Anemone problem.....

[Budaman]

A while back I moved a rock with a bubble anemone attach and accidentally pinched it(1 month ago). It seemed fine for a couple days then started to close up more and more. It moved across my tank about a week ago, and seemed to be doing better. Opening up at night, but the tentacles are very small. Each day it closes and excretes a white mucus from its mouth and body. And now today it seems to be detaching itself from the rock. Just hanging there. Is it dying? I've heard bad stories of the dead anemone aftermath and want to avoid killing everything else apon it's death. My other anemones are doing just fine, all water perimeters check out.

Thoughts?

 

[Budaman]

Another thing is, it moved into a darker area of my bio cube ( stock lighting ). I read another post on here that they can sometimes find a place that is NOT good for them and settle. Thus killing themselves... Is that true?

 

[AbsoluteFaye]

That's what happened to mine. He got caught in a powerless then moved under an overhang getting almost no light. He finally died after a few months of hanging on. Good luck. You can try spotlighting him if he'll let you. I tried but mine would always retract.

 

[mr_X]

Yes, it's true that they can settle in a dark area and fail. If it was getting better after you pinched it, it's not the reason it is failing now.
Anemones are not like sea apples, that are filled with a toxin. When an anemone dies it's simply a massive nutrient spike, kind of like putting way too much food in the tank at once, or losing a large fish.

 

[Budaman]

Ok! Awesome, thanks guys. This morning after going about 9 hrs of darkness it was completely reattached to the rock again and opened up with its stubby tentacles. Is there a final end all sign of their oncoming death that I should be watching for?

 

[Budaman]

Photo from this morning.

 

[mr_X]

That anemone does not look like it's dying. Turning into mush would be a good sign of it failing. Just keep good parameters and lighting and wait and see. What lighting do you have currently?

 

[Budaman]

I have the stock lighting for the bio cube 29 gal. Will be upgrading to the clip on HQI lighting hopefully soon. Maybe you know what's exactly is inside the stock bio cube lights. My LFS told me small amenities will be ok. However I still want to upgrade.

 

[mr_X]

Small or large does not matter. Anemones require X amount of lighting, per species. It looks like you have 2 power compacts at 36 watts each. I wouldn't call it high lighting.
Here is a link to Rapid LED's retrofit kits for your tank-
Retrofit kits - Nano Kits - BioCube 29 - Oceanic Biocube 29 Kits - Rapid LED
Just something to think about.

 

[Budaman]

Awesome. That sight is great. I was already planning to shop around, so this will def help out. Thank you.