Im Stressed Yet Again

[BEVS OASIS]

Entacmaea the Bubble-Tip or Bulb-Tentacle Sea Anemone. :)

IN my tank has reached a nice size of 18 - 20 inches when spread with a abase of 4 - 5 . :o

Its now turned pure white with in a couple of days
Even though this is the hardiest of large, naturally symbiotic Clownfish anemones for aquarium use according tp tmc

Tmc say this is normal but i cant help feel this is not right

Anybody out there have had the same problem ;)

If so what happened next :rolleyes:

yes i do have tomato clowns for it

[Preds]

An anemone going white means it is losing its symbiotic algae, normally. This isn't good.

[BEVS OASIS]

so whats the suggestion to stop this bleaching effect really dont want to loose this as i have stated to my bank manager type person(wife)
i sharnt by another

[Preds]

What's your lighting, flow and water quality like?

[pavlo]

Has your lighting or any other parameter changed recently?

[BEVS OASIS]

lighting by the means of 4 white and 2 actnic blues
water flow is still the same as it was when i bought it 6 months or so ago
2@ 1000ltr facing inwards
1@ 1200ltr facing leftside wall to create swearl
1@ 800ltr on right side of tank to increase flow across serface
return via eimem 1060 coming from top and lower right hand side

[Preds]

I'd be inclined to blame the lighting. Anemones usually need better lighting than standard fluoros. Having said that, 4 white tubes isn't a bad amount, but I'd still be inclined to blame the lighting.

How often do you feed the anemone?

[BEVS OASIS]

forgot to mention peramiters
ph 8.1 - 8.3
cal 400
nitrate -0
nitrite -010
amonia -0
salt 0.025
temp 72
iron 0
copper 0
hardness med
the only thing to change is my nitrite i have managed to reduce it from 0.50
down to 0.10 in 8 weeks doing a 5% water change every sunday afternoon
tank 48 x 16 x 22

[Preds]

If temp is 72, I'd personally say that's a tad too low. Should be at least 77, IMO, but better around 79-80. If you decide to raise it, this should be done gradually to avoid shcoking the livestock. Nitrite readings will also affect your anemone.

Contrary to popular belief, they are sensitive animals.

[BEVS OASIS]

feed anenemone every day trouble is s/he decides to come out from under his ledge and it his ledge cos everytime i got neer him to tomato gets me well tries his best the little nipper during the day 10 am till 5 so the misses gets a nice sight when i get home from work hes gone to bed again so only get to see his spender during the weekend
food is marine planctom, marine mix, crill,(frozen) and marine snow
main return pump terned of for ten minuets while feeding in progress

[Preds]

Anemones usually do better with gross feeding - fish, prawns etc.

How big is the anemone compared to the Tomato?

[BEVS OASIS]

clown 3 inch
enenimone open 14 -18 easly
wont touch prawns or crill muscles cockles lance fish
eats brine shrimp by the bucket load
my other anemone (carabian long tiped) eats anything offered to it so its not like i dont have the food there for it to eat it just wont it just drops them on the floor

[Preds]

That in itself isn't a great sign.

Along with the other possibilities outlined above, the Tomato could be being rough on the anemone.

[BEVS OASIS]

this could be the answer the tomato is a little violent sometimes like hes trying to rub his white band off or is the flame hawk or regal go near it
it tries to snuggle up that mutch youde think he was trying to become part of it

[reefclown]

HiReaper,
what time frames have you had the anem's for ?

As Pred's mentioned the temp is a tad low.

Any idea what causing the nitrite reading, what filteration do you have ?

IMO the lighting is insufficient, but having said that I have no experience of keeping them under tube lighting and as such am somewhat playing into the realms of theory and hearsay on this point.

I'd be dam interested to know what could cause a rapid bleaching event in an anem thou.

FWIW, i've always kept an anem (or two :) ) in my reef tanks, and other than a lance fish a week i have never fed directly.

what do you mean, by 'goes to bed' ?

[BEVS OASIS]

had one enem for 10 months there about this ones massive on full stretch
wife hand feeds this one as many lance fish as it wants
the other one thats lost its pinky colour about 4 months and again has grown quite large(sh)
must addmit starting to get colour back now

nitrite dont know levels have droped back to zero
in saying this i have cleaned all pipes out (skimmer cooler uv etc)

going to bed basicly comes out fully during the day and at 6pm reducis in size to aprox half its glory so we say hes gone to bed