Green bubble anemone got stuck in power head. Help!

M

Mbrusiloff

Reefing newb
My boyfriend woke me up yelling that our anemone was stuck in the power head around 4am. We just got it yesterday and he had been on the rock we had it on ALL day and starting moving after we went to sleep I guess. He was able to get it out of the power head in one piece. His mouth and bottom look totally normal. There's just a small rip on one side. It seems to be doing okay but I just want to make sure?! It's moved and kind of wrapped itself around a coral skeleton we have in our aquarium. Is this normal?! And what should we do to stop it from going towards the power head in the future?!
 
The odds will not be in your favor with such a young tank and a stressed anemone. You will need to continue to monitor it. Let it go where it wants unless it puts itself in danger as it did during the night. You can put plastic mesh on your power heads to nem proof them.
You will want to watch for signs of stress: gaping mouth, staying deflated more than inflated, hiding, deterioration, moving and not settling in.
It can heal itself as long as it isn't stressed or contracts an infection.

What are your water parameters and what type of lighting do you have?
 
We put fishnet pantyhose over them so hopefully if he tries that again it'll stop him. Our water parameters are perfect, except our nitrates are a bit high. Between 20 and 40. We have LED lighting. Would you recommend leaving them on all day to help him? He actually looks just like he did when we brought him home now and he's chillin on the coral skeleton still.
 
Here is what he looks like right now

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Your nitrates are really high for an anemone. I am going to give it to you straight --- we all make/made mistakes in this hobby and purchasing an anemone with such a young tank and nitrates that high will probably end up fatal for the anemone. Anemones are mostly water and require pristine parameters with minimal fluctuations within those parameters.

I don't know your lighting schedule but I would assume you have a day and night cycle that you have been doing?

Bubble tips like their foot planted in a rock crevice to protect it so it will most likely move off the coral skeleton in order find a safer spot.

You will have to clean the stocking regularly b/c they will trap crud and lead to more nitrates and also decrease your flow.

I would strongly suggest seeing if your LFS will take the anemone back. Then try again when your tank is more mature. If not all you can do is monitor and be prepared to take proper action if needed. Good luck and I hope it works out for you!
 
We do have our lighting on a day/night schedule. I put it on early though because I read somewhere that it may help him. He seems to be doing alright. I think it's more of a scratch than a rip. I know the shop here won't take him back. I tried returning damsels before n they wouldn't do it! Thanks a bunch for your help!!
 
Ill do a little clean up. Salt for brains is 100% dead on. He is our nem God that can solve every nem issues. If hes telling you to relocate your nem, its probally a very good reason. 20-40ppm! Wow, i really wonder what your phates are at and i wouldnt want to keep any of my fish in there let alone a very fragile nem.

We all make mistakes and im sure if you try to trade in to your lfs that they would trade it for salt or phosband or heater or something. Taking a loss may be they way, but not letting the nem die is the best thing you could do for your tank right now. Better luck in a few months, try to keep water for now and later worry about animals and inverts!
 
Our phates are at 0. Everything has been doing just fine since we started adding fish n corals so I'm not too worried. The nem seems completely back to normal and the lfs said it should be fine, as well. Just got home from there. We do water changes n test our water on a regular basis.
 
Mbrusiloff said:
Our phates are at 0. Everything has been doing just fine since we started adding fish n corals so I'm not too worried. The nem seems completely back to normal and the lfs said it should be fine, as well. Just got home from there. We do water changes n test our water on a regular basis.
Click to expand...
anemones are beautiful and tis the risk you take having 1 with powerheads in the tank cos they always seem to find 1 :(
I would try a tunze stream pump as they have a stop function if out goes in there :):)
 
Just make sure it doesn't start to rot away in your tank. I had the same thing happen to my 12" GBTA and I let it settle down and try and heal up, and all it did was rot away while I was at work. The ammonia spike that came from it, damn near wiped everything in my 55g out. So, pay close attention to it over the next couple of weeks.
 
The stress might also cause it to split. If I were you, I would just start doing frequent water changes until your nitrates are down, probably like ten gallons every few days. Since he is stressed, you'll want to get the water quality up for it to survive.
Oh! Also, BTA's do prefer rock so that's why it is on the coral rather than the sand.
 
+1 On taking it back to LFS, Also Just so you know LFS will say anything to get your money and keep your money... Oh and I would also say you get a difrent test for phosfates, it is very unlikely that with 20 to 40 ppm nitrates you have 0 phosfates.
 
We checked everything again last night and our nitrates were at 0. So now I have another question! We actually had a long spine Black Sea urchin and took him back yesterday morning because he kept knocking over our corals and stuff. We thought he was too big for our tank. Could he have been causing the spike in nitrates? Because everything else was perfect. And with him gone so are our nitrates now. He pooped A LOT too.
 
Nitrates don't disappear on their own. So I am thinking either your test that showed you had them was wrong or the last one you ran is wrong. Existing nitrates are removed through water changes. Nitrates are created by bioload, feeding too much, using lower quality foods, potentially water that you use, etc... Next time you go to your LFS take a sample of your water with you and let them check it to compare with your results.
 
I don't think the urchin had anything to do with your nitrates. Other than water changes, the only thing that will absorb nitrates is algae. Are you running a refugium with algae in it or an algae scrubber of some kind? That could have lowered them some but probably not a 20ppm difference.
 

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