Rock Flower Anemone Help: When do I 'pull the plug'?

[ServingAces15]

Hey all,

 

I obtained a 4 gallon Waterbox in the beginning of December and instantly knew I wanted a rock flower anemone garden. It's been a dream of mine to own the little suckers and this tank seemed perfect for it. I already run a Fluval 13.5 Evo that's over 2 years old now and used LR and sand from it to seed this new pico. After a month I added a small zoanthid colony that has done very well and is starting to grow new polpys. 4 days ago I drove an hour to pick up a porcelain crab, some nassarius snails, and a few rock flowers. I was aiming to start with 2 but the guy from the place I got everything from gave me an extra one for free, which was awesome. I then ended up with an injured high-fin banded goby who is doing amazing and loves having the tank to himself. Everyone seems to be acclimating really well except for my one rock flower anemone. I've done a lot of research on these guys but it's still a little hard to tell when they're about to bite the dust. 

Water parameters are as follows:

 

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrite: 0ppm

Nitrate: <10ppm

Phosphates: <5ppm

pH: 8.0

Temp: 80F

Salinity: 1.025

 

I've done weekly water changes. I've also attached a picture to show the downhill progression of this rock flower. He started in one place and last night moved to another place and looked much better but now looks bad again. (Picture is left to right) Should I 'pull the plug' on this guy before he nukes my tank? Thanks in advance!

[Chris's Fishes]

I'm not experienced with RFAs, but I'd keep it going until I was sure there was no recovery in sight. Nems can come back from extremely bad places, and sometimes it just takes time.

 

If you see it open it's mouth and spit out a bunch of white goo, remove it. I'd remove it if you see any signs of it falling apart, as well.

 

About your water parameters - did you mean to type .5 PPM phosphate? 5 PPM is crazy high, and even .5 PPM is too high for a reef (IMO). I was running at 15 PPM of nitrate and around .1 PPM of phosphate, and my BTA was struggling to recover from shipping. After getting nitrates down to near zero, and phosphates down to around 0.05 or so, it's doing much better. But, still, a month in, it's still not 100% back. I'd look into your water parameters, and try to lower phosphates, if you can. Macroalgae did a ton for me.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Sometimes they are moody, I have one that does the same as the bottom right pic, then next day it's fine. Rock flowers will move to find a spot they like, it's not really common, but I have one that was a traveler. He moved across the tank twice and then found a spot and hasn't moved. I've also had some that are in the same spot I placed them. Like fisker said, just watch it. If it shrivels up and looses it suction, then it may be a gonner.

 

Edit: beautiful flower though

[Clown79]

They are odd little creatures. 

 

I have one that sat under a rock scrunched up, the other one in full view and nice and open.

 

I upgraded the lights to a more powerful light and the other one moved to the front of glass in the full light and the other one moved out from under the rock fully open.

 

I find they have moods and scrunch up for no reason at all.

 

I would monitor it and pull the plug if it starts melting.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

I did notice that they really like high light, when I upgraded to the ai prime hd they loved it. My big one is huge and hes higher up on my rock work.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

[Tamberav]

Why do you think anything is wrong with it? Looks fine to me, just acclimating and being moody. 

[ServingAces15]

48 minutes ago, Fisker said:

I'm not experienced with RFAs, but I'd keep it going until I was sure there was no recovery in sight. Nems can come back from extremely bad places, and sometimes it just takes time.

 

If you see it open it's mouth and spit out a bunch of white goo, remove it. I'd remove it if you see any signs of it falling apart, as well.

 

About your water parameters - did you mean to type .5 PPM phosphate? 5 PPM is crazy high, and even .5 PPM is too high for a reef (IMO). I was running at 15 PPM of nitrate and around .1 PPM of phosphate, and my BTA was struggling to recover from shipping. After getting nitrates down to near zero, and phosphates down to around 0.05 or so, it's doing much better. But, still, a month in, it's still not 100% back. I'd look into your water parameters, and try to lower phosphates, if you can. Macroalgae did a ton for me.

Yes! So sorry. I meant .5ppm on the phosphates. From everything I've read, open/gapping mouths appear to be a bad sign with anemones. I'll just keep monitoring him. He's settled and suctioned up on that rock now, just closes up a lot and has that gaping mouth. Thanks for adding another set of eyes. I was unaware that they like to be moody.

[banasophia]

Yeah sometimes one of mine gets a gaping mouth like that or shrivels up for a few hours then goes back to normal... I would just keep an eye on it. 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

15 minutes ago, ServingAces15 said:

Yes! So sorry. I meant .5ppm on the phosphates. From everything I've read, open/gapping mouths appear to be a bad sign with anemones. I'll just keep monitoring him. He's settled and suctioned up on that rock now, just closes up a lot and has that gaping mouth. Thanks for adding another set of eyes. I was unaware that they like to be moody.

You could try a little mysis, could be hungry

[banasophia]

40 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Beautiful 😍

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Just now, banasophia said:

Beautiful 😍

Thanks bana 

[Clown79]

54 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I did notice that they really like high light, when I upgraded to the ai prime hd they loved it. My big one is huge and hes higher up on my rock work.

Well odd thing.

Mine were hidden under rocks under my nemolight which isn't high light then I add a regular prime and they are out from under the rocks.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

2 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Well odd thing.

Mine were hidden under rocks under my nemolight which isn't high light then I add a regular prime and they are out from under the rocks.

I always wonder what they prefer..rock flowers fascinate me. I love experiencing the patterns of what they do. The big yellow one was my wanderer. He moved all over the place for a month and a half then one day was like " I claim this spot on the reef" lol. 

[banasophia]

Agree, mine that are on the top of my rockwork seem to do the best too. I do have some that are perpendicular to the lights, and I feed those to keep them happy.

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

3 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I always wonder what they prefer..rock flowers fascinate me. I love experiencing the patterns of what they do. The big yellow one was my wanderer. He moved all over the place for a month and a half then one day was like " I claim this spot on the reef" lol. 

I have three of those yellow and orange ones and they all seem to wander some... the others don’t move. 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

4 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Agree, mine that are on the top of my rockwork seem to do the best too. I do have some that are perpendicular to the lights, and I feed those to keep them happy.

 

 

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, banasophia said:

I have three of those yellow and orange ones and they all seem to wander some... the others don’t move. 

Still looking good 

 

i would be curious to know if certain colors are more prone to moving than other colors.I have two that are solid colors, ones red and ones like a pinkish actually the one in my pic, under the yellow one, and those two never move. I put them in where I wanted and that was it, the most it moved was like an inch or two. I wonder if color matters.

[banasophia]

2 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

 

Still looking good 

 

Thanks DS, haven’t crashed it yet haha

 

3 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

i would be curious to know if certain colors are more prone to moving than other colors.I have two that are solid colors, ones red and ones like a pinkish actually the one in my pic, under the yellow one, and those two never move. I put them in where I wanted and that was it, the most it moved was like an inch or two. I wonder if color matters.

Yeah, we should pose that question in the RFA thread.... I wonder as well

[Kellie in CA]

I just had to toss one and it looked WAY worse than that.  It looked bad for a while, then pretty much turned itself inside out via it's mouth.  Then it detached and floated around for a bit.  It was clear that it was not going to recover.  It seems like it's always the prettiest one in the tank that does this!

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

5 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Thanks DS, haven’t crashed it yet haha

 

Yeah, we should pose that question in the RFA thread.... I wonder as well

oooo I found a guy on craigslist today selling rock flowers...10-25 a pop  he is like an hour away from and if i didnt just buy a damn laptop i'd go buy them all. He has probably 40 of them.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

3 minutes ago, Kellie in CA said:

I just had to toss one and it looked WAY worse than that.  It looked bad for a while, then pretty much turned itself inside out via it's mouth.  Then it detached and floated around for a bit.  It was clear that it was not going to recover.  It seems like it's always the prettiest one in the tank that does this!

yeah the only one I lost did sorta the same thing, It shriveled up and lost suction. No idea what happened to it either. 

[Clown79]

3 hours ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I always wonder what they prefer..rock flowers fascinate me. I love experiencing the patterns of what they do. The big yellow one was my wanderer. He moved all over the place for a month and a half then one day was like " I claim this spot on the reef" lol. 

I'm starting to think preference is individual with these guys.

 

Came home to my red one move back towards where it started. I just moved corals from one end making room for it now it's back to the other end. Lol.

[Clown79]

3 hours ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

oooo I found a guy on craigslist today selling rock flowers...10-25 a pop  he is like an hour away from and if i didnt just buy a damn laptop i'd go buy them all. He has probably 40 of them.

Damn that's a good price. Here we pay $30 for green ones.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

1 minute ago, Clown79 said:

Damn that's a good price. Here we pay $30 for green ones.

yeah that's the same. I think he may have had a ton of babies and wanted to get rid of them. I'm gonna keep the guys ad saved so I can go back to and see what he has left. I just got a new laptop so that took up a bunch of money lol. I'm hoping he still has some in a couple weeks cause I'm gonna get some, especially at that price.

[Clown79]

8 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

yeah that's the same. I think he may have had a ton of babies and wanted to get rid of them. I'm gonna keep the guys ad saved so I can go back to and see what he has left. I just got a new laptop so that took up a bunch of money lol. I'm hoping he still has some in a couple weeks cause I'm gonna get some, especially at that price.

It's always that way. You buy something and are broke when all the reef stuff you want drops on price!