Emergency!: anemone possibly dying

So I got my bta yesterday and it was fine and today it’s lazily hanging ooff the rock part of it is not and it’s mouth is like lazily shut like it could open if I moved it my tank is 3 weeks old and my ammonia is .50 ppm nitrite 0 nitrate 0 I forgot the rest of the parameters but they all seemed good according to google right now I have a clownfish 2 Halloween hermits and the anemone and the others are doing fine because I put x5 the prime every day so far please help

 

Unfortunately there's likely nothing you can do. Anemones typically need very well-established tanks - yours isn't even done cycling. Prime will detoxify ammonia to an extent, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's not harmful at all.

The best thing you can do to try and save it (and your other tank inhabitants) is to do some water changes with matched parameters and try to get that ammonia down. Try to keep salinity, temperature, and PH as close as possible to the tank water.

If this is the tank in your build thread, it's also unlikely that tank would have supported the anemone long-term anyway (they tend to need moderate lighting - if you have the light I'm thinking of, it's pretty minimal light), and as I mentioned before, tanks that have been set up for several months and have achieved stability.

I'll tag Jesterrace to see if he has anything to add.

 

Fishproblem

 

Thanks I heard on a different forum that instead of it dying in your tank and ruining it you should put it in a bucket and make it as comfortable as possible :T
This is my possible temporary solution unless if someone else steps in I just don’t want her guts to get all over the tank IF she dies

 

I no longer have reef tanks, but when I did, I had a number of anemones. The bubble tip anemones are supposed to be one of the easiest to keep, but that was not my experience. I never could keep one alive for long. In contrast, I had sebae and carpet anemones that lives for years.

Anemones need very high lighting conditions, strong water flow and pristine water quality. When I had mine, I used 6500K fluorescent lighting. I had my carpet anemone in a 29 gallon tank illuminated by 195 watts of light, almost 7 watts per gallon.

When put into new environments, it is common for anemones to retract. Sometimes they will adapt and open again. However, if the conditions are not suitable, they will die.

 

I no longer have reef tanks, but when I did, I had a number of anemones. The bubble tip anemones are supposed to be one of the easiest to keep, but that was not my experience. I never could keep one alive for long. In contrast, I had sebae and carpet anemones that lives for years.

Anemones need very high lighting conditions, strong water flow and pristine water quality. When I had mine, I used 6500K fluorescent lighting. I had my carpet anemone in a 29 gallon tank illuminated by 195 watts of light, almost 7 watts per gallon.

When put into new environments, it is common for anemones to retract. Sometimes they will adapt and open again. However, if the conditions are not suitable, they will die.

That makes sense so I guess it’s a ”wait and see” game cause I did everything I can think of
Update she is all the way attached to the rock and a little more opened up I have my fingers crossed
Another update (sorry) half of her tenticals are deflated
Update she’s getting worse I think her mouth is open now...

 

That makes sense so I guess it’s a ”wait and see” game cause I did everything I can think of
Update she is all the way attached to the rock and a little more opened up I have my fingers crossed
Another update (sorry) half of her tenticals are deflated
Update she’s getting worse I think her mouth is open now...

Sea anemones are like a balloon filled with water rather than air. They can inflate and deflate in response to their surroundings. When conditions are favorable, they will inflate fully. When things are not favorable, they will deflate until conditions improve.

Although you mentioned the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate concentrations, you never mentioned the pH and salinity levels. Anemones and other invertebrates need high pH levels (8.2 and higher) and also high salinity levels (1.024-1.025 specific gravity). Sometimes fishkeepers try to keep FOWLR tanks at a lower salinity, but invertebrates seldom thrive at those levels.

When making up salt water to use for water changes, it is best to make the water up well ahead of time. I kept a large plastic bin full of RO water and another large bin full of salt water. When I did a water change, I used the salt water and then immediately made up another batch of saltwater from RO water and marine salt. Also, make sure you you use the marine salt designed for reef tanks as it contains minerals well suited to maintaining corals and other invertebrates. Because I used RO water, I never had to use a water conditioner like Prime.

 

K don’t know what my ph is because the color doesn’t really match the graph (I posted about it) and my salinity is 1.026 I’m almost positive I buy it already mixed at my lfs

 

How did this turn out? I'd say that without having the full picture of your tank's water parameters, and a pretty new tank (is my perception, at least), you took a risk getting a 'nem off the bat. Good on you for trying to manage the ammonia with prime, but that can still be a dodgy solution if you're not dosing within the appropriate timeframe and a proper dosage. Even slip ups that result in a brief spike can be pretty stressful on the critters.

That said, sometimes a risk can turn out well! fingers crossed that it did for you.