Carpet Anenome

[damsel-in-distress]

Hi fellow reefers,

Thought I'd ask some advice regarding a purple carpet anenome in my tank. I bought this together w/ 2 ocellaris clowns from Henry's abt 2mths ago. It w/nt cheap! Anyway, after intro to my tank, it shifted positions abt 4 times b4 it finally settled down on a rock high up near the MH. It actually moved upwards fr rocks close to the sandbed. The last couple of weeks, I noticed it contracting to almost nothing when the lights went off at night. 2 days ago, it fell off its perch onto the sandbed. I have just managed to retrieve it (w/ great difficulty) & hv moved it to the refugium (just in case!). It is still blue & shrunken but am not sure if it is dead??

I hv 2 other carpet anenome (blue & green) thriving well so m puzzled why this 1 has behaved the way it has. My tank did unfortunately hv a 1 day chiller problem 2wks ago which brought up the temp to 32degC for 36 hrs b4 it was rectified. I have also just finished a 4-day course of GoodbyePO4 treatment wh has brought my PO4 levels (fr 0.5mg/L to 0.05 in 4days). Can't think of anything else what wld affect it as the enclosed ecosystm is highly buffered & other than the PO4 levels, all other water parameters within acceptable levels. Does have any constructive comments to this mystery?

[MOssrope]

Hi fellow reefers,

Thought I'd ask some advice regarding a purple carpet anenome in my tank. I bought this together w/ 2 ocellaris clowns from Henry's abt 2mths ago. It w/nt cheap! Anyway, after intro to my tank, it shifted positions abt 4 times b4 it finally settled down on a rock high up near the MH. It actually moved upwards fr rocks close to the sandbed. The last couple of weeks, I noticed it contracting to almost nothing when the lights went off at night. 2 days ago, it fell off its perch onto the sandbed. I have just managed to retrieve it (w/ great difficulty) & hv moved it to the refugium (just in case!). It is still blue & shrunken but am not sure if it is dead??

I hv 2 other carpet anenome (blue & green) thriving well so m puzzled why this 1 has behaved the way it has. My tank did unfortunately hv a 1 day chiller problem 2wks ago which brought up the temp to 32degC for 36 hrs b4 it was rectified. I have also just finished a 4-day course of GoodbyePO4 treatment wh has brought my PO4 levels (fr 0.5mg/L to 0.05 in 4days). Can't think of anything else what wld affect it as the enclosed ecosystm is highly buffered & other than the PO4 levels, all other water parameters within acceptable levels. Does have any constructive comments to this mystery?

there are too many possibilities to this senario.

1) best bet would be heat shock when your chiller was down, furthermore being near the MH, temp could be much much higher.

other possibilities could be

2) feeding too large objects/feeding too often

3) having to move too much with insufficient food source

4) constant harressment from clowns before it could acclimatise(not sure if they were hosting it)

last 3 guesses are very energy draining for an anemone.

apart from those

5) some anemones are not tolerate to additives or water conditioners, coincidentally you used some anti phosphate or might be any others so it could be a cumulative effect to the above mentioned.

if its flattened, mouth open and not sticky at the tentacles anymore.. good chance that it will not make it past the next few days :<

[damsel-in-distress]

Hi there,

Thx for yr note & possible explanation. Let me clarify your points:

1) is probably the best bet as this CA was the nearest to the MH lights (compared to the others which were 15ins closer to the sandbed.

2) not a possibility becos I never target feed anything except my sun coral .. mostly douse entire tank with rotifiers, mysis shrimp, coral food mix 1-2x a wk w/ the protein skimmer shut off for an hr.

3) It actually stayed on the same side of the tank & only moved vertically upwards. The other 2 carpet anem. are located in the middle & 1 at the far left, opposite from the purple carpt anem.

4)the purple carpet anenome was already a host to 2 ocellaris clowns and they were bought together as a package

5) Not sure why the GoodbyePO4 treatment would affect this particular (otherwise healthy) CA & not the other 2 CAs .. it does not appear if any other LS in the tank has been affected by the treatment.

I have today removed the CA from the refugium as parts of it looked like it was starting to rot. It is obviously dead as it smelled bad during removal. I hv doused some nitrifying bacteria into the filtration system (just in case!).

[MOssrope]

Hi there,

Thx for yr note & possible explanation. Let me clarify your points:

1) is probably the best bet as this CA was the nearest to the MH lights (compared to the others which were 15ins closer to the sandbed.

2) not a possibility becos I never target feed anything except my sun coral .. mostly douse entire tank with rotifiers, mysis shrimp, coral food mix 1-2x a wk w/ the protein skimmer shut off for an hr.

3) It actually stayed on the same side of the tank & only moved vertically upwards. The other 2 carpet anem. are located in the middle & 1 at the far left, opposite from the purple carpt anem.

4)the purple carpet anenome was already a host to 2 ocellaris clowns and they were bought together as a package

5) Not sure why the GoodbyePO4 treatment would affect this particular (otherwise healthy) CA & not the other 2 CAs .. it does not appear if any other LS in the tank has been affected by the treatment.

I have today removed the CA from the refugium as parts of it looked like it was starting to rot. It is obviously dead as it smelled bad during removal. I hv doused some nitrifying bacteria into the filtration system (just in case!).

ok lets look a bit at 4) and 5)

4) reason because the clowns will return to its host and disturb the anemone while its trying to settle down in the new environment.

5) some livestocks react violently to medications, anti nitrate/phosphate other metals too, mainly due to being unable to settle down in the new environment,weakened or just being too sensitive.

but i am not too sure the time line it started to have a change in behaviour.

i guess you have thrown it away? sorry to hear your loss.

was it a haddoni or gigantea?

[damsel-in-distress]

Thx for the sympathy the purple carpet anem. was a real beaut .. thrived in my tank for >2mths w/o problems. I put it down to the phosphate removal enzyme use altho .. change of CA's behaviour was a wk prior to the GBPO4 use .. but I guess the treatment simply hasten it to any earlier demise. There is still a missing pc to the puzzle??

Don't know the 2 types of species u mention .. will do some research on them ..