Sick Bubble tip.....help please

[merryj99]

I have been lurking here for a while now and this seems like a great place to get soma advice...

We got a rose bubble tip about 5 months ago, and it was doing great until one day about 3 weeks ago we could not find it, finally after moving all of the rocks we found it tonight and it does not look well. It still has some of its color but it is very small and not bubbled up at all. Our water is fine, I tested everything and there is noting out of the ordinary, the SG is at 1.027 and the temp is at 79. everything else is doing great. we also have a carpet anemone that is just thriving on the other side of the tank.

Not sure what we should do with him now? We do have another tank that we have had running for about 4 years that now has nothing but a piece of rock and sand. I have not tested that tank as we were not sure if we were going to do something with it (it is a 33 gallon). I am really not sure what we should do. I sure do not want it getting behind the rocks again.

Any help would be appreciated.







we have a 75g bow front with 260watts lights 4 - 65 Watt bulbs - 2 daylight and 2 actinic. About 80 lbs of live rock, various types of soft corals, 2 percula clowns, 2 cleaner shrimp, one foxface, one regal tang, one orchid dottyback, 5 chromis, 2 peppermints, various snails and crabs, a sandsifting star.

[fortheloveofcrabs]

Welcome to the board!!


Basically, it sounds like its starving…

So, just a few questions…

How often/what do you feed the anemone?

What kind of lighting do you have?

Flow? My RBTA looks for it, what are you using for circulation?

I dunno, chemical warfare? I’ve heard that carpet anemones are pretty aggressive, but I’m not sure if this is even a possibility… Experts?

The only thing that really jumps out at me is your SG… 1.027 is high, I don’t think that’s what is causing your anemone to hide, but lowering it to 1.024 wouldn’t hurt.


-Pauli

[bv_reefer]

my anemone does that at the last hour of halides but pops back out of his hole when the halides come on in the morning, by the way could it really be chemical warfare when the carpet anemone in so far away?

[merryj99]

How often/what do you feed the anemone?

What kind of lighting do you have?

Flow? My RBTA looks for it, what are you using for circulation?

We were feeding it Mysis and Krill about every 3 days or so until it went MIA

We have a Coralife that is 260watts lights 4 - 65 Watt bulbs - 2 daylight and 2 actinic. We also have moon lights (6 of them)

We have some pretty good flow in the tank.....so that should not be a problem.....

So how can I save him??? he does still have some color, not much but some.....I am not giving up on him yet.

[merryj99]

Thanks for your replies

I have never heard of Chemical warfare in the tank, the Carpet is on one end of the tank and the RBTA is on the other......I will work on the SG and lowering it slowly. Everything else is doing so well, I don't want to put them in shock.....

[Delphinus]

Chemical warfare, or more accurately allelopathy, can happen between two anemone species (or even two non-siblings of the same species) but usually it's more of a factor with the colonial anemones (BTA's) against others (other BTA's, or non-BTA species in the same tank - but usually there needs to be several anemones present for it to occur). Ie. once you have a colony of anemones they may act aggressively in the pursuit of territory. There does not need to be physical contact between the anemones.

It's probably not a factor in this case though.

Sometimes a new anemone can wander. They can be stressed for a while and this leads to wandering (even several months after collection). Or there could be a factor such as a tankmate (or hitchhiker) is somehow pestering the anemone. Usually you don't see wanderlust in captive-split BTA's, but its not uncommon in newly imported BTA's. If the attachment point isn't completely to their liking (flow, texture of substrate, lighting, etc.) they may wander. Sometimes they do wander under the rockwork and can't re-emerge on their own and become bleached. This sounds like what you've got happening.

They can recover from this, it will likely take several weeks or even a few months to recover fully, but they can recover. Just try to ensure the attachment point meets BTA requirements, continue feeding, and it should bounce back.

In the case of a BTA, usually the preferred attachment point includes a cave, overhang or crevasse between rocks. They like to move their oral disk and tentacles out into flow and the light, but prefer to keep their pedal disk (the "foot") protected and away from flow and light. They do like their tentacles out in flow but typically not as much as other anemones. Certainly nothing like being near the output of a pump or powerhead, they'll hate that. Getting the right amount of flow is hard to describe. You need some, but not too much, and sometimes experimentation is needed to find the right balance.

The main thing though is that they like to bury the foot into a crevasse or cave, so if you can try to make a spot like that, hopefully it will find it and like it.

Good luck!

[andresont]

All of the above are good points.
Although it might look like easy to keep they require as much care as SPS corals.
An animal would not move for no reason, something had changed; think about what did you change in the tank. Did you move rocks, changed flow or lighting intensity?
May be water change is due? Chemical warfare is definitely a possibility and you should use chemical filtration regardless if you have mixed species tank.
Your main goals would be:
1-Clean water (chemical filtration http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/details/additives.php?product_ID=bd-cpre10 , activated carbon, phosphate removal, skimming and regular water changes)
2-Flow (some species like more some are looking for quiet place, do your research
3- Feeding; if anemone does not take food do Not force it its mouth, just do you water changes regularly. If it does not eat try small particulate food like ReefRoids http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/details/food.php?product_ID=plb-rr004, or this http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/details/food.php?product_ID=DT-OE15 , so anemone can get some food with the flow.
JMTCW

[Pescador]

Mine sometimes hide and shrink quite a bit before they split.
Has it been eating a lot up until now?

[merryj99]

Well we made him a "suitable" place to be (I think) and he has blown up some and is looking better, he is definitely bleached out, there is not a lot of rose color in him, but hopefully that will get better with time. He is in a space that has a small cave and is in a med flow area close to the light. He has not moved from there all night or all day.

Thanks for all the help! We can only cross our fingers now that this works.

Thanks again!

[merryj99]

Well he sat there for a day and a half and now he is back on the bottom of the tank, not sure if he fell off or crawled off. Should we put him back or leave him. He is at least getting a bit bigger, but is really bleached out. I would hate to see it die.

I just don't want to have it hide again.

[Delphinus]

Can you manage a picture?

[merryj99]

The lights are off in the tank now, but I will get one in the AM