bubble tip anemone

[jiggly75]

Hey all! I'm new here, and kinda new to the whole reef tank thing. But from what I have read so far everyone seems pretty helpful. So here's my problem, hopefully somebody can help me.We have a 55 gal. tank and we recently bought a bubble tip anemone and the maroon clown that was living in him. We have had them for about 2 weeks now. Well over the last couple of days my anemone is almost shrunken to the point where it looks dead then after a couple of hrs it comes back to life, but today when i came home it was shrunken all up again, so i fed it (my pet store guy says to feed it silver sides, if anyone has something better that works let me know) so after i fed it a couple of hours later it came back to life again. But it hasnt been opening up as much as it used to. All of our water tests come up fine. If anybody has some advice or suggestions on this I would be so grateful.thanks very much

[patsfan1130]

Hey all! I'm new here, and kinda new to the whole reef tank thing. But from what I have read so far everyone seems pretty helpful. So here's my problem, hopefully somebody can help me.We have a 55 gal. tank and we recently bought a bubble tip anemone and the maroon clown that was living in him. We have had them for about 2 weeks now. Well over the last couple of days my anemone is almost shrunken to the point where it looks dead then after a couple of hrs it comes back to life, but today when i came home it was shrunken all up again, so i fed it (my pet store guy says to feed it silver sides, if anyone has something better that works let me know) so after i fed it a couple of hours later it came back to life again. But it hasnt been opening up as much as it used to. All of our water tests come up fine. If anybody has some advice or suggestions on this I would be so grateful.thanks very much

Your going to have to give some info. I know you say your water is testing fine but please tell us water parameters. It is completely normal for an anemone to expell their water and replace. When they do this they shrivel up to almost nothing and look near death. They will generally will do this every couple days but again frequency will vary with each anemone. How does it's foot look? does it look like it is discintegrating? (sp) How does the mouth look? does it look like it is spitting it's guts out? or is the mouth wide open? and color? is it transparent like? is it attached to something or just rolling around aimlessly? all of these are classic signs of a sick anemone. If none of them are present and water quality does not suggest the problem..I would watch it carefully and continue to feed (silversides always work best for me).

Mark

[jiggly75]

well, i'll have to get to back to you on water param. hubby does those. its foot is attached to a rock about half way up in tank, the foot is the same size as when i got it. The mouth kinda looks puckered, its peachy colored with white stripes going up the mouth. its now spewing anything that ive noticed. but the clown is still happy with it.

[patsfan1130]

well, i'll have to get to back to you on water param. hubby does those. its foot is attached to a rock about half way up in tank, the foot is the same size as when i got it. The mouth kinda looks puckered, its peachy colored with white stripes going up the mouth. its now spewing anything that ive noticed. but the clown is still happy with it.

Can you take a pic?

[jiggly75]

i tried once to take a pic of my brain coral, didnt work well, but i can have hubby take a pic, he's much better than me at the mechanical workings lol.

[Subskipper]

Not sure if this helps or not because I am a newbie but I have had the EXACT problem on all three of my anenomes. They seem to do this about once a week, get me real concerned and then I wake up to find them full and happy. I have had these guys since Feb and they seem pretty healthy. My LFS guy says its normal, especially if you add zooplankton to the tank for feeding filter feeders.

Subskipper

[jiggly75]

my hubby took some pics of it but i dont how to post them. could some body help me pls. thanks

[zhenya]

my hubby took some pics of it but i dont how to post them. could some body help me pls. thanks

Bellow the window where you type your message you'll find a button that says "Manage Attachments", click on it and it should open another window with 5 "browse" buttons. Click on the "browse" button and it should allow you upload picture from your hard drive(you should be aware where they are stored) by double clicking on the pic. If you still having difficulties, just email it to me and I'll posted for you.

Another way to do it is to upload your picture in your gallery here on Reefland and then uploading from there using [img] url address of the picture [/img] tags.

[jiggly75]

well i got some pics on my gallery. but still couldnt figure out how to get them on this thread. also how do i remove pics from my gallery so i can make room for a few others that were better. thks

[zhenya]

well i got some pics on my gallery. but still couldnt figure out how to get them on this thread. also how do i remove pics from my gallery so i can make room for a few others that were better. thks

Ok, step by step ;)- first you click on your image in your gallery to loaded full size,then right click on it and select properties from the drop down menu.In the properties dialog box highlight URL address and right click on the highlighted part,select copy from the drop down menu. Just above the window where you type your message you'll find some icons that are used in the VB code-click on the square icon with the mountain in it and another window will open(user prompt dialog box).In it you'll see a narrow window so now you richt click anywhere in that window and select 'paste' from the drop down menu---you are done Something like this should be in the text of your message [img]url[/img].
You can click on 'preview post' button to check if it worked and, if satisfied, click on submit post/reply.

Now, if you like some pictures to be deleted PM me and I'll take care of it for you.Just give me titles for the pictures ;)

Hope this helps and if not,please post again or PM me and we can go through this again.

[jiggly75]

ok ty, i got that figured out now. could u plz send me instructions on how to remove some from my gallery????? tyvm

[Reefland]

You can contact Papa Doug, zhenya or myself via e-mail or PM if you need some pictures removed.

You may also be interested in this link:
http://www.reefland.com/donate.php?

Scott Z

[jiggly75]

thanks for getting rid of those pics for me. i will definately think about donating if it means i can delete pics myself.

[LazyReef]

Hi.
I have a bubble tip. sometimes they close up. At night they receed. I reccomend that you maintain alkalinity and calcium (buffer system) at optimal parameters. This is important even for non calcareous reef creatures. Anemones get 95% or so of their food from the symbiont algae living in its tissue. You must have light. I use 2-110watt 50/50s. They need flow. Where is yours anemone positioning itself? bottom, top of rock, moving around a lot?
When I first got mine it disapeared for a week. Thought he was dead. He reapeared a week later. It had crawled around the back of the rock and found a new position. It has been there ever since.

If you want to feed it, they love octopus tetnacles and shrimp. Mine eats fish food too. I get my fish from the market. They do catch phytoplanton in the water. If you had a refugia that produced some living food for your anemone, he would be happier. This is the first time I have been successful for this long with an anemone. I have found them very difficult to keep for long periods. Goood luck.

[Reefland]

thanks for getting rid of those pics for me. i will definately think about donating if it means i can delete pics myself.

It doesn't allow you to delete pictures however the need to would be non-existant as you would then have unlimited space to upload pictures; no limits.

[jiggly75]

well not sure what was wrong with anemone, but today he was sickly looking still, but after a few hrs he moved himself to a new spot on the rock. now hes moved down closer to the bottom towards the back. kinda of hard to see him now, but hes open all the way back up to how he looked when i first got him. hopefully it will stay healthy looking

[lkbragg]

Many years ago I tried to keep anemones alive never able to succeed for very long. There have been great strides in the hobby since then. I now have reinvested in the hobby with a 55 gal. I have a bubbletip with a great clown that was placed when I bought him in a hole which was in the middle of a rock. Sometimes he's all out of one side of the rock, other times he splits himself, 1/2 on one side of the rock and 1/2 on the other side. I have the rock on it's side so that no matter which side he goes on he's still lighted. I want so much to be successful with this anemone thus I have extremely important questions and I so hope you can help. First I've read about what bubbletips prefer, but after seeing Gene's anemone tank where they've taken over I'm completely prepared to hear his/y'all's advice. What should the tank parameters be? Alkalinity? Temp? Magnesium or iron or trace elements? I put zooplanktin in 1 cap a day. Calcium? What are silversides? The clown has tried to feed him raw shrimp and he's not interested. If I know exactly what the water should be supplied with it would be so helpful giving the anemone what he needs. Thanks, Lynda

[lkbragg]

I must let everyone know a very, very sad lesson I learned. Because my clown seemed to be just wearing my bubble tip anemone out I bought another bubbletip. He looked great, but when people say they move around, they do. And that they may move around to their death, they can. I read about how the nozzles on your filter that does the sucking can lead to an anemone's death. I thought they must have been talking about a large power head, they weren't! The next morning my anemone was everywhere, just pieces of him from being sucked to that powerhead. My powerhead was just regular size and it totally demolished my anenome. Please be careful!!

[zhenya]

Hi lkbragg,




Sorry to hear of one of your anemones demise.., they do roam around the tank if not happy with the placement.

What should the tank parameters be? Alkalinity? Temp? Magnesium or iron or trace elements? I put zooplanktin in 1 cap a day. Calcium? What are silversides?

Normal water parameters for natural sea water would be ideal for all of your invertebrates that you intend to keep. Alkalinity of 2.7-3.0 meq/L and Ca at 400-425ppm should be fine. Magnesium of 1150-1300ppm is fine as well. I keep my anemone tank at around 80-82 degrees without any issues.
As far as silversides go, it is a small, seasonal feeder fish that LFS sels frozen in a flats. Here's what they look like defrosted.

[Seige]

Sorry to hear about your anemone. I think I've pretty much ruled out getting one for my 55g tank. Still haven't finalized my decision but I'm leaning that way.