Is my Anemone ok?

[tobysmurf]

For most of last night he was attached to the side of the tank. This morning I see that he is sitting in that same quiet corner of the tank. His foot isn't fully attached like last night, but it's still partially on the glass and partially on a rock. Last night he ate a metric ton of Mysis, and when I fed soaked algae wafers to the fish the clowns insisted on feeding him some of that as well. His tentacles have lengthened a fair amount from last night so he looks a bit more like his old self again (even though his old self was still a bleached state).

I assume one feeding a day is in order or should I try to do it more often since he's so sick?

[mike31154]

Inverts such as anemones, coral, shrimp, snails, crabs etc. are much more sensitive to even small changes in water chemistry. How did you acclimate the critter? I assume slowly? Perhaps a moot point now since it's been in there for several days now, but improper acclimation to water that is most probably quite different from that of the LFS where it came from would contribute to making it look like it does in photos 2 & 3. From my experience, my LFS keeps salinity a fair bit lower in his tanks than I do in mine. I think this is the case with many LFS, not sure why, just seems to be what they do. In any case, a salinity swing of several points & probably a large difference in pH will not go over well with a freshly introduced invertebrate.

Looks like it's coming around though and the fact that it is eating and at least trying to attach to something bodes well for recovery & survival. Took my bta a while to acclimate as well & it wouldn't take food for weeks. It had a bit more colour than your nem though. First few times it actually held the food I gave it, the tentacles did not have much 'stick' to them & a cleaner shrimp promptly grabbed the food. After a few months the tentacles were much stickier & these days there's no way the cleaner shrimp can even get near my nems to compete for food.

[intarsiabox]

With an orangy base and white tenticles it looks like a Condylactis anemone to me. Once a day feeding should be fine, it will spit out excess food which should be siphoned away. I hope it pulls through for you!

[tobysmurf]

I hope he lives too! His body is very bright red - almost orange. His tentacles are still quite sticky, last night 99% of the Mysis I squirted onto him stayed on his tentacles. I am always careful to feed the fish first so that they are more likely to leave his goodies alone.

As for acclimatizing him to my tank, I did the drip method on him - it took about 3 hours before it finished as my dip was a bit slower than it should have been but I didn't want to shock him since my salinity is a bit high right now (1.026). I will feed him once a day. Thanks again folks, I really appreciate the help and I've certainly learned some valuable lessons about making purchases without adequate research first!

[tobysmurf]

Here is a new pic from tonight. Anyone think he has a hope?

[xenon]

It's looking much better. Starting to see some brown. Good job!

Keep feeding it with small chunks of silversides and it will recover nicely.

[mohammadali]

my GBTA bleached when i bought it ,
i had to put it in my 20g with a florescent and just turn it on for a few hours and it got brownish and after while its kinda green

[Madreefer]

I've had a LTA in my tank for 12years. Bought it on an impusle buy and fed it for the first couple of months or so. I have never fed it since that time and it is doing awesome. So 12 years and no food. Makes me wonder if they need to be fed.

[whatcaneyedo]

A bleached anemone does not possess any zooxanthellae from which it would otherwise harvest energy. Without any additions of food they can starve to death just like anything else. A healthy anemone with all of its own zooxanthellae is basically self sufficient and as you've demonstrated does not need supplemental feeding. But thats not to say that it wouldn't benefit from a few scraps on occasion. Anemones are pretty good at capturing food on their own too. Or if you have clownfish with them they will probably feed it for you.

The anemone in the picture is looking a lot better. Previously when it had its insides coming out from its mouth it looked like many of the dead ones I've seen at our LFS.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by tobysmurf

Crap, so lesson learned - don't trust the LFS to sell me something healthy...I'll try and get some food for him tomorrow. Any chance I could spot feed him some mysis? That's the only meat based food I have right now. Anyone happen to know a place in Calgary where I can buy silversides?

Ya you should definatly do your own research before hand.

Tgere are better stores than wais in calgary as well for advice, stock, and prices.