my anemone died :(

[ziggyziggy]

here's the situation. on saturday afternoon i bought an anemone along with a false percula clown, a yellow boxfish, and a starfish. i came home, dropped all of them into my 45g tank. the existing fish are a yellow tang, two blue damsels, and a striped damsel. that same nite i did a 50% water change. i know it was a bad idea but i really had to do it. after the water change everything was fine, the water was a little cold so all the fish were in a little state of shock. i left the light and heater on all nite to warm up the water. the next morning (sunday) i woke up and everything seemed quite well. all the fish were swimming and the percula was playing with the anemone. well on sunday nite, i turned off the light at nite and woke up on monday morning and turned the light back on. i fed flake food and everything was still fine. i turned the light off again after a few minutes and left for work. i came home that evening and the anemone was floating at the top of the tank and now the percula clown is just swimming around the same place where the anemone used to reside. what could have caused the anemone to die?

 

[fonzie]

It might of been the starfish.My starfish recently killed one of my anemones by smothering it while it was disinflated.

 

[ziggyziggy]

could my hermit crabs have killed it too? i thought anemones can sting its enemies. how could the starfish have gotten to it?

 

[allthingsanimal]

Anemones like all corals are sensitive to salinity changes. How long did you take to acclimate the anemone? What kind of starfish do you have? How long has the tanks been running, how much light do you have on the tank. What are your water parameters?

we need more info.

 

[KimandRob]

Most starfish are not reef safe and will feed on inverts. I've always heard that you should never do more than 25% water change at once. You should never make so much of a change to your tank as to add 4 items at once. Also anenome's need moderate light to survive. Be sure to research things before buying them, such as compatabiltiy or you'll be throwing money away. Please don't be offended because I'm stating all these things as wrong, this is to help with your question. As all things animal said, You should let us know your parameters and we can help you more.

 

[ziggyziggy]

its a chococlatechip starfish i think, the tank has been running for 2 years and its the first anemone i put it,. pH is something like 8.0 to 8.2 i think. and for the others i have no clue. i have a cheap single tube fluorescent light with a 50/50 bulb. i forgot the wattage but maybe its 40?

 

[KimandRob]

Do you know what kind of anenome it was? Some anenome can adjust to light conditions. So that should'nt be a problem. But on the other hand the choc chip star is not reef safe. Check out the specs for it on www.Saltwaterfish.com . I would take it back and see if you could trade it or something, because if you want any other inverts he'll eat them.
BTW how is the boxfish. I've always seen those at the store and thought they were weird looking.

Rob

 

[ziggyziggy]

hehe the boxfish i doing fine and super cute just a yellow little guy swimming around in circles. my other fish bugs him once in a while but he doesn't fight back. just continues to do his thang i think i can assume the starfish killed it then cuz once i put him in the same day, one of my blue damsels died, and i had it for 2 years

 

[catfishmike]

to truly anwser this question,you'll have to provide more details although,at the same time it kinda doesn't matter because anemones are real hard to keep,unless they are the pest ones found on live rock.odds are though it's death was a combination of things,starting with improper handling when it was caught,then the starvation from shipping,adjusting to the dealers tanks,then your tank,and to top it off a lack of proper lighting the whole time,effectively killing off all the sybiotic algae that supplements their food.

 

[ziggyziggy]

would shutting off my light completely have killed it? cuz i heard that anemones die very slowly. if they are unhealthy they would not die off immediately. i would assume that the reason why they die instantly is that they are killed by another creature.

 

[catfishmike]

it had probably been dying before you got it.yes shutting of your light would kill it.not in one day but they will die quickly without it. your tank seems kinda heavly stocked for a 45.but really thought what kind of filter,do you have live rock,protein skimmer,whats your w/c rotine ect...
i don't think the w/c helped though,anemones need some of the most clean,pure water of marine life.if you use tap water or well water to make your seawater that could have done it too.we need as much info as you can give us about your tank.

 

[dbacksrat]

hmm...your tank sounded a little unprepared for it........are u a sw beginner?

 

[ziggyziggy]

i been doing this for 2 years. i have skimmer but coming to think of it my filter might be underpowered. honestly, could the starfish have killed it?

 

[wayne]

No I don't think the starfish did it. You sound a bit unprepared for an anemone. Whow good was it at the store - most are in a pretty poor state - what colour , any damage, tears?. How long did you take to acclimate these fish and inverts - chucking them straight in , or even just 15 mins acclimating temps is not enough. Anemones are quite primitive, and need acclimating by dripping in water for periods of up to hours. You then compounded the problem by throwing in a cold water. I think poor acclimation and a big osmotic shock (different salinities, pH?), and then the water change killed it.
Frankly it was doomed long term anyway as your lighting is totally useless for these creatures. There are low light anemones but I don't often see them listed. Was it a sand or rock dwelling type.
Sorry if the above sounds harsh, but if you want to succeed with these difficult animals you need to really research first, and get the tank ready.

 

[ziggyziggy]

dont worry, i like to take advice and criticism. i nkow my setup is quite primitive and plan on getting another lamp with three fluorescent bulbs. i dont wanna buy anything more expensive than that. i hope that can be good enuf cuz i plan to use 10,000K, 50/50 and actinic blue bulbs in them. as for the anemone, it looked pretty bad when i took it home and dropped it into my tank. but afterwards it started to look healthier cuz all the tentacles started spreading out and looks really fluffy and pretty. but it seems like it just died suddenly over the course of 8 hours when i left home.

 

[wayne]

No 4 fluorescents isn't good enough for most of the commonly sold anemones to do much I don't think. I still think your problem is acclimation, or really too rapid a change in water conditions. Oh, and they require 'reef tank ' water quality too. They are very challenging to keep , and you don't see many people do well with them. They can live hundreds of years in the wild so a 3 month survival in someones tank isn't much to brag about.

 

[allthingsanimal]

Have you done a water test. Check your nitrates. I would suggest acclimating corals and anemones over the course of an hour or two. You will really need over 200 watts of light to sustain life. More to flourish. If I am wrong someone please correct me.