Unhappy Anemone

Slingshot357 · Dec 30, 2019

I've had this anemone for about 8 moths and it doesn't seem to be doing too good. I'm not sure what else I can try to get it to perk up and grow. Tank parameters are decent and I've tried feeding it a bit which it seems to happily take but it has never grown. It has been in that same spot since day one, tucked between those 2 rocks. It's being hosted by a sexy shrimp. Is there anything I can test for that isn't one of the normal tank parameters you would test for? Is there a particular food that they love and will make them grow? Should I try to force it to relocate to a better spot? Should I chase away the sexy shrimp?

Here's a pic of the poor critter along with it's shrimp buddy. It was that tiny when I got it and it's stayed that tiny ever since.

reef lover · Dec 31, 2019

It looks ok...could be the sexy shrimp stealing its food and aggravating it.
What type of lighting?

Slingshot357 · Jan 1, 2020

reef lover said:
It looks ok...could be the sexy shrimp stealing its food and aggravating it.
What type of lighting?

It is fine, just not growing at all. It was that size when I got it and stayed there and looking exactly like that since I purchased it months ago. It's surviving but in no way thriving.

I use 3 AI prime HD 16's set on AB+. It's getting a decent amount of par I think. I can give you an exact par number if you think that might be that. I do have a PAR meter.

It might be the shrimp is just really ticking it off. But even after months of ticking it off though you'd think I'd see some sort of growth. When I've fed it I watched it fully close and the shrimp was scared away by the turkey baster. Not sure how it would have pried it open to steal the food but I guess anything is possible.

I'm willing to try anything if you have some suggestions.

reef lover · Jan 1, 2020

Do u have any sps in there??
If not i might suggest turning the lights down a bit...i run 1 ai26 on my nem tank and these are my settings...

Slingshot357 · Jan 1, 2020

reef lover said:
Do u have any sps in there??
If not i might suggest turning the lights down a bit...i run 1 ai26 on my nem tank and these are my settings...

I do have a green slimer frag and a mystic sunrise monti frag. Here's my settings. I tried to get them as close to AB+ as possible but it's difficult not being able to just type in the number rather than using sliders. Looking at it now maybe the ML (Moon Light maybe?) and CW (Bright White?) are too high? I can still try your settings if you think it won't bother my sps too much.

reef lover · Jan 1, 2020

Unsure what the ml is...moonlight makes.sense.
I would def lower the white though. Maybe just to 40 45 %since you have some sps and see if rhe nem responds.

Slingshot357 · Jan 1, 2020

reef lover said:
Unsure what the ml is...moonlight makes.sense.
I would def lower the white though. Maybe just to 40 45 %since you have some sps and see if rhe nem responds.

I turned ML down to 0 and set CW to 40%. I'll see what happens over the next couple of days.

To be honest I can't even see where it's attached. Could it be attached so far down into the rock that it needs to stretch that far just to get a little light and it just doesn't realize there's plenty of light if it just moved up a bit? I'm even wondering if the rock shifted and it's foot is stuck somewhere down there. After lights out and it shrinks up it completely vanishes between those 2 rocks.

reef lover · Jan 2, 2020

They do tend to bury thier foot and stretch out but i doubt its stuck and unable to move....and mine all ball up at night as well. I think with the less intense lighting youll see him inflate more.

Slingshot357 · Jan 3, 2020

reef lover said:
They do tend to bury thier foot and stretch out but i doubt its stuck and unable to move....and mine all ball up at night as well. I think with the less intense lighting youll see him inflate more.

So I ended up turning the rock around so I could see it. I purchased it from Liveaquaria on July 15th 2019. It's still about 1 inch in diameter.

Hopefully changing the light and exposing it to more flow will help.

It's all closed up right now but you can see how tiny it is.

old salt reefer · Jan 3, 2020

You didn't say how much your feeding em or how often.

Slingshot357 · Jan 3, 2020

Also, these are my numbers as of yesterday and they have been stable for a long time, ever since I started taking care of a carnation coral which is doing great. but I'v only had the carnation for 7 weeks now.

Phosphate : 0.10
SG : 1.025
PH : 8.08
Alk : 8.8
Cal : 467
Nitrate : 20
Mag : 1500

Carnation coral pic