Bubble Tip Dying?

[Guest ethandvm]

In my 120g reef tank my bubble tip anemone seems to be dying (I would assume tentacles sloughing off is a sign of impending death). If someone could offer some good advice, I would really appreciate any input.

 

I have had the bubble tip for about 6 weeks. It seemed to have been doing well, my tomato clown was in it about 98% of the time, I feed it small silverside pieces/cyclopeeze mix every 3-4 days. It has moved a few times, but has anchored itself it a good position for the last 5+ weeks.

 

My other critters (fish, corals {mushroom, frogspawn, hammer, star polyp, favia, and leather}, hermit crabs, cleaner shrimp) are all doing well. I think I have good water flow (5) aquaclear 70 power heads, good lighting (2) 150W HQI Metal Halides, and actinic lighting (Coral Life Pro lighting). My water parameters are good (I think: ph 8.3, Ca 440, Alk 7, sg 1024, ammonia 0, nitrate and nitrite 0). I supplement with Kents Marine Essentials every week, supplement with iodine (more for leathers). Is this an anemone thing? Am I missing something? Are bubbles that difficult to keep? Am I not feeding correctly? Is there something else I should be doing?

 

I would like to get another anemone, my tomato seems so happy having it around. Do I dare try again?

 

Any input would help.

 

Thanks,

 

Ethan

[Caribbean Jake]

check you water parameters. there is definetly something in your water quality that is slowly killing the bubble anemonee.

[dhoch]

This is the key phrase here:

 

I supplement with Kents Marine Essentials every week, supplement with iodine

 

I don't know whats in Kent's Marine Essentials, but if you are not testing for a substance, don't dose it... You may have over iodine'd your water. (that's my guess)

 

Dave

[unninair]

Anemones occassionally deflate themselves - normal behaviour. If it remains deflated for more than a day, you have to watch it for signs of disintegration. At this point you should move it out of your tank. Also, if your clown is bothering it, put a plastic guard arounf it to keep the clown away for a few days

 

Unni

[dbartco]

Any other anem's in the tank?

 

I used to have a S. Hadoni in my tank for years, lots of softies all doing great, and could never keep a bubble in my tank. After an unfortunate end of the Hadoni meeting a powerhead, I was able to keep a bubble.

 

Possible chemical or nematocysts you aren't seeing? How's coloration?

[Gatortailale]

Could be silly Q, but you do have glass shield installed on HQI reflector right. If not, could be UV from bulb impacting it.

 

What fish you have? and butterfly?

[Guest ethandvm]

Could be silly Q, but you do have glass shield installed on HQI reflector right. If not, could be UV from bulb impacting it.

 

What fish you have? and butterfly?

 

I have a reflector on the lights. I have hippo, yellow tang, tomato clown, 2 fire fish, bangkok cardinal, royal gramma, and flame angel.

 

I have not seen any fish/nemocysts messing with the bubble.

 

The bubble has become 'paler' over the last few days and the tentacles have become thinner and less bulbous. It has routinely done its deflating daily, but this is quite different.

 

I am sure it is a goner. Are bulbs usually more difficult to keep than others?

[Larry Grenier]

Could be silly Q, but you do have glass shield installed on HQI reflector right. If not, could be UV from bulb impacting it.

 

His question was in regards to a UV shield (piece of UV rated glass) between the lights and the water. HQI bulbs supposidly give-off more UV rays which can be harmful.

[GaryL]

if you are dosing stuff. be sure to test for it. you normally dont need to dose anything but calcium and kalkwasser for coral demands. frequent water changes is the key.

 

actually i have 2 rbta's and dont usually do anything. maybe feedthem once a week and give them like 1000 watts of like for a couple hours. they keep their color. they do decide to move now and again. as does my borneman anemone

 

HTH

Gary

[fishface]

Hi Ethan:

Aside from the above comments about dosing too much...many aquarists are doing more frequent waer changes and that replaces any depleted naturally occuring elements.

Also, if you only top off, you may kill the ionic balance after a few months, so removing and replacing saltwater has two benefits. That imbalance would impact your corals first though.

 

However anemones can't survive by light alone. Since you've been hand feeding it, you can conclude that something about the water quality is killing it and it's also something that you can't/don't normally buy a test kit for.

 

Next, lighting is very important:

1. Check your lighting. MH bulb have a rated life span and you should the date and arrange to replace the bulbs on schedule.

And raise them them anytime you replace them because the newly intense bulbs will cause your corals and anemones to bleach.

 

2. You absolutely can NOT tell how the bulbs are doing by the visible light. No way, no how. The club has a par meter that you can borrow to rule out bulb output as a possibility. This measure the PAR-Photosynthetically Available Radiation instead of the visible spectrum.

 

3. I have two 250w pendants. One bulb showed an output of 1,180 the second one was putting out 150.

And at the time, I was merely interested in comparing a 14k bulb with a 20k bulb for their output and had no idea that one was shot.

**Other more experienced reefers have caused bleaching after a bulb replacement. I just did it even though I can raised my pendant, clearly not enough.

 

I can say that I had a very sad anemone that recovered though, it was in a lower light tank and recovered after being moved to the ligh light tank. It took three months.

 

Anyway that's a variety of information/experience and possibly anecdotal info. A good possible start is to replace 20% and then do to changes of 10% every 3 days.

Or if others out there have a their own input to add.

Good luck.

FF