My first anemone open mouth. I need help

gb_gren · Dec 26, 2020

My tank 14 gal peninsula about 1 year old. 8 pounds of rock 6 pounds of rock were live rock and the rest were dry. Live sand about 3/4-1in sand. Have only carbon and gfo with media and hd prime 10 hour about 20% on uv blues and 10% on white. So I pick this rbta about 2 weeks ago. Right before putting it in I did a water change( I do about 4 gallons)( I buy my ro water 0pp) so I like to run my tank at 1.026 sal. He was was fine and was moving around till he found he’s spot two days later. Maybe two days later I see it tucked in with slime and I read that he was just expelling his waste didn’t worry but now in the mornings he’s tucked in with his mouth open I don’t see slime anymore. I did notice by its food some brown stuff. This is my first salt water tank and my first ane. I don’t care loose what I spent. But I do care about his health and the health of all my living creatures I have in my little tank. I have 2 clowns 5 herm 2mex turbo and 2 naserious snails. I check nitrite and nitrate are at 0 and ammonia was 0. Only thing ph might be at 8.0 so I added marine buffer 8.3 and lower the salinity to 1.024

salt2salt · Dec 26, 2020

Did it eat something?

gb_gren · Dec 27, 2020

salt2salt said:
Did it eat something?

I did give it a tiny piece of shrimp and like a day later I saw the piece of shrimp come out of its tentacles. But I just have it some mice shrimp with tongs like a clump and it looks like he’s holding on to it. And I open up too

gb_gren · Dec 27, 2020

gb_gren said:
I did give it a tiny piece of shrimp and like a day later I saw the piece of shrimp come out of its tentacles. But I just have it some mice shrimp with tongs like a clump and it looks like he’s holding on to it. And I open up too

laverda · Dec 27, 2020

There are several things going on here. First why are you lights set so low? Anemones love and need a lot of light. Slowly increase intensity. Also it is really hard to tell what is the condition of your anemone when your photos are so blue. White lights for pics will let us see what is going on.
Do you know your phosphate level? Why are you running GFO? What media are you running with the GFO? Anemones need phosphates and nitrates to survive. Nitrates are a direct food source for anemones. Nitrates at 10-20 seam to be ideal for BTAs.
Time to get an decent Alkalinity, nitrate and phosphate test kit. Once your tank cycle is complete you should never need to test for ammonia or nitrite baring a mass die off or other disaster. Ph is not as important as your Alkalinity level. Marine Buffer works by raising you Alkalinity which is fine if it is low, but it may not be. In which case it can definatly stress your anemone. GFO also reduces Alkalinity. Alkalinity should always be adjusted slowly. I aim for Alkalinity levels at 8.6-9 DKH. Why did you lower your salinity? You really don’t want to be changing multiple things at once. Lowering salinity lowers Alkalinity, Ca Magnesium and almost everything. You salinity and Alkalinity should be kept as stable as possible. Other parameters should be kept stable as well, but are not as critical.
I know this is a lot of info. I hope it helps.

brmreefer · Dec 27, 2020

I second the info provided by laverda. I do want to add one thing. Avoid using any ph buffers. Don't chase that ph. Being at 8.0 is not bad by the way.

RedFrog211 · Dec 27, 2020

I came home from work yesterday, and my anemones were doing the same thing. I definitely thought they were on the brink of death. My salinity had gone to 1.028– guess between Christmas and working 12 the day after, I had forgotten to top off my tank. I gradually topped it off, and by morning they were back to normal!

nanonøkk · Dec 27, 2020

keep your salinity stable they like high lighting dont over feed them and make changes slowly and if your chasing numbers it will just make your tank fluctuate in perameters more and make it more upset

salt2salt · Dec 27, 2020

Stability is the key.

gb_gren · Dec 27, 2020

laverda said:
There are several things going on here. First why are you lights set so low? Anemones love and need a lot of light. Slowly increase intensity. Also it is really hard to tell what is the condition of your anemone when your photos are so blue. White lights for pics will let us see what is going on.
Do you know your phosphate level? Why are you running GFO? What media are you running with the GFO? Anemones need phosphates and nitrates to survive. Nitrates are a direct food source for anemones. Nitrates at 10-20 seam to be ideal for BTAs.
Time to get an decent Alkalinity, nitrate and phosphate test kit. Once your tank cycle is complete you should never need to test for ammonia or nitrite baring a mass die off or other disaster. Ph is not as important as your Alkalinity level. Marine Buffer works by raising you Alkalinity which is fine if it is low, but it may not be. In which case it can definatly stress your anemone. GFO also reduces Alkalinity. Alkalinity should always be adjusted slowly. I aim for Alkalinity levels at 8.6-9 DKH. Why did you lower your salinity? You really don’t want to be changing multiple things at once. Lowering salinity lowers Alkalinity, Ca Magnesium and almost everything. You salinity and Alkalinity should be kept as stable as possible. Other parameters should be kept stable as well, but are not as critical.
I know this is a lot of info. I hope it helps.

The reason I was running gfo I had an hair algae problem. And the lighting I was told 20% for the light it is on such a small tank it’s enough. I just run carbon and gfo. This morning at least it looks like he poop