Bubble Anemone losing tentacles

[petechic]

new to the Forum but have been in the hobby, or sport (however you want to classify it ) for quite some time. Recently (around the beginning of March) I had to move a 40 gallon tank that had been running for about 5 years to a new one because of a leak, all live rock was transferred, new sand added, and used about 70% of the old tank water in the move, all other equipment has remained the same. Since doing that my bubble anemone has dropped most of his tentacles, and has refused to eat (he is a little over a year old). his mouth remains tightly closed, he is staying attached to his rock and short of the tentacles missing he looks good. Only fish in the tank with him are 2 clown fish, and a starry eyed blenny, there is a emerald crab that has taken up home in the same rock. Parms are all in line.

salinity 1.025
PH 8.2
Nitrate - .2
nitrite .0
phosphate .05
ammonia 0
alk 9.7
calk 440
mag 1300

my first thought was that the larger clown fish my be loving him to death but I don't see any evidence of that, any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Big G]

Bump

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Is it in a high flow area, is it getting blasted? What inverts do have in the tank?

 

[petechic]

in a mid flow area so not getting hit to hard, a few hermit crabs and snails all as part of the clean up crew, rest of the tank is a mixed SPS/LPS. Everything else is doing well.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Pics? I have quite a few and never personally seen this, but I have read where other people have experianced this problem.

 

[petechic]

Pics? I have quite a few and never personally seen this, but I have read where other people have experianced this problem.

I will grab a pic as soon as he comes back out..just fed the tank and he is pulled in.

 

[petechic]

Pics? I have quite a few and never personally seen this, but I have read where other people have experianced this problem.

starting to come out of his rock,

 

[petechic]

starting to come out of his rock,

 

[petechic]

The last pic was before the lights came on this morning.

 

[petechic]

@hdsoftail1065 any thoughts?

 

[naterealbig]

The last pic was before the lights came on this morning.

Interesting - never seen this before. The Anemone looks happy, all things considered. And, because anemones can live completely on photosynthesis, no worries on it not eating. I'd just leave it alone - it will regenerate over time.

 

[petechic]

Interesting - never seen this before. The Anemone looks happy, all things considered. And, because anemones can live completely on photosynthesis, no worries on it not eating. I'd just leave it alone - it will regenerate over time.

Thanks for you’re help odd to me too. Will leave him alone and see what happened.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

@hdsoftail1065 any thoughts?

I have never seen or experienced this before on any of our nems, yours is the first for me my friend. I did do a little Google search and found a few old postings where other people had the same issue, but I never seen anything of value. I will keep looking. I have to agree with @naterealbig about not to worry to much if its not eating, but if you try to spot feed it from time to time no fowl done and you might get lucky and it will take some. I "might" feed ours once a month sometimes its upto 6 months before they get a little nibble of shrimp. Other than that they only get what I feed the fish (LRS & Mysis). I would just keep an eye on it and if it looks like its breaking down and turning to mush I would remove it. If your sps and lps is doing fine I would think you have plenty of light for a nem. Another option is Amoo's Cipro thread, I have never tried it but it was a fantastic read. Let's get some more eyes on it to see if anyone else has seen or experienced this before. #reefsquad

How I Cipro

Many of you have probably already seen this before as it's part of a sticky on another forum, but I'm moving the information over to this site as this is where I spend most of my time and want to link this in my Sig. Amoo's Sick Nem Treatment Protocol: Let me start by saying most of my research...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Ron Reefman]

The last pic was before the lights came on this morning.

That's a bubble tip anemone? It looks like a mushroom to me. If it really is a BTA and this is what it looks like now, well, I've never seen anything like it. Are the tentacles just falling off?

 

[Crashjack]

Mine loses a tentacle every now and then, but it sometimes receives pretty high flow (I've programmed my Gyres to run varying speeds and in both directions, but the flow is always intermittent). What is odd is that the tentacles retain their coloration and thickness after they detach. I have seen btas somewhat shrivel and lose tentacles to the point where there is just a disk and some nubs left, and they die. However the detached tentacles are shriveled without much color. My bta is healthy, and the detached tentacles look like you could "frag" them to make more btas, though it doesn't work that way.

 

[petechic]

That's a bubble tip anemone? It looks like a mushroom to me. If it really is a BTA and this is what it looks like now, well, I've never seen anything like it. Are the tentacles just falling off?

Definitely a bubble tip. I haven’t seen the tentacles and thought maybe my clown was picking them off but haven’t experienced that either. It’s bazar for sure.

 

[petechic]

Thank for all the help here, it's much appreciated. I will keep the group posted on how he does over time.

 

[Meatball_reef]

Any updates to this old thread? I'm having the same issues.

 

[petechic]

never really figured out what was going on..interesting part is that mine is still alive in my tank, slowly building back it tentacles, granted he lost all of his color and is about half the size, I just can't bring myself to taking him out because it looks like he is still trying to recover. not really sure of the root cause, I know, not much help. good luck.

 

[Meatball_reef]

Thanks for the reply. I have one that lost all of it's tentacles and is slowly growing them back. I put another RBTA in the tank two weeks ago and it still has not adjusted to the lighting, keeps trying to hide in caves. Everything else in the tank is fine, SPS and LPS. Wracking my brain trying to figure out why it won't come out, hopefully wont' loose it's tentacles like the other one in my tank.