every couple days (just figured that out anemones don't need fed that often). Wondering what's going on and what we can do to help it? Just added some Quick Start (live nitrifying bacteria) because the (live) sand was dried and washed while the fish were in a bare bottom quarantine tank. We also seem to have diatoms or brown algae in our tank (on the sand mostly) so we are vacuuming and changing the water 20% twice a week. The replacement water is RODI.

Appreciate any feedback,
Thanks!

Copingwithpods · Apr 2, 2020

Usually when you qt fish you leave your display running, in your case this would of helped your tank mature a little. By emptying it and drying it out you killed off any algae and bacteria in the tank. What you have now is a new tank that hasn't cycled and probably won't be able to deal with the big food additions (shrimp for the nem) probably best to stop feeding it for now. I'd test all parameters and see where your ammonia nitrite and Nitrate phosphate are. Also nems usually don't do well in New tanks, much less tanks that haven't cycled.

I'm not too sure but if you had ich in the display it is possible for it to have remained alive in an area of the sand or rock that never completely dried out. Not sure so hopefully someone will chime in on that.

Hemmdog · Apr 2, 2020

Copingwithpods said:
Usually when you qt fish you leave your display running, in your case this would of helped your tank mature a little. By emptying it and drying it out you killed off any algae and bacteria in the tank. What you have now is a new tank that hasn't cycled and probably won't be able to deal with the big food additions (shrimp for the nem) probably best to stop feeding it for now. I'd test all parameters and see where your ammonia nitrite and Nitrate phosphate are. Also nems usually don't do well in New tanks, much less tanks that haven't cycled.

I'm not too sure but if you had ich in the display it is possible for it to have remained alive in an area of the sand or rock that never completely dried out. Not sure so hopefully someone will chime in on that.

+1

ScottR · Apr 2, 2020

+1 @Copingwithpods

To which I’ll add, what lights are running? Anemones are very finicky about parameters as well and usually need an established tank and take a good bit of skill in keeping.

FreedomLantern · Apr 3, 2020

Copingwithpods said:
Usually when you qt fish you leave your display running, in your case this would of helped your tank mature a little. By emptying it and drying it out you killed off any algae and bacteria in the tank. What you have now is a new tank that hasn't cycled and probably won't be able to deal with the big food additions (shrimp for the nem) probably best to stop feeding it for now. I'd test all parameters and see where your ammonia nitrite and Nitrate phosphate are. Also nems usually don't do well in New tanks, much less tanks that haven't cycled.

I'm not too sure but if you had ich in the display it is possible for it to have remained alive in an area of the sand or rock that never completely dried out. Not sure so hopefully someone will chime in on that.

We tested for ammonia and it is no greater than 0.25 ppm (not zero however). Unfortunately we don't have any reliable test kits for nitrite, nitrate or phosphates.

The rocks were dried for two months, so I don't think any ich would have survived. It just seemed better to have it completely dry off at the time (though the ich probably would not have survived in a fish less tank anyway).

ScottR said:
+1 @Copingwithpods

To which I’ll add, what lights are running? Anemones are very finicky about parameters as well and usually need an established tank and take a good bit of skill in keeping.

We have a 35 watt Fluval 2.0 LED light strip that we usually run at 2/3 power to keep cyano under control. Usually about 12 hours a day.

drac13 · Apr 4, 2020

is my anemone dead ,
I had a ammonia issue and changed water about 40% yesterday , anemone was not happy about that and shrinked , [this used to happen whever i do water changed but it gets back normal after few days] , today woke up it was upside down and like in the photo ;

my tank is a nano one ,34Liters : with good enough lighting,skimmer, wavemaker etc ;