I think my anemone is dying HELP!

[bassking511]

We have had our anemone in the tank for a few weeks now and he has been healthy until recently. There is a tomato clown which is hosted with him and that happened fairly quickly. However, the past week the anem has being shrinking and expanding more often than normal. He was digesting, as i could see "evidence of digestion", but the strange thing is that i dont THINK he had been eating too much as the anem isn't too fond of food we give it (krill or fully thawed silversides). and in the past 2 or 3 days he has shrunk and did not regain size. When we originally had him, he was as large and a big pancake, now he has shrunk down to about the thinkness of a large cucumber and last night he turned upside down. Also in past two days, there has been some discoleration and seems like his foot has been 'tearing' also it appears that the tissue is different and seems 'squiggly'. His tentacles are deflated and retracted yet the remaining part of the foot still has the orange coloration. Tank details: 90 gallon, lighting is2 x 65W 10000K white and 2x 65W actinic blue. chiller and protein skimmer
PH 8.1 Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 20ppm, ammonia .125ppm salinity high, so added distilled H2O and combo ammonia/nitrate reducer added

Any immediate help would be greatly appreciated. I want to save this guy

 

[Crepe]

pH is too low, nitrates WAYYYY to high( >5 is bad), Ammonia is also incredibly high (should always be 0). Lighting might not be enough either. What type of nem was it? What's your alkalinity also. The nem might just be old also.

 

[theaquaticlibrary]

If the nem is losing its colour it is starting to bleach, a damaged foot is the ultimate bad news with any nem.I have only ever managed to save one nem that started to bleach and it took me nearly 3 months to do it, I hate to say this but it could be the nem that is causing your ammonia to rise.

 

[Ziggy953]

The ammonia concerns me more than the other readings. Nitrates of 20 is not the end of the world though lower is better. PH of 8.1 isn't terrible though a bit higher would be better.

My first question is how old is your system? Most of the time people who lose an anemone have put it into tank that is not ready to sustain it. If your system has been up for less than 6 months I would say you aren't quite ready for an anemone. There are a lot of things you have to have in balance before one will thrive in your tank. What other animals are in the tank? What kind of flow do you have?

PC lighting is not going to cut it for an anemone. They live mainly off light and will not do well with low lighting. Feeding an anemone is not necessary, they will get enough food from good lighting and when you feed your fish. They use a lot of energy to digest and sometimes feeding does more damage than good.

 

[cmor1701d]

I don't think that anemone can be saved. It appears to be too far gone. All the above advice about water parameters, lighting, and age of tank are spot on. I will add my own. Please do not buy another one. Clown fish will host almost anything and do not require an anemone. In the ocean these creatures can live 30 - 50+ years and get quite large. Our tanks will not be around long enough, nor are they big enough.
Also, it takes a lot of energy for an anemone to digest food. It primarily needs light with an occasional (1x/month) supplemental feeding, if any.
Other than that ...