What's killing my rock flower NEMs?

[sawdavis]

My Rock Flower Anemone (RFA) died suddenly, just like a previous one six months ago. First it collapsed into a hole in a rock for a day or two and then it came out and puffed out and stayed that way until it died. I thought it might be a bacteria or something like that so I gave it an Aqua-Ceph bath, but it did not help. I was wondering if my hammer (which was in close proximity to it) stung it and caused it to die. I have several other RFA in my tank so would like to get to the bottom of what caused these two deaths. I had both RFA's for about five years (along with the Hammer). Has anyone had this happen to them? Would appreciate any insights!!!

 

[Spare time]

List lights, light settings/par values, parameters, flow, and tank inhabitants.

 

[sawdavis]

Can you give me an idea of why lighting may be a factor. I had these two anemones for about five years before they died, so if there was something to do with the lighting, wouldn't it have happened before now? I have two Fluval led lights for reef tanks. My tank is 75 gallons and I have saltwater fish, snails, favia, mushrooms, alvepora, softies, --mixed reef but no SPS corals.

 

[sawdavis]

My parameters are: phosphates: .25, nitrates close to zero, salinity .025. I have my full range lights on for 7 hours and then goes to blue for five hours and then off for 12 hours.

 

[Lavey29]

If your nitrates are zero then you will be experiencing more then just nem deaths. Your corals are starving also.

Do you dose phytoplankton or hand feed your nems? I have 5 in my tank which rarely move from their preferred area. I broadcast feed frozen and dose phytoplankton daily

 

[LegalReefer]

Do you have any Peppermint Shrimp? I had an RFA that died when my shrimp suddenly acquired a taste for ‘nem after months of just ignoring it

 

[JoJosReef]

If you have algae issues that may be why nitrates are showing zero. But yes, you probably want to bring nitrates up and phosphates down.

But that might be a completely separate issue. In my tank, I have a hammer that hands down beat the tar out of the RFAs around it so I was constantly scooting its island further away. Now it is in another side of the tank and nems stopped moving/eating their own tentacles. If the hammer is stinging them, they will usually move but may withdraw and wither.

 

[sawdavis]

If your nitrates are zero then you will be experiencing more then just nem deaths. Your corals are starving also.

Do you dose phytoplankton or hand feed your nems? I have 5 in my tank which rarely move from their preferred area. I broadcast feed frozen and dose phytoplankton daily

I direct feed all my corals and anemones with reef roids (twice a week) and Red Sea AB+3-4 times a week.

 

[sawdavis]

I direct feed all my corals and anemones with reef roids (twice a week) and Red Sea AB+3-4 times a week.

I had a LHA problem so did reduce my nitrates to zero. Now I no longer have that problem but nitrates still remain at zero. Not sure how to bring them up.

 

[Lavey29]

I had a LHA problem so did reduce my nitrates to zero. Now I no longer have that problem but nitrates still remain at zero. Not sure how to bring them up.

Feed more frozen and cut back on roids and AB to lower your phosphate number which is elevated. If you had the nems for 5 years perhaps they just reached life expectancy age.

If they were moving around suddenly though unexpectedly that could be something off in their environment and they were trying to correct it by going to another spot. I've had larger nems force smaller ones to give up their spot.

 

[JoJosReef]

I had a LHA problem so did reduce my nitrates to zero. Now I no longer have that problem but nitrates still remain at zero. Not sure how to bring them up.

I would dump some neonitro into the tank at ~2ppm. I understand from reading here that having some nitrates will help reduce the phosphates.

 

[sawdavis]

If you have algae issues that may be why nitrates are showing zero. But yes, you probably want to bring nitrates up and phosphates down.

But that might be a completely separate issue. In my tank, I have a hammer that hands down beat the tar out of the RFAs around it so I was constantly scooting its island further away. Now it is in another side of the tank and nems stopped moving/eating their own tentacles. If the hammer is stinging them, they will usually move but may withdraw and wither.

I'm thinking it must be the hammer. Once when I was moving my tank, I put the hammer in with one of my alveporas and it stung it and half of it died. Then the other half slowly died. I moved the hammer to a different spot that is at least six inches away from any other coral.

 

[JoJosReef]

I'm thinking it must be the hammer. Once when I was moving my tank, I put the hammer in with one of my alveporas and it stung it and half of it died. Then the other half slowly died. I moved the hammer to a different spot that is at least six inches away from any other coral.

They can have deceptively long sweeper tentacles and they pack a punch when they don't like something. Mine played nice with an octospawn, but I had to keep the hammer and a torch with a clean flow barrier between them. One of my RFAs was frequently stung and ate off half its skirt. It eventually grew back after moving its rock away (stubborn nem, didn't want to move).

 

[Spare time]

Can you give me an idea of why lighting may be a factor. I had these two anemones for about five years before they died, so if there was something to do with the lighting, wouldn't it have happened before now? I have two Fluval led lights for reef tanks. My tank is 75 gallons and I have saltwater fish, snails, favia, mushrooms, alvepora, softies, --mixed reef but no SPS corals.

It's just a list of things that help narrow down a problem.

 

[Spare time]

My parameters are: phosphates: .25, nitrates close to zero, salinity .025. I have my full range lights on for 7 hours and then goes to blue for five hours and then off for 12 hours.

What test kit?

 

[Bob2bob]

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