Anemone advice

[Sarcophine]

This is Hector, my anemone.


I rescued him out of a lab after we discovered he'd been forgotten after the semester ended. His story starts out in the dirty bay waters of Florida where he was collected from. He then found his way into this lab to be stared at by students. As far as we are aware, he was merely decoration and was not used in experiments. When the semester ended, the students (and care-takers) left, the lights were shut off and the tank was forgotten about. He was then left alone for about 6 months until I stumbled upon the tank. About half of the water had evaporated, there was no water flow, the salinity was something insane like 52ppt, he hadn't been fed, and he hadn't seen light because there were no windows and that classroom hadn't been used since the semester he was collected.

Somehow, he was as happy as a clam. Fully open and extended, nice and plump, he looked great! After a few inquiries, I got permission to take him home to my tank. He's been a great addition and I'm hoping to one day have some clowns to host him. I've had him well over a year now and he seems to only be deteriorating in health. He was initially open often and remained plump but has in the last 6 months or so been retracted 24/7 (with about 2-3 tentacles sticking out the top) and getting smaller in size. The only time he plumps back up and extends his tentacles is when I clean my tank and dirty up all the water! He seems to like messy water and I just don't know what to make of this. I target feed him roughly every 2-3 weeks but I see him catch particulates during my nightly fish feeding time anyway. He's not starving. The water conditions seem fine to me. None of my fish or corals are showing signs of.... too clean water?

I just don't know what to do with him. He seems so unhappy. Anyone got ideas?

[davocean]

Well it's pretty bleached and does not look so hot in pic, can't even tell what kind it is.
Light is their main source of energy, but when they are that white/bleached they lack the zooxanthellae required to turn that light into useable energy, so they need to be spot fed, and small foods are best, easier to digest, causes less stress, so mysis would be good 2-3x per week.
It also may need to be screened off from bright light at this time at least some, depending on your lights, might be harsh on it.
It may like the dirty water as it is filtering what it can

[SmilinAvnger]

What color was it when you found it? Do you have an idea of what kind of anemone it is? I would feed him a couple times a week like Daveocean says. And protecting him from your light might be a good idea. He may be too used to the dark after 6 months and need to be slowly acclimated to brighter lighting.

What else do you have in the tank? What kind of lights do you have?

[Sarcophine]

The picture above was taken about a day or two after I first put him in my tank when he had just spent 6 months without light. If I took a picture of him now he would look an awful lot like an enormous, tan flatworm so I opted to use an old photo. And I can't get an ID on him even though I own him. I've been looking through field guide after field guide to figure out what he is with no real luck. This is the closest I've come (the one on the top right) but as with any common name - it hasn't led to much.



The tentacles are still white, almost translucent, but the base is a dark brown in the first picture and is still a tan-brown today. If the anemone expelled its zooxanthellae (or they died) while it was in the lab tank, my anemone would have needed to get new zooxanthellae from my tank, which probably was not very abundant as I only have (er...had) a few zoas... so you're probably right that I should be feeding him more often. Is there a way to increase the zooxanthellae count in my tank to get it to repopulate my anemone?

As far as lighting goes, I had a 2 bulb T5 setup (one 10,000k, one actinic) on there for a while before switching to LED's that are on there now. I just got the LED's in December though so they're relatively recent. Should I move the rock he's on to a shady spot? I'm not going to have any luck trying to pry him off while he's in flatworm mode.

[SmilinAvnger]

Like Daveocean said, it is probably white because it ejected all of it's zooxanthellae(yes I copied and pasted that from your post Dave. How in the world do you know how to spell that?) It may not be white when it is healthy. I assumed the top pic was what it looked like now. In my opinion, it does not look healthy or happy there.

I would definitely shade it from the LEDs. The T5s were probably better for its re adjustment.

So you have had it for about 6 months, and about 3 months with the LEDs right? What kind of LEDs are they? Can you dim them? Give it a couple of weeks, then bump them up a notch or 2? Repeat.

Feed it more often.

I don't think it is a goner yet.

[SmilinAvnger]

http://reefguide.org/keys/Sea_Anemones.html

Maybe one of these?

[Sarcophine]

I've had Hector well over a year. The photo above says it was taken Jan 22, 2014 so I probably picked Hector up about a week before that when school started. He was doing well in Florida, I had T5 lights and was using dechlorinated tap water with Reef crystals for my water. I moved to Cali in July and immediately started using pre-made saltwater from local fish stores. My corals seemed happier and my fish were all content. Even Hector seemed to have handled the move well. He started to close up more frequently in October. I thought it was the cold so I put in a heater because the temperatures were dropping pretty cold at night. And then in mid-December is when I got the LED lights. If his decline was from poor water, my other corals wouldn't be so darn happy and showing great growth results. And while the LED lights might not be helping, he was closing up before I got them.

The instructor who collected it said she collected it from the bay near Bob Sykes bridge (which is where half of school collections take place so I knew it well). Pretty much all of the anemones there have white tentacles, sometimes with a faint purple or pink hue to the tips. Here are some other pictures of "wild Hectors" from near the original collection site.

This MAY be what they look like with zooxanthellae but I always thought these were two different species

[davocean]

I think you may be confusing zooxanthellae( yeah that took practice to spell!lol) w/ zooanthids possibly.
If it has any color at all it can regain that zoo and health under the right conditions, and those can vary from one species to another so it does help to ID, but since yours was a shore collected specimen like that it may not even be what we would call one of the common kept host species.
Hard to say what lights were stronger or better w/out knowing what they are, but I just would not blaze it until it regains some color, feed 2-3x per week of small food like mysis is best, stay on top of WC's, bout the best you can do.
Get a good pic or two when you can, and try to show the foot/base

[Sarcophine]

Nah, zooxanthellae and zoas are different but the only way for zooxanthellae to repopulate my anemone is for there to be free zooxanthellae in the water column. In order for there to be free zooxanthellae in the water column of a closed system like mine, it would have to come from one of my other corals that are hosting zooxanthellae. The only photosynthetic corals I've ever had in my tank are zoas (zooanthids). If the zoas were doing well, their zoaxanthellae would reproduce and once the zoid was filled to capacity with zooxanthellae, the excess would be released into my water column and potentially taken up by my anemone. The question is, how do I repopulate the zooxanthellae into my anemone when I currently dont have any zooanthids, or any photosynthetic corals, in my tank (the only batch I had were recently eaten by a rogue asterina). I don't suppose anyone has heard of a zooxanthellae mixed pack that you can dose your tank with like your would copepods? haha. I will definitely start feeding my anemone more but that's really treating the symptoms when I would like to cure the "illness" and get some zooxanthellae back in the anemone. It's a shame I'm so far from his local habitat now. Hopefully the still-tan base means that deep inside there are some zooxanthellae left.

[SmilinAvnger]

Must have misunderstood some of your timing in the OP.

I got a sebae a few years ago that was white bright white thinking that looks pretty fantastic! Doing some reading later I found out that was not such a good thing... Gave it a good spot and fed it and it colored up to a purple/brown in a few weeks. Now he is about a foot across when he wants to be a punk and tickle his neighbors. Like you said, your other corals should provide the excess zooxanthellae(copied and pasted again...) in time.

That first pic you posted still looks terrible compared to all the other pics you have posted. So I would think he has not been in very good shape for a long time.

My guess is still the lighting and food. Sounds like you are going to up your feeding regimen and that should help significantly. Knowing what type of LED you have above the tank might help us as well.

Also curious about what temperature you have been keeping your tank?

[davocean]

I will definitely start feeding my anemone more but that's really treating the symptoms when I would like to cure the "illness" and get some zooxanthellae back in the anemone. It's a shame I'm so far from his local habitat now. Hopefully the still-tan base means that deep inside there are some zooxanthellae left.

At this point most important is to get it healthy enough to survive, so the small feedings will do that and that is standard protocol in bringing a bleached nem back to health.
There actually is an experimental study going on right now in doing a zooxanthellae transplant, this is on reefcentral in the nem forum by Minh/Orion who is the main guy that discovered how we treat bacterial infections in nems in the nem forum on RC, but honestly if there is any color at all it should regain health on it's own w/ a little help and proper conditions