Haitian Reef Anemone

I need help pretty quickly. I purchased three beautiful anemones today. 2 purple and whie and one green and white. Fairly large attached to live rock so I had to buy the giant rock as well.

All was good. I got them home. Left them in the plastic container for a short period. They had shrunk a little. But figured it was from the car ride. Swiftly placed them my tank to avoid air. They stayed about the same..little smaller than when purchased. I went to the store and was gone maybe 2 hours. The largest purple on had detatched from the rock. Completely deflated and resting by the bubble stone. The other two remained attached to the rock but again deflated and appeared dead. I freaked. No cloudy water. All fish ok even my bI color angel. So I took them out and placed them back in the container to protect my fish.

I put in a heater and bubble stone w them. The large purple one looks as though he's trying to reattach to the rock. The midium white and purple inflated a little. The green n white has inflated only a little.

Are they dying? Can they die that fast? Do they do this? Are they temperamental? Can I save them? I'm at a loss.

 

Some questions that might help us help you...
How did you acclimate?
What was the lighting like at the store vs. your tank?
Tank parameters?
Rock flower anemones don't usually walk like some of the other species do, but they still might if they don't like where you put them, if the light was too bright or too dim, they didn't like the current (or the air stone?)
I have had a couple rock flowers and I was always told to treat them like more like LPS than anemones as far as light and current needs, but to acclimate them like shrimp (i.e. slowly). They do take a day or two to adjust and look like themselves again though.

 

It's really strange because they keep changing what they look like. I'll post pics.

I had the store test my water vs their water and parameters were the same. I thought water differece would be the issue.

I brought them home in a 5 gal tub of store water. They deflated but I thought maybe the ride. So I let them rest in the tub. They puffed back up after a few hours. Then deflated again. So I added a heater to the tub and an air stone. The next morning they looked ok. They were already attached to a large live rock and the store wasn't able to safely remove them so I took all three plus the rock. The purple one had detached then reattached to the rock but in a new spot.

I added them to my tank with the rock. They appeared fine. A few hours later. The purple one detached and moved under the rock close to the air stone. His foot? Got very large (orange color) then went down to normal. I just checked and I'd say the foot?? is a medium size and not attached to the rock. Still close to the air stone. The white one has become considerably smaller but in the same spot. The baby green on is in the same spot but looks awful. He was ok and the white one was ok, compared to now. They at least looked alive. Anyway I'm at a loss. Maybe they are acclimating and stressed. All fish even my bI color angel are fine.

The store had LED lights and so do I. I know that is probably not the best for them.

I fear I'm losing them. I went to another store and asked and they said they sometimes will deflate for days when moved.

 

I"m sorry, those are not what I thought you had. I'm not an expert on anemones, I only have experience with rock flower nems.

 

Thanks for trying to help. Not sure what to do.

 

Well I've tried everything from water change to lights. They get better for a few hours then crash. I lost the green baby earlier today. I added more water flow and lost my white one now my purple one has dislodged from the rock again and crashing.

Nothing else to do but wait and see what tomorrow brings for my purple one. Very sad.

 

Well I've tried everything from water change to lights. They get better for a few hours then crash. I lost the green baby earlier today. I added more water flow and lost my white one now my purple one has dislodged from the rock again and crashing.

Nothing else to do but wait and see what tomorrow brings for my purple one. Very sad.

How are they doing now? I added a glass of my water to the bucket I brought mine home in every 5 minutes for 50 minutes before dropping the rock in. I was told that acclimation was very much important

 

Unfortunately I lost them all. Still not sure why. Only thing I can think of, but store said no, was I finally found the dead turbo snail. Water quailty was great even with the snail so he wasn't dead long.

No more additions of anything for me for a while. When I lost my puffer I said the same thing. But this was so sad and nothing worked. I thought I had it figured out and saved them but lost them all. Glad I got them out before they clouded the tank. Then I would have lost everyone.

 

Have you ever had an anemone before? Did you do any research at all before getting these?

That was all perfectly natural normal behaviour for nems. If you took them out of the tank because they were deflated and "dead" you killed them. There was a few things you did wrong, but none of them would've killed them.

1.

I brought them home in a 5 gal tub of store water. They deflated but I thought maybe the ride. So I let them rest in the tub. They puffed back up after a few hours. Then deflated again. So I added a heater to the tub and an air stone. The next morning they looked ok. They were already attached to a large live rock and the store wasn't able to safely remove them so I took all three plus the rock. The purple one had detached then reattached to the rock but in a new spot.

This is a really bad idea. Any coral or nem or even fish is going to get all stressed out and hide or get **** off when you get them home from the fish store. You should've acclimated them straight to the tank.

2.

I added them to my tank with the rock.

Did you acclimate them at all? Nems need acclimation.

3.

The store had LED lights and so do I. I know that is probably not the best for them.

What lights do you have? LEDs are fantastic amazing lights. Most reefs nowadays run off of LED's.

4.

Well I've tried everything from water change to lights. They get better for a few hours then crash. I lost the green baby earlier today. I added more water flow and lost my white one now my purple one has dislodged from the rock again and crashing.

When you say crash, what do you mean? Don't change anything when you add nems to the tank. Its completely normal for them to be **** off and closed for days or even weeks when you first add them to the tank. Its also completely normal for them to let go of the rock and go sailing around the tank trying to find a better spot. They will constanlty roam until they find the perfect spot.

Very sorry this happened to you, but I have a feeling they were completely fine, at least until you took them out of the tank because they were "dead"