New Anemone looks sad

duskpaw · Mar 2, 2021

Hey guys I’m new here so forgive me if I’m a bit slow! I got this long tentacle anemone afew days ago but it’s been acting really sad! It’s been pretty deflated and I noticed today that it’s mouth is open. My tank is 8 months old, and I set it up with live sand and live rock from the start. I don’t have a chemical test kit, I just check with strips and everything looks good but the nitrates are alittle high. My refractometer reads 1.022 for salinity. I have a 55 gallon tank with admittedly not the best lighting. My lighting is a t8 bulb as well as a Fluval Aquasky from an old 29 gallon affixed over the half of the aquarium that has the anemone. How can I help out my anemone?

Birdbrains? · Mar 2, 2021

Hi there, it could be the macrodactyla is just trying to settle in. Especially the smaller nems can be a little low on energy while fixing all of their tissue to the new conditions. Turning up the blues usually make the macrodactylas stretch out and go "flat", so if your light can do it, you can try turning it up and down and see if the nem is completely ignoring it or if it triggers the tissue to unfold. If it does trigger the unfold, it will probably pull back in and return to digging in the foot or whatever it was doing.

Even if it is healthy and doing fine, you can expect it to collapse and unfold while getting used to the flow in your tank, so it can get all its tissue aligned optimally with the new conditions.

What kind of power head(s) do you have going?

I would suggest you give it time and just keep a close eye on it. In case you see tissue beginning to rot, it will ofc. pollute the water quickly and pose a risk to other stuff in the tank but if you don't see any decay of the tissue, just allow it some more time before letting it ruin your nerve.

Good luck

dvgyfresh · Mar 2, 2021

Nothing to b alarmed about yet but some issues, need better test kits than the strip to really kno levels for magnesium , calcium, alkalinity , phosphate. Without the test kits you won’t be able to pinpoint a problem. Salinity can be increased to 1.025, and lastly you mentioned it yrself but may have to upgrade lighting. Nitrates are ok anemone need it fo food

duskpaw · Mar 2, 2021

Birdbrains? said:
Hi there, it could be the macrodactyla is just trying to settle in. Especially the smaller nems can be a little low on energy while fixing all of their tissue to the new conditions. Turning up the blues usually make the macrodactylas stretch out and go "flat", so if your light can do it, you can try turning it up and down and see if the nem is completely ignoring it or if it triggers the tissue to unfold. If it does trigger the unfold, it will probably pull back in and return to digging in the foot or whatever it was doing.

Even if it is healthy and doing fine, you can expect it to collapse and unfold while getting used to the flow in your tank, so it can get all its tissue aligned optimally with the new conditions.

What kind of power head(s) do you have going?

I would suggest you give it time and just keep a close eye on it. In case you see tissue beginning to rot, it will ofc. pollute the water quickly and pose a risk to other stuff in the tank but if you don't see any decay of the tissue, just allow it some more time before letting it ruin your nerve.

Good luck

Hi! Thank you for responding! I’ll try turning down the blues alittle bit. The one I have let’s me adjust the white light, the green, red, and blue. I’ll post a screencap here of how I have the lights throughout the day.
For the power heads- I have one on the left which is a marineland 1140 and then I have another one on the right which is attached to my protein skimmer

Birdbrains? · Mar 3, 2021

You're welcome, that all sounds good. I have used the trick before, with turning up and down the lighting, to see if newly introduced nem had energy left to move. If nothing else, it offers some piece of mind for the owner to see the nem move alittle.

And the macrodactyla doesn't look too bad, I would try to not be concerned yet. They do, especially the smaller ones, tend to be a bit slow in getting organised.

I guess it will want to "know" how the currents are acting in your tank before choosing how to arrange itself. Since the ocean would offer a lot more diverse currents than in our tanks, this type of nem seem to take its time before figuring out how to arrange everything. I have seen videos of macrodactylas in the wild dig their foot in kinda fast but it seems to go slower with the ones we get from the shops. If it seems to be getting its foot into the sandbed, then just give it time.

I think if it literally does not dig into your sandbed even at a slow rate, it may be waiting for a sudden strong ocean current to push it to a better location.

From what I can tell they prefer locations where the current has a circular motion around them, rather than somewhere where the current flows past them from one side to another.

But I definitely think that these types of nem are slower acting than BTA types when it comes to settling down. Macrodactyla does not seem to actually "crawl" around a lot, except to just adjust a little. And if I ever change anything about the direction of the flow in the tank I keep, the macrodactyla always reacts with pulling everything in and rearrange itself to the flow before it unfolds again completely.

I hope that your sad little jelly flower is going to look happier soon, they can be so stressful to their owners when they act out. But you probably do not need to worry at this time.

duskpaw · Mar 3, 2021

Birdbrains? said:
You're welcome, that all sounds good. I have used the trick before, with turning up and down the lighting, to see if newly introduced nem had energy left to move. If nothing else, it offers some piece of mind for the owner to see the nem move alittle.

And the macrodactyla doesn't look too bad, I would try to not be concerned yet. They do, especially the smaller ones, tend to be a bit slow in getting organised.

I guess it will want to "know" how the currents are acting in your tank before choosing how to arrange itself. Since the ocean would offer a lot more diverse currents than in our tanks, this type of nem seem to take its time before figuring out how to arrange everything. I have seen videos of macrodactylas in the wild dig their foot in kinda fast but it seems to go slower with the ones we get from the shops. If it seems to be getting its foot into the sandbed, then just give it time.

I think if it literally does not dig into your sandbed even at a slow rate, it may be waiting for a sudden strong ocean current to push it to a better location.

From what I can tell they prefer locations where the current has a circular motion around them, rather than somewhere where the current flows past them from one side to another.

But I definitely think that these types of nem are slower acting than BTA types when it comes to settling down. Macrodactyla does not seem to actually "crawl" around a lot, except to just adjust a little. And if I ever change anything about the direction of the flow in the tank I keep, the macrodactyla always reacts with pulling everything in and rearrange itself to the flow before it unfolds again completely.

I hope that your sad little jelly flower is going to look happier soon, they can be so stressful to their owners when they act out. But you probably do not need to worry at this time.

Okay I’ll leave him be for now

I just got alittle concerned because at the moment he’s been kinda just drifting around. Currently he’s wedged behind a rock, so I’ll lower the lights alittle just incase he’s actively hiding from them.

duskpaw · Mar 3, 2021

He was floating around in the back looking extra beat up so helped him out and put him in the sand in the light. Hopefully he adjusts well

Birdbrains? · Mar 4, 2021

That seems like a good spot. The curve in the sand giving him an easy opportunity to get rooted.

And seems like he is inflating one part, like a hand to just grab a little light. The other parts that are deflated could be the result of him focusing on digging the foot in.

I cannot tell on the picture if anything is hanging out of his mouth? Or is he just pouting?

You can try turning the light(blue) up max strong for 1 minute and see if he reacts to it in anyway.

If he does not do anything at all, he would be very low on energy.

Otherwise his automatic reaction would be to spread out shortly, and then quickly would deflate again because of being too busy digging in, to focus on the "sunlight".

MartinM · Mar 4, 2021

It’s tough to tell from the photos but that actually looks like a Ritteri anemone to me. If so, could be time for much stronger lighting, flow, and probably cipro treatment in a QT tank...

duskpaw · Mar 4, 2021

MartinM said:
It’s tough to tell from the photos but that actually looks like a Ritteri anemone to me. If so, could be time for much stronger lighting, flow, and probably cipro treatment in a QT tank...

So here's how it looks today. It was sold to me as a 'long tentacle anemone' so if you guys have an specifics to help me better care for him, Id love to hear!

Sosuke · Mar 4, 2021

Doesn't look good. I don't think it's a magnificent anemone because in your first picture it has the dots on the column and bright orangey/red foot known on long tentacle anemones. As someone already said I think you're going to need better test kits to figure out the problem. Whats your tanks temperature?

duskpaw · Mar 4, 2021

Sosuke said:
Doesn't look good. I don't think it's a magnificent anemone because in your first picture it has the dots on the column and bright orangey/red foot known on long tentacle anemones. As someone already said I think you're going to need better test kits to figure out the problem. Whats your tanks temperature?

Currently 76 degrees

Sosuke · Mar 4, 2021

Thats an ok temperature but its preferred to keep it at 78-80 degrees. I would also focus on raising your salinity from 1.022 to 1.025. I would look into getting test kits so you can find what is the problem.

duskpaw · Mar 4, 2021

Sosuke said:
Thats an ok temperature but its preferred to keep it at 78-80 degrees. I would also focus on raising your salinity from 1.022 to 1.025. I would look into getting test kits so you can find what is the problem.

Do you know of any resources that will tell me exactly what parameters are preferred?

Sosuke · Mar 4, 2021

Heres the parameters I keep for my tank:

Salinity: 1.025 sg
pH: 8.2
Temperature: 78 F
Calcium: 430 ppm
Alkalinity: 8.5 dKH
Magnesium:1200
Nitrate: 5 ppm
Nitrite: 0
Phosphates: 0.15 a lot of people keep it at 0.01 0.04 but my level works for me.

Alkalinity, salinity, and temperature swings can hurt an anemone and corals for that matter, so it's important that you know what your parameters are and if they're constantly changing. My tank parameters are pretty good for what you want besides phosphates, however it isn't terribly important to get these exact parameters numbers in range of these are usually acceptable as long as they're stable. I would research into getting better test kits. Your anemone doesn't look good and I'm not sure it will make it unless you can do these things.

Birdbrains? · Mar 4, 2021

Wow it is in a bad shape ;(

The nem is a macrodactyla doreensis. They are recognisable on the spots on the outer trunk and on the pattern of the tentacles. It gets its name "macrodactyla" (big fingers) from the formation of bigger tentacles in the middle near the mouth surrounded by a more open space before the smaller tentacles circling the skirt. It does not look good for it. The foot looks to be damaged. I hear many people say that it is possible for nems to heal back up but if you have other inhabitants in your tank, it can kill a lot of them that the nem starts to rot and release ammonia and also stinging cells.

duskpaw · Mar 4, 2021

Sosuke said:
Salinity: 1.025 sg
pH: 8.2
Temperature: 78 F
Calcium: 430 ppm
Alkalinity: 8.5 dKH
Magnesium:1200
Nitrate: 5 ppm
Nitrite: 0
Phosphates: 0.15 a lot of people keep it at 0.01 0.04 but my level works for me.

Alkalinity, salinity, and temperature swings can hurt an anemone and corals for that matter, so it's important that you know what your parameters are and if they're constantly changing. My tank parameters are pretty good for what you want besides phosphates, however it isn't terribly important to get these exact parameters numbers in range of these are usually acceptable as long as they're stable. I would research into getting better test kits. Your anemone doesn't look good and I'm not sure it will make it unless you can do these things.

So I found this and im getting it, but it doesnt measure magnesium. What can I get that would measure that?

Sosuke · Mar 4, 2021

I use the Nyos magnesium test kit. The API test kit is not good for more specific numbers but gives more of a ballpark range. If you're on a budget this is ok for now.