Free - Livestock Anemone

[Shinobu]

Had this rainbow bubble tip anemone for a few weeks and it is looking sick for the past week. It’s been throwing up constantly and stomach is outside. Mouth is closed, though. Don’t have a spare tank or equipment to start a hospital tank so hoping someone who is willing to try to hospitalize it back to good health would want to take it. It started detaching today and I’m worried it will sting my other corals, so hoping someone willing to take it asap. Located in Newton, MA.

 

[#Angels&Demons]

I'm curious as to what your water parameters (trace, nutrients, temperature, and salinity) are, as well what your RBTA is getting for PAR (250+?). Also wondering what your gas exchange, feeding, water flow, and dosing are like for the anemone.

Could just be an issue with one or more of those things mentioned above. My RBTA was acting funny when I first got it, but once I got everything nice and dialed in, it even doubled in size over the span of six months.

 

[Shinobu]

I'm curious as to what your water parameters (trace, nutrients, temperature, and salinity) are, as well what your RBTA is getting for PAR (250+?). Also wondering what your gas exchange, feeding, water flow, and dosing are like for the anemone.

Could just be an issue with one or more of those things mentioned above. My RBTA was acting funny when I first got it, but once I got everything nice and dialed in, it even doubled in size over the span of six months.View attachment 232570View attachment 232571

Alk: 7.5
Phos: 0.25
NO3: 5
Salinity: 1.026
Ca: 420
pH: ~8

I have a sicce 1.5 going at about 150 gph and a jebao pump at 30%, so flow should’ve been fine. Not sure about the exact par amount, I have a noopsyche k7 mini running at about 40% and my other corals are doing okay. For feeding, I usually feed my clowns 1/3 of a cube of mysis and the nem grabs a few chunks of shrimp. The nem was looking fine for the first 2 weeks i got it and was opening up really well, but 2 weeks ago it started balling up and started looking shriveled and threw up its insides (visible mesenterial filaments). I’ve attached a photo below of what the nem looked like a week after I got it.

My best guess is that my tank was too new for a nem, since I’ve only had it for 3 months.

 

[#Angels&Demons]

Your parameters aren’t terrible, but you made a good point about your tank only being 3 months old since RBTAs do better in established systems.

I suggest you try keeping phosphate under 0.2 ppm long-term. Also, knowing the PAR will make it easier to confirm whether or not your lighting is adequate for the nem. Are you feeding it too frequently? If you are, that can cause regurgitation.

In my opinion; ideal conditions for an RBTA are NO3 at 5–15 ppm, PO4 at 0.03–0.1 ppm, dKH at 8–10 stable, and PAR between 150–300. Stability is key, though. Oh, and make adjustments slowly, if at all. What temperature do you keep your reef at, and how many hours a day do you run that light for?

Other than what I've mentioned above; if you have good surface agitation and moderate flow, your nem should recover over the next couple of weeks! Try getting a nem box for it.

 

[Shinobu]

Mmm, i feed frozen twice a week. I keep my tank at 78-79. My lights are on from 6 am to 10pm, but 3 hr ramp up and ramp down. My dKH mixes a little low because I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals.

 

[#Angels&Demons]

Mmm, i feed frozen twice a week. I keep my tank at 78-79. My lights are on from 6 am to 10pm, but 3 hr ramp up and ramp down. My dKH mixes a little low because I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals.

Feeding frozen food twice a week isn't bad, but as you said—it'll also eat whatever you feed your fish everyday. I lightly broadcast feed my tank, twice a day, which is how my nem, corals, fish, and inverts all eat. I also dose Red Sea's aminos and broadcast feed a concoction of different coral foods, once a week.

Your light schedule seems fine to me, but again—get a PAR reading if you can. I run my light from 5PM-12AM, no ramping, mostly blue, around 70% output, through both a Top Lid and tons of surface agitation. My nem realistically gets between 200-250 PAR and moderate-high, random flow. When I first got it, it was like 3" and struggling, now it's like 6" and thriving.

I've had good luck with Reef Crystals—a five gallon bucket usually mixes for me at 9.3-9.5 dKH at 1.025 sg. I maintain my dKH level, as well as that of the other trace elements, with a daily dose of Tropic Marin's All-for-Reef. I've had success raising my tank's dKH level with Seachem's Reef Builder—maybe try using that in your tank, as well as in your new saltwater-mix, before performing a water change. If you do go with RB, make sure to match the bucket water's dKH to the tank water's dKH before adding it to your system. Do you dose? You can hold alkalinity at its new level with some sort of daily dosing, like AFR, etc.

How often do you perform water changes, and what percentage of your total water volume are they? What type of filtration are you running on this tank?

 

[Shinobu]

Feeding frozen food twice a week isn't bad, but as you said—it'll also eat whatever you feed your fish everyday. I lightly broadcast feed my tank, twice a day, which is how my nem, corals, fish, and inverts all eat. I also dose Red Sea's aminos and broadcast feed a concoction of different coral foods, once a week.

Your light schedule seems fine to me, but again—get a PAR reading if you can. I run my light from 5PM-12AM, no ramping, mostly blue, around 70% output, through both a Top Lid and tons of surface agitation. My nem realistically gets between 200-250 PAR and moderate-high, random flow. When I first got it, it was like 3" and struggling, now it's like 6" and thriving.

I've had good luck with Reef Crystals—a five gallon bucket usually mixes for me at 9.3-9.5 dKH at 1.025 sg. I maintain my dKH level, as well as that of the other trace elements, with a daily dose of Tropic Marin's All-for-Reef. I've had success raising my tank's dKH level with Seachem's Reef Builder—maybe try using that in your tank, as well as in your new saltwater-mix, before performing a water change. If you do go with RB, make sure to match the bucket water's dKH to the tank water's dKH before adding it to your system. Do you dose? You can hold alkalinity at its new level with some sort of daily dosing, like AFR, etc.

How often do you perform water changes, and what percentage of your total water volume are they? What type of filtration are you running on this tank?

Sounds good, I’ll see if my lfs has par meters for rent. I need to test par at bottom for my zoas anyway. I don’t dose anything yet, but I’ve thought about getting all-for-reef. I feed tdo pellets on the days I don’t feed frozen. They usually stay floating and the clowns get most of them. Never seen the nem grab one of those. As for coral food, I only target feed my zoas reef roids once or twice a week.

I do weekly water changes and it’s 1 gal out of a 10.5 g water volume, so about 10%. For mixing I add about 150g to 1 gal of water, which comes out to about 1.026 sg. I’m not sure what dKH the new water mixes to, but whenever I test my tank it’s always around mid-low 7s (7.3-7.5). I’m not sure if it’s an issue with the mix or if something is consuming it. Livestock is just 2 clowns, 1 tiger conch, 8 dwarf cerith, 2 banded trochus, 5 nassarius vibex. Corals is only a hammer, pulsing xenia, and assorted zoas. I do have stratospheres and gmks and I heard they are also susceptible to parameter swings. Though, they’ve been growing pretty well so far and have had a couple new polyps. Praying that they don’t melt.

I have the intank filter caddy in the back running filter pad and red sea carbon @ 1gram/gal. I’ve been dosing seachem stability a few times a week because I had dino outbreaks a while back before I put any nems or coral. It also seemed to keep my nitrates and phosphates in check when I dose bacteria, so I just made it a habit now to dose at least once a week after water changes. There was a short period (about a week or two ago) where I saw some dinos come back after adding corals, so I dosed a little more frequently for a week because it seemed to make them go away. Not sure if that affects anything.

I really appreciate your help with this. It’s nice to get comprehensive information about this since I’m still fairly new to reefing!

I put my lighting schedule below.