RBTA.... help (too little too late unfortunately)

[doch]

So... I've apparently done something wrong. My new RBTA has died. I'm VERY upset about the whole situation. I have no idea what I did wrong. I'll fill you in on the details... maybe someone out there can tell me where I screwed up.
90gal tank been set up for about 4 months now. Chemistry is all good. Maroon clown hosting in RBTA (while it was alive) 260W power compact on for about 12 hours/day, then lunar lights on 24 hours/day (probably no effect, but why not mention it) I put it in the center of my tank and it tripled in size over the first day. Hardly moved at all (maybe 2 inches or so. Day 2: Still huge. Day 3 came home in the morning (before lights had come on) and found it all shrivelled up... to the point that I thought it was dead then. Left it be as it was still attached to a rock. It stayed shrivelled up all day until the lights were about to go out, and then perked up (not as big, but gave me hope) Day 4 EARLY in the morning, woke up to find it still looking OK. Came home from work to find him shrivelled up. Day 5 about 7pm found it looking decent, but found 2 very distinct discs (couldn't tell if there were 2 mouths. I was relieved thinking that this whole situation was due to it splitting!!! Day 6 Shrivelled. All evidence of second disc gone, RBTA had moved to back, dark part of the tank. Day 7, came home to find it on the ground shrivelled (but still red) and not looking well. Reached in and found there to be a hole right through it. Clown fish still very protective of it. Disposed of it.
Anyone out there that can fill me in I would greatly appreciate it.
My only theories are light and pH fluctuations caused problems, but realistically, I have NO IDEA what went wrong. An RBTA is something that I VERY badly want in my tank. Hopefully I can try again... with help maybe????

Thanks for any help.

[doch]

One more thing... On day 2 or so I gave it a cube of squid. Took a few tries to get it to fully stick, but it ate the whole thing.

[medic_eva]

well, all i can say for the next time (i know it's not any consolation for this) is wait until your tank is at least a year old and all your levels are absolutely constant. that's what i've heard in general about anemones. that really sucks though. sorry to hear it! also, was it maybe just splitting? i think i've heard something about them splitting, maybe someone knows better.

good luck with your tank!

eva

[Salinity Now]

This is a pretty good read, hopefully it helps. http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf

[Rikko]

They tend to be fairly tough little buggers, I'm surprised you lost him given the quality of your setup and monitoring. Do you have any other corals in there whose behaviour might give you an indication of overall water quality? I find xenia great for that.

How long was your acclimation? A poorly acclimated animal can take days to show symptoms.

[Delphinus]

The fact of the matter is that you may well have done nothing wrong.

Anemones that are sold tend not to be captive clones, but rather, recently collected and imported specimens. These guys are suffering a lot of stress and a lot simply don't make the transition from the pristine wild to captive conditions. Those that do, tend to be very hardy, but many in fact most probably do not make it.

A new tank is undergoing a lot of flux, and it takes several months, really, for it to truly stabilize into anything resembling a sort of equilibrium. That's why some people (myself included) tend to recommend waiting 6 months to a year. There's also a secondary benefit, during those 6-12 months you're probably reading, plus experimenting on your tank, and so on, and at the end of that you're far better armed than you were at the beginning. I'm not saying that this is what happened here, I'm just explaining why I tell people to wait six months.

Trust me, your lighting did not kill the anemone, so eliminate that worry right away. Lighting (or lack thereof) can not kill within a couple of days.

The feeding the squid thing right away is maybe something I wouldn't have done. Squid is a heavy meaty food. I've found that with new specimens, due to the stress of collection/shipping/multiple-tanks-along-the-way-to-your-home, sometimes the metabolism just isn't there yet while in the adjustment period. The risk here is that the food may decompose faster than it can be digested, opening the door to some kind of opportunistic infection.

But then, it may have been doomed from the get-go. It's hard to say.

Anyhow I'm sorry for your loss, don't be too discouraged. Sometimes it just happens.

[Bob I]

That shrivelling thing is very common. It does not mean it is dead. Both the RBTA's I had did that regularly. All I did was leave them alone, and they came back later.

[Delphinus]

Well .. shrivelling in and of itself. But a hole through the middle... that's probably not good.

But basically I think Bob does have a point: an anemone is only well and truly "dead" if it is a pile of snotty, smelly goo. If there is any integrity to the flesh, then it's not dead (not yet anyhow). Something to keep in mind I suppose.

[doch]

So... From what I gather next time don't feed it until it is a little more established, make sure that everything is very stable, and I should be OK? I hope so... I really want one! To answer Rikko: the only other problem that I have noticed is that my Finger Leather doesn't like to open up very often. I don't know if this is a common thing, but it has been like that basically since I got it so I stopped worrying about it months ago. As well, ther is a little group of coral (one of those ones that you pay no attention to - came on a chunk of rock, isn't very nice and is pretty small) has disappeared.... dead I assume? Delphinus: It still did have colour and distinct tentacles and looked like an amemone, but it was very shrivelled and the hole through the moddle of it was about an inch in dieameter.... I would have been able to put at least 2 fingers through it. I contemplated keeping it to see what would happen just in case there was enough life left in it, but due to the whole I figured that I was just asking to have an amonia spike if and when it officially died.... so I turfed it. The crappy part is that because of how it was acting for the first couple of days I thought "WOW, that thing is doing AWESOME!!!" Damnit. Anyways, Thanks again for all the tips, hopefully next time I'll have a little better luck!

[doch]

Something else I just thought of... I use tap water. Could this have been a problem?