Dying anemone!
- Thread starter Bboyer180
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Dolphins18
Valuable Member
It is dying. Patience, wait a few months before trying again. That tank looks like it got water yesterday!
You should see cycles of huge amounts of algae cover your rock and once this has all settled down in a few months it is safe to try again. Try to find an aquacultured anemone as well, wild ones are tough.
You should see cycles of huge amounts of algae cover your rock and once this has all settled down in a few months it is safe to try again. Try to find an aquacultured anemone as well, wild ones are tough.
LiveFreeAndReef
Valuable Member
Doesn't look good but it's still in one piece and holding onto the rock so it's not gone yet. Rock looks SUPER new though, how long has the tank been running?
MaxTremors
2500 Club Member
As others mentioned, your tank looks way too immature to successfully keep an anemone. It’s usually recommended you wait a minimum of 6 months to a year, especially if you started with dry rock. It doesn’t look like a completely lost cause yet, is it possible to take it back where you got it (you may not get a refund, but at least it’ll have a chance of surviving). I would recommend waiting a couple more months, and then trying some soft corals, then when you’ve kept those alive for a few months, try some LPS, then once you have some experience under your belt and have kept some corals alive and your tank stable, then maybe try an anemone.
Bboyer180
New Member
I’ve had the tank cycling for a little over a month and the store checked my water and told me I could start putting some creatures in. It makes me mad that they sold me an anemone and 2 clownfish now that I know it takes closer to 6months to properly cycle:/
LiveFreeAndReef
Valuable Member
6 months isn't a definite time period, a magical maturation fairy doesn't break into your home on your tanks 6 month birthday to bless it with the ability to keep anemones happy. What is a definite is that your tank will go through an "ugly stage" where it'll grow algae and that will slowly be replaced (as long as you don't let the algae get out of control) with coralline algae. The growth of coralline is a good sign that your tank has reached a decent level of stability, that's what your anemone will need as well. The "6 month rule" is a complete cop-out and a way to avoid explaining what a stable aquarium actually is. You don't need a mature tank to keep an anemone, just a stable one! When you start seeing coralline algae growing, give an anemone another try
MaxTremors
2500 Club Member
While I agree that maturation can happen sooner than six months or take much longer, and that maturation is difficult to define and quantify, stable parameters aren’t the only reason why I recommend that people wait 6-12 months for more sensitive animals. There is an unknown quality to mature tanks that lends itself to successfully keeping certain more sensitive animals. I don’t know that we’ve really discovered what that is, but it’s more than just stable parameters. I don’t know if it’s bacterial (or a balance of bacteria), a balanced/settled biome/microfauna population, or what exactly, but all things being equal (parameters, lighting, flow, etc) anemones and corals like acropora will always do better in a mature tank vs an immature tank. And this is especially true in tanks started with dry rock.
SlugSnorter
2500 Club Member
params? did you cycle your tank? those rocks are bare white! I used dry rock and even after a few days once putting in lighting schedule rock was covered in algae.Is my BTA dying ? If so, what do I do next? I already had one clownfish die in me a few days into acclimating it into my 90gallon
LiveFreeAndReef
Valuable Member
With the amount of unknowns there, I'd think it's kind of a stretch to use that as fact. A mature tank is definitely a good thing, but if we can't define a mature tank then how do we know when we have one?
MaxTremors
2500 Club Member
It’s kind of just one of those things that when you have it, you know. I think sustained coralline growth is a good indicator, but it’s not the only one. The long term disappearance of nuisance algae and cyano is another. Just because we don’t know what exactly this specific quality of a mature tank is that leads to sensitive corals and anemones doing better doesn’t mean that we can’t observe it effects. This is a phenomenon that is well known amongst long-time reefers, just like how fish disease is generally less deadly and more manageable in a mature tank with real live rock. We may not have discovered the exact mechanism for why this is, but the effect is observable. A properly maintained mature tank will always be better and healthier than a properly maintained immature tank, even with identical parameters.
LiveFreeAndReef
Valuable Member
I get it, I just wish there was more to quantify a mature tank than "you'll know it when you see it" because that doesn't help newer reefers at all.
LiveFreeAndReef
Valuable Member
These anemones were added to a 10 gallon tank that had been running for 2 months. 6 months later, still truckin. The "6 month rule" is a decent guideline, especially for newer reefers that haven't done their research(ugh), but I do believe it should be touted as a guideline, not a requirement.
MaxTremors
2500 Club Member
I agree, and I wish that I could give a less ambiguous answer.
LiveFreeAndReef
Valuable Member
It is what it is lol We'll get there one of these days. That's one of my favorite parts of the hobby, the large number of "unknowns"
