Is my bubble tip Anemone dying?

Andrew_3896 · Oct 19, 2019

I have had this Anemone for just over 2 month. I bought just one and it split in the first couple days. Then it was great for about a month and a half and now they both look like this most of the time.
Here are my parameters.
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-0
Nitrite-0
Ph-8.2
Phosphate-o
Salinity-1.0257
Temperature-78ish

Thanks

Mykawl · Oct 19, 2019

How do you have 0 nutrients what is your nutrient export method?
And do you ever target feed the anemone?

Ubergroover · Oct 19, 2019

what lights do you have?

ScottR · Oct 19, 2019

How old is your tank? Looks quite new.

How stable are those parameters?

Is your lighting that white? And what lighting do you run?

Zero nutrients could mean your tank is too clean

damselindistress · Oct 19, 2019

Do you have a pic of what they looked like when you first got them/it? (I realize it split)

Andrew_3896 · Oct 19, 2019

Mykawl said:
How do you have 0 nutrients what is your nutrient export method?
And do you ever target feed the anemone?

I was using GFO to bring down the phosphate as I was getting a lot of things growing. It did help with that. I heard somewhere that you shouldn’t spot feed anemones for a long time after the are added. Like 6 months, maybe bad advise?

Andrew_3896 · Oct 19, 2019

Ubergroover said:
what lights do you have?

I have an Oceanic Biocube. It has stock lighting.

Andrew_3896 · Oct 19, 2019

ScottR said:
How old is your tank? Looks quite new.

How stable are those parameters?

Is your lighting that white? And what lighting do you run?

Zero nutrients could mean your tank is too clean

The salinity moves up and down a touch and as well as the temperature + - 1.

Everything is stable.

I have an Oceanic Biocube with stock florescent lights. I think the white is 10k and is less then 6 months old

I didn’t really know you could have too clean of a tank.

If it is too clean what do I do about it?

Here is the picture of what it looked like.

Jon Fishman · Oct 19, 2019

I think it needs more light. I agree with the no-feeding idea though

damselindistress · Oct 19, 2019

To me the anemone looks bleached, I’m not an expert though. I do have an anemone in my tank so I have some experience. Are they moving around or have they stayed in one spot? Splitting sometimes happens under stress. What light cycle are you running - hours a day/etc? Do you run actinics or just whites?

if it were me I’d offer small, infrequent feedings to see if it helps it gain strength, I’m talking like a couple of mysis. My anemone will also accept New Life Spectrum pellets, if you have some high quality pellets you might offer a couple of those.

I’ll be honest, based on the color alone it looks to be in not great shape - hopefully I’m wrong, I hope it starts to improve!

Ubergroover · Oct 19, 2019

Andrew_3896 said:
I have an Oceanic Biocube. It has stock lighting.

BTA like high intensity lighting. Mine parked itself directly under a 90 watt kessil led. You may want to consider adding to or replacing your light. The zooxanthellae in them generates food for them. Similar idea to chlorophyll in green land plants.

Andrew_3896 · Oct 20, 2019

Ok so I have added a couple extra led light strips. We will see what happens. If they perk up then I might try spot feeding ever one in a while. Thanks for all your help!!

Ubergroover · Oct 21, 2019

What a healthy BTA should look like.

Deiblerj · Oct 21, 2019

They don’t look terrible, just not great. I would up your light game to something with more power. I have 2 360s over my 40 breeder and I crank them pretty high during the day. All my nems love sitting on top of my rocks soaking up the light.

6 months is kind of early for a nem but it’s possible if you have the right parameters. What is your nitrates, phosphate, PH, etc?

What filtration are you running? Skimmer? Did you use live rock or did you start with dry and cycle?

Biggest thing you can do now is get a decent light to start. Kessil, AI, Radion, maxspect are all great choices if you want to go LED.

Andrew_3896 · Mar 7, 2020

Hi, I know posted this a while ago but I am looking for an update. So I acquired a StevesLed kit for my hood. I have been acclimating the and am almost done.

How do you think the BTA looks now?

Thanks