Help with my Bubble tip

[zip_case]

I am completely baffled... For the last few days my bubble tip anemone is looking rather "pale." The perams. are absolutely perfect and the temp is about 80-82ish. I've been feeding it krills the last few time. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I have 2 55w PC for my lighthing (which should be ok).

What could it be?
Could it by that the clown is pestering it to much?
:?:
-z

 

[Anemone]

Zip,

You've given us, um, "zip" information-wise. What size tank? What lighting? What other inhabitants? How often do you feed? What maintenance/water changes? What "params" are perfect (and what is perfect)? How long have you had this anemone? How long has the tank been set up?

I'm sure I'll think of more :roll:

Kevin

 

[Anonymous]

ditto with anemone-much more details, please (skimmer?,phosphates?, tank size?,bulb spectrum type?,and more...).(bubble tips like LOTS of light, btw)

 

[Anonymous]

I think you shold also tell us about your current and where you get your krill from. BTAs like a moderate current and medium to intense lighting(depending on where collected or cultured). Now about the krill. If you get your krill from a local store as opposed to krill packaged for aquarium use,you could poison your specimens. Krill purchased from a grocery store or bait shop may have preservatives added,which in turn are toxic to anemones and aquarium specimens in general.

 

[zip_case]

I do apologize for the lack of info provided earlier. But here is the water parems:

pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate 0
Salinity: 1.022
Calcium: 400
Phosphate: 0

Tank size is 29 gal.
Lighting: 2 55w PC

Livestock:
2 turbo snails
1 pep shrimp
1 cleaner
2 tomato clowns
1 lemonpeel angel
1 neon goby
and a few hermits

-z[/url]

 

[Anonymous]

"Pale" but is it otherwise normal size and nicely inflated and open? Or is it shrinking?

I would suggest switching to Silversides as anemones can better digest them (crustacean exoskeletons sometimes kinda piss them off)

The only obvious problem is that your salinity is too low. Let it rise to 1.025-6 via evaporation then maintain at that level.

 

[zip_case]

Well, the bubble is the same size but deflated during the morning and evening. Then it seems to shrink the afternoon.

When I feed it silversides, side I feed it the whole thing or just half if the silverside?

-z

 

[Anonymous]

Inflating and deflating at night is relatively normal behavior. Start slowly i.e. same size pieces as the krill you used to feed then build up if he seems to want more.

 

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

Yeah, I have to also say to raise up the salinity to around the 1.025-1.027 range. Thats where my tanks are at, and I have dozens and dozens of them now. Even though I did notice that its a 29g tank, I may also add that lighting could be a bit more, at least in my book. May want to think about upgrading to some form of full spectrum MH bulb. It sure wouldnt hurt. Bubbles are photosynthetic, and I for one dont jump all over PC or VHO lighting for photosynthesis. As for food, I personally say, feed em as much as they will take. I started out by feeding all my anemones sparsly(2-3 times per week a small chunk), but now feed em all daily, large amounts of food. As Tom knows how many silversides I recently purchased! 8O My Ritteri anemone eats about an eight of a pound per day, and I still get the feeling that I may be underfeeding him. Even my carpets eat like horses. IMO you cant overfeed an anemone. If it doesnt want the food, it just falls out of its tentacles, otherwise its Millertime! 8)

 

[guppychao]

:idea:
i also have a bta, and with similar light such as the ones u are using except a bigger tank (100gal) anyway first time my bta start shriking and looking not so good, i thought that it was dying, but i left it alone and 2 days later the bta split, now i have 3 from the one so leave it alone and i hope that it is going to split for you good luck!!!!

 

[zip_case]

Thanks guppy! I'll do that. My friend suggested that I smell the BTA to see if it was dying, but after smelling it i figured that i was still alive... (b/c it didn't have a really bad odor.)

-z

 

[zip_case]

Quick update...

After talking to my LFS, he suggested that my tomato clowns may be beating the anemone a tad bit to much. (the aneomone attached itself to a small piece of LR.) So I took the LR w/ the BT attached with it and placed it in my dad's 80, with no clowns. After a few days I noticed that the anemone is get its color back and is looking "happy."

-z

 

[Anemone]

Glad things seem to be working out. If you feed the anemone and get it to grow larger, it will be better suited to surviving the clowns' "attention."

Kevin

 

[kbauer]

I purchased a BTA 2 weeks ago and it was doing great. After reading about the silversides, i decided to go out and treat it to a dinner of one but something went terribly wrong and i wonder if anyone can tell me what i did wrong? bacause it now looks as if it has died altho i haven't touched it yet, all the tentacles are retracted and has detached itself from the wall of the tank and is lying belly up. here's what i did. the lfs did not have a silverside so they sold me a single goldfish which i put very close to the anemone (whole but recently dead). i thought it was eating it because it started to pull it in, but after only 12 hours, it was clear it had not only rejected it but was dying! what did i do wrong? nothing else was done to the tank (5 gal. with 2 small clowns who are fine, 15 w, plenty of current) I have 2 other larger tanks but this was for the BTA and its clowns.
thanks for any ideas, i don't want to repeat any mistakes!

 

[Anemone]

kbauer,

Well, FW food is not a good choice for saltwater critters (different lipids). Also, depending upon the size of your anemone, a full fish may well be too large to be digested well. I feed my BTAs either a single defrosted krill, or part of a krill, depending upon the size of the anemone, about once every couple of weeks (my anemones also get quite a bit of processed food (Formula 1, 2, Prime Reef, Mysis Shrimp, etc), as I feed the fish a cube daily, and the anemones intercept a great deal of this food.

You say your anemone is "belly up." If this means the tentacles are still oriented upwards, this may not be a problem. If, however, the anemone is face down (tentacles in the substrate), this is not a good thing, as anemones respire through their tentacles and oral disk. Anemones deflate down to almost nothing periodically to expel wastes, so this may be what is happening to your anemone. Don't assume it's dead unti it actually begins to fall apart.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[kbauer]

Thanks for the reply Kevin and with it a tiny fraction of hope for as i said my BTA is lying belly up with tentacles facing upward even tho they are really not moving much. i havent touched it and will of course leave it alone and see how it fares by morning. i should have left well enough alone because it seemed to like the food i have been feeding the clowns, cubes of mysis shrimp, (not a full cube of course), and live brine shrimp and it must have been getting plenty to eat. i will keep my fingers crossed but i am not that hopeful. i will let you know. thanks again.