What's going on with this thing??

[Morgadeth]

So, I'm new...
I've been searching the net for guidance on my recent purchase: An Elephant Ear Anemone/coral (I've seen them referred to as both)

So, it's been in the tank for a few days, and I'm seeing what I perceive as unusual. I'm including a pic of what I see today, with the long white strands emanating from it's body, and mystery sac under it's side.

Yesterday, there were brown strands coming from it's mouth, which stays partially open quite a bit. (like puckered lips, actually)

I've read it's mostly a photosynthetic creature, but I managed to feed it a small piece of krill today while it was curling up like it was feeding. My wife really likes it, and I'd hate to see it die.

Along with this, I have a sea cucumber that seems somewhat uninterested in eating. It only extends its tentacles maybe once a day.

Any advice would be great. I have a 55 gallon tank with a canister filter, protein skimmer and a coralife dual PC light. My tank is around 78 to 80 degrees, pH around 8.2, ammonia maintains around .5 ppm or lower, no nitrites, Nitrates around 20mg/L.
As for inhabitants, I have two tube anemones, Condy anemone, several damsels (which will be leaving soon) clownfish, a Yellow tang, Dwarf Lionfish, two hermits, a small emperor crab (somewhere) several snails and a serpent star (also, somewhere) I have around 45 lbs of live rock, maybe more.

I know the nitrates probably don't help, and I'm about to start changing out more water, even though I just did 5 gallons before the testing. I'm also guessing something is wrong in my tank, because the pink tipped condy I have shrinks up and does a water purge daily. I know it's not dying yet, since I gave him the sniff test yesterday.

Once again, any ideas would be great help. I'm getting frustrated with these little issues that will snowball into big issues; I just know it!!

 

[Catpicklesdog]

First off I'm not speaking from personal experience but from what I've read and heard. And that is that Elephant ears eat fish. I've read it in "The Interpet Questions & Answers manual of The Marine Aquarium" and my LFS had a customer complain about one. Apparantly the customer had brought the elephant ear, placed it in his tank and it ate one of his expensive fish. He took it back to my LFS complaining and my LFS wasn't convinced he was telling the truth, it was at that exact moment that elephant ear spat out the remains.

I know that doesn't exactly help you with your question, but if I were, you I'd check that all your stock is there.

Remember this is only what I've heard and read but I would never get one.

HTH in some little way and wait to see what others say.:idea:

 

[Morgadeth]

Update: It turns out, after checking with the previous owner, my two "tube anemones" were actually extremely large aiptasia!
They had begun multiplying like mad, so I figured something was up...

Needless to say; they are gone now...

 

[Catpicklesdog]

Just found this link http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/coralidprofileresource/p/Amplexidiscus.htm

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/corallim.htm

 

[Max]

Umh, I hate to tell you this but, you'll never be able to do much with your nitrate issue as long as you have a crushed coral substrate. You should also run your cannister with out media in it as it will just become another detritus sponge. The brown stuff is probably poo and the slimy stuff is just that. It's likely releasing slime because it's skin is iritated.
hth
max

 

[Morgadeth]

Just found this link http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/coralidprofileresource/p/Amplexidiscus.htm

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/corallim.htm

Following the second link, I see my levels are acceptable. I checked with the store I bought the ear from (They are well established and know what they are talking about; not a "chain store") and they also agreed.
They told me the most likely cause was an organism in the tank irritating it.

I did a little more research, and as you see from my previous post, I eliminated the aiptasias...
Oddly enough, things have calmed down in the tank a bit...
Could the elephant ear have been going to war?

 

[New Reefer]

Following the second link, I see my levels are acceptable.

Perhaps "tolerable", but NOT "acceptable" - if you ever want to be successful with keeping corals you will have to improve the water parameters: ammonia, nitrite and nitrate should be undetectable with hobby-type test kits.

You don't mention the pH or alkalinity of the water - these are both extremely important parameters for long term success, and it is advisable to test for them as well.

Regarding your Discosoma sp. "elephant ear" - the "brown strands" it discharged was it's excrement, and it is generally not a good idea to feed it whilst discharging (although it should not have caused harm...). The white strands could be undigested food from the last feeding.

I would suggest you just let it be for a few days, and once it's been open for 2-3 days you can sparingly feed it a small piece of fish of shrimp - then wait until it discharges again (24-48 hours later) before feeding anything else. It's usually sufficient to feed only once every 7-10 days...

Regarding your water quality and general husbandry - I agree with previous posts that you should replace the crushed coral substrate with a fine live sand, if possible. If not, remove most of the crushed coral, leaving only a thin covering on the tank bottom for aesthetics. Remove all the filter media from the cannister filter, and add some more CURED live rock. Do frequent partial water changes (20% every 2-4 weeks until the tank has stabilised) using a decent salt mix. Oh, and reduce your fish load as well for the short term untill the tank has stabilised (6 months or so...).

Good luck.

Hennie

 

[Morgadeth]

I was thinking about pulling most of the coral this weekend... As to whether I put sand in; I'm undecided. I'm also parting with some of the damsels. They were great help cycling the tank, but their unrelenting battles for dominance and rearranging of the landscape is getting old!

As for my pH, it stays between 8 and 8.2. I want to beat the nitrates, so besides dumping the coral and putting in sand, what should I leave in the filter?

As for the elephant ear, it's much better now. There's actually been a lot of activity in the tank now that I ditched the giant aiptasias!

I appreciate any assistance! It seems I came to the right forum for help..

 

[Max]

Good luck catching the damsels. I'd try it after lights out when they are at their least alert. I wouldn't just rip out all of the c.c. at a time either I know that it's going to be a major production so I would get some cheese cloth bags or a cotton pillow case etc. and put about 1/4 of it in there for a month or so until your sand can become live sand.
I would also run my canister empty if you plan on a reef tank all bio-balls etc. do is trap detritus and become a nitrate trap. It's very likely that the e.e. was having a little bio-war fare against other critters in your tank. When ever you introduce a new critter throw a bag of activate carbon into your canister for a week or so to absorbe any chemicals your new old critters might introduce into your tank. I would also q.t any new corals or fish that you introduce for saftey sake. I'd still throw a bag of carbon in with even q.t. corals and softies they won't be happy when you move them.
Cheers and we're glad you found us to.
Max

 

[Morgadeth]

I've started pulling out some of the c.c.
I'm gonna do a little each night after "lights out" to try and minimize stress. Once I get down to a quantity I can easily seperate into "zones" on the bottom of the tank, I'll add some live sand and let it get to work pulling from the remaining coral.

So, lemme get this straight: Run my canister filter with NOTHING in it? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the filter altogether?

Right now, I have bio media, carbon, mech. filter and filter sponge in there.


If anything seems wrong in my plan, please let me know. I'd like to do this without emptying my tank and starting over...