Hurt Anemone!! Help??

**aximil** · 04-13-2009, 12:21 AM

So I have a couple of bad news things to say, first my flame angel died today, it was acting funny last nite and i had to bump him off the filter twice! acting very lethargic and floating more than swimming...this morning i moved him to a QT cuz he was having trouble breathing and not moving much....died a few hours later.... Cause of death unknown though i am tempted to blame it on the addition of an BTA i got from a friend yesterday. I rearranged the LR to make some crevices (i have read they like to put there foot in one) and added the BTA to the tank, and thats when the angel started acting a bit wonky...i dunno if the anemone stung him or i bumped him with the rock when i was arranging it or what...

anyways, the thing this post is really about is that i now have this BTA and it is in bad condition. a friend got it for his tank and after 20 days of quarentine decided he didn't think it would work out and gave it to me "its yours if you want it, otherwise i have nowhere to send it....." so i took it and upgraded my lights for it from 78 watts T5 (36 inch long on my 20 high tank) to 130 Watts 50/50 ESU compact florescent (only 24" long so fits the tank better anyways).

this little dude did not want to attach for the first several hours and then i went to sleep, i thought i unplugged the canister filter since i read that moving anemones have been known to get into fights with powerheads and the like. i actually unplugged the skimmer! i woke up about 7 hours later to find the BTA was almost quarter into the uptake prefilter!!!! i unpluged the canister and VERY carefully removed the BTA sure that the damage was done, but i sent him on a piece of live rock.....now tonight he has openned up a few times....not moved any from where i set him. i gave him some mysis shrimp with a medicine dropper syringe thing(never used) and he immediately closed up around it and when he openned up again there was less shrimp there and i think one halfway in the mouth. I think he ate but i don't know for sure....

is there anything i can do to help it or anything i should watch for?? at this point i am figuring it is a wait and see what happens thing, hoping he did eat cuz that would be a good sign, right. I will try to get a picture of him when he opens next to show the damage.....

**CarmieJo** · 04-13-2009, 01:16 AM

Oh man, that stinks.

I think right now I would wait and see. If you see it disintegrating get it out of your tank right away. I've never dealt with an injured anemone but I might not feed it for a few days to let it recover.

**Carty** · 04-13-2009, 01:41 AM

I would say you downgraded your lights..

**aximil** · 04-13-2009, 01:47 AM

Are ESU compact florescence not good quality lighting?? i know t5 are suppose to be really good, but they don't seem to put out as much light in a smaller area (little more than one watt per inch of tube)

**Carty** · 04-13-2009, 01:49 AM

the only thing watts are good for is to tell you how expensive per month a light is going to be

my setup is about 70 watts and I get better PAR then a 150 watt MH

T5's are so good because they are so thin that reflectors are capable of putting nearly all of the light into the water, compact fluorescents can't even come close

**rayme07** · 04-13-2009, 02:06 AM

I'm sorry to hear about your anemone. I agree with Carmie I wouldn't feed it for a couple of days.

**aximil** · 04-13-2009, 04:41 AM

well it seems like it keeps bloating up and sometimes it opens like halfway. the body of it is the section that is puffed up, almost like it is fille with air or maybe like it is trying to look bigger to scare away predators....anyways i just thought i'd let you all know how it is seeming before i call it a nite...

**CarmieJo** · 04-13-2009, 08:15 AM

I think that it inflating is a good sign!

**aximil** · 04-15-2009, 02:15 PM

woke up this morning to find it starting to disintegrate so i yanked him, very dead....i was sad. definitely going to be avoiding anemones till I feel like i am smart enough to know difference between a filter cord and a skimmer cord! prolly will avoid adding anything like corals or inverts for a while too....can always use more live rock (and it's hard to kill =D

**CarmieJo** · 04-19-2009, 01:18 PM

Sorry to hear that you lost him. I have made tags with pieces of tape and labeled each plug so I avoid unplugging the wrong one.

**7perseo7** · 05-12-2009, 09:23 AM

i am sorry to read about your dead anemonie and for future reference i will say that what happend to you was a light shock,anemonies are very light sensitive since they have algea that are symbiotic and are responsible for a lot of factor on the life of the anemonie one of the first signs is change of color shrinking or bloating and lastly they can't attach anymore,i would recomend to place them under a grow light on a tank with low flow and feed only phyto , light is the best medicine, i have saved a few this way a few i had to change to diferent lights until the right one works.
if a clown fish is with it ,remove it they also have some symbiotic relationship but when one is sick you must separate them.
hope this helps other people with anemonies wich are beautiful and easy to keep.