BTA Not Doing So Well, need help

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zmazza

nano r33f 4 u
Feb 21, 2006
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I've got a bubble tip anemone in my 29 gallon reef. Water quality is always pristine. My feather dusters are multiplying like crazy. I've gone from 4-5 to 50+ in just the past 6 months. I've got 192 watts PC lighting above the tank. I did have 70-80 lbs of live rock, but remove about 20 lbs the other day. The anemone did great for about the first month. Recently, it's started to dwindle. It's not bleaching, and it's still dark in color. The tentacles just aren't long anymore. It doesn't move around, so i think it likes it's spot. I do admit that I wasn't feeding meaty foods as much as I should. Perhaps once a week. I feed quite a bit of flake food along with some mysis and brine shrimp every now and then. The clowns LOVE the flake, and the goby likes a bit of both. The anemone gets COVERED in flake food. It's fun to watch him eat all of it. Lately though he doesn't seem to be eating as much. I know I should have fed him more meaty foods, so that's mistake number one. I'm not new to aquariums, fresh or reef, but I am new to anemones. I do have him in the aquarium with about 20-30 zoanthid polyps. They don't seem to be bothering each other, but it just dawned on me that they might be poisoning the anemone. Is that a possibility? I'm setting up a 10 gallon reef tonight for some zoanthids. Should I just move all the corals to that tank?

What can I do to bring my anemone back to his normal self?
 

Max

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Jan 26, 2004
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Hello!
First run some carbon in your sump/cannister/what ever. You may indeed have a little bio-chemical warfare going on in your tank. Moving the rocks might have caused a bit of a cascade effect as far as the zoo's go. Second, start feeding it small whole silver sides or whole meaty foods,"shrimp usually aren't good they are for the most part cleaned and that won't help a lot." Then just give it some time it should recover if you keep conditions good. If you wouldn't mind please post your params and set up it might also be something you missed
cheers
Max
 

zmazza

nano r33f 4 u
Feb 21, 2006
114
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Will do. Thanks. Frozen silversides, huh? That sounds like a good idea. I'll definitely pick some of those up. I bought another 10 gallon and lighting last night. I'm going to move the zoanthids over to the 10 gallon and start a nano reef with the extra water / rock I had left over.

Hopefully that will help too. I'll run the carbon as well and see if that doesn't take care of it.
 

Max

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Jan 26, 2004
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Yes, it needs whole marine foods in order to be happy.
Keep us posted!
Max
 

zmazza

nano r33f 4 u
Feb 21, 2006
114
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Yes, it needs whole marine foods in order to be happy.
Keep us posted!
Max

It definitely does. It seems I was really misinformed. I'm going to purchase some Silversides on Saturday.
 

rightnow

AC Members
Jul 1, 2006
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It definitely does. It seems I was really misinformed. I'm going to purchase some Silversides on Saturday.


My BTA loves Krill try that. How old is youre tank? Check your Nitrates because that could be the problem if they are high. CHange water flow. Is it hiding , cause when they start to hide that means trouble. Maybe youre Iodine or Calcium supplemenst would help. Seems to mt it went from a perfect enviornment in the tank at the fish store to a not perfect system in yours. Do you have a skimmer?
 

zmazza

nano r33f 4 u
Feb 21, 2006
114
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No skimmer yet, but I plan on getting one soon. He seems to like where he's at. He's not moving around much at all. We fed him silversides on Saturday and Sunday and he immediately perked up. He's improved daily since we started him on those. We are doing iodine and calcium supplements now as well, so I know that's making a difference.
 

Ghost_knife

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Nov 17, 2005
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Iodine really wont help too much and I dont think it's too helpful, if you have clowns that host in it put a basket over it so they cant but it still get to the light, they can literally love an anemone to death
 

zmazza

nano r33f 4 u
Feb 21, 2006
114
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Sounds good. One of the clowns really bonded to it, but now that it shrunk down and only has a few tentacles at moderate length, both of them leave it alone. I know it's gotten some really good meals here lately though. We're feeding it silversides daily, and I put a peppermint shrimp in there the other day, and haven't seen him since. I think the anemone ate him. LOL. $8 dollar meal.
 

Max

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Jan 26, 2004
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I wouldn't feed him more than 1 silver side every 3 or 4 days . Over feeding is just as bad as underfeeding. I would only dose about a drop or two of iodine per month in a 29 gal if you aren't testing for it. Your softies, crustaceans and anems will love you for it but, it and chlorine are chemically similar and an o.d. is toxic. My general rule of thumb is if you aren't testing for it don't add it.
Cheers
Max
 
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