Anemone looking pale and thin....

[gefilte]

My anemone is looking a little sickly this week. I have no fish right now due to a homocidal yellow tang/ich episode and am letting the tank go fallow. I have been watching my water and all and it is ok. My BTA is looking a little pale and his tentacles are looking a little stringy. I'm still feeding every couple of days, but he's not looking too good. He still opens when the light comes on, but he's looking a little sicky.

Any ideas?

 

[lando]

A couple of questions...What do you currently have for lighting and how old is your tank? What are your water parameters? What are you feeding and how long are your lights on?

 

[gefilte]

I have a coralife 48" AQUALIGHT WITH 2-65W ACTINIC / 2-65W 10,000K LAMP and I run the lights for 8 hours per day. The tank is a 65 gal with 100 lbs LR. Water is 1.023 sg, 8.0-8.3 ph, nitrites <.3, ammonia 0. The tank is about 4 months old and the anemone has been in there for 3 months. I am feeding brine shrimp with garlic.

Suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[alrmc4]

brine shrimp is not enough for a bta i would chop up some silversides and krill and feed it small amounts everyday until it perks up.

 

[gefilte]

Thanks, I'll give it a try!!

 

[lando]

water looks pretty good, do you test for nitrate? Most BTA do not handle high levels of nitrates very well. You may also want to try running your lights a bit longer everyday. I think most run their lights 10-12 hours a day. Good luck and let us know how it is going. Lando

 

[gefilte]

Thanks Lando!
Nitrates are at about 40 ppm. I got her some silversides and krill, chopped them up and put a little in her mouth. She gobbled it right up. I added some time to the lights so its up to 10 hours now. We'll see.....

 

[Anemoneman]

Nitrates are at about 40 ppm

You need to perform some LARGE water changes to get the nitrates down. In the meantime work on a strategy to keep nitrate at zero. Inverts are sensitive chronic high levels of nitrate.