Ricordia Problem

[boarderguy]

OK.. I have a JBJ nano cube with stock lighting, a neon blue damsels, a mono, a small colony of zoo's, crabs, snails, etc... and a $10 white anemone (no name.. just a cheap long tenticled anemone)

 

temperature is 77F and all water parameters are fine..

 

first couple days the ricordia was awesome looking.. out fully and bright bright colouration...

 

yesterday it started to look less healthy the bright purple back was turning a bit brownish and the bright green on top is started to get alot more dull...

 

what could it be???

[mik]

possibly dying can you give a more detailed description. That anemone too is dying(they are not supposed to be white, white means its bleached probobly cuz your lighting sucks) Anyways what are your params? how old is the tank?

[boarderguy]

no the anemone is very healthy.. its not a "long tenticle" just has decent sized tenticles... and yes the anemone is supposed to be white.. its just a common anemone or something.. its gone from the tank now cuz its killed 2 horseshoe crabs and my feather duster..

 

also the ricordia didnt start turning brown until the anemones tenticles touched it..

 

tank is 3 months old.. has cycled fully my zoo's have the growing nicely and multiplying..

[mik]

um i believe you are refering to a condy anemone (most places have them for $4-16) and if you are they are supposed to be brownish not translucent white and they are also one of the most light requiring anemones out there(meaning mh). If you'd knew more about anemones you'd know they need established tanks of 6+ months and are not for nubes. Also it is white meaning it has no zoathelle(sp) which is the alga it gows and feeds on thus starving and slowly killing it!!! Remember anemones can take numerous months of bleaching slowly dying before it finally succumbs to death. Yes they have potent stinging tentacles so that could be one cause of the rics downfall but more likely it could be your params (which if bad can cause corals to heal badly and kill them too) cuz my rics have been stung by a bta and theyve always recovered in a day or two. Also do you even feed your anemone, you at least should feed it silversides to try and save it. Sorry for the harsh words but im sick of dumba$$ lfs employees handing out anemones which can live 200+ years and grow indefinatly to misimformed customers.

 

P.S. it killed your horseshoe crabs cuz it had nothing to eat!!

 

 

out

mik

[boarderguy]

the anemone came from an established tank of 5 years.. it did not get it from a LFS i was just trying to explain what kind it was by the price range it is in stores.. it has always been white since the day he got it and it had a BRIGHT red body to it.. and i feed the tank a half cap of Kent Micro Vert every 7 days.. all of my params are fine.. i dont have a master kit here.. but i have it tested weekly by a reef enthusiast i know...

[Cesar]

Dont know but it can be possible that the anemone got a hold of some Ricordeas. Anemone's pack a powerful punch dude. I dont know what to tell you because you claim your water is fine.

[Cesar]

[mik]

1) anemones also need larger food such as silversides or brine shrimp not just plankton.

2) yes even bleached anmones have red bases trust me ive seen bleached anemones and have yet to see an albino anemone though.

3)Im almost positive you are refering to a condy and even if it is from an established tank you are killing it with the lack of light and lack of proper food.

4) what i just dont get is if you are so experiened with your 5 year established tank why dont you know this stuff?

 

P.S. if if it looks like the anemone cesar posted its bleached!!!

 

 

good luck

mik

[Cesar]

You know what though MIK, that picture was taken when I got it, which was somewhere around 5 months ago. The recent picture s totaly different, nice and tan. My point...hmm...I guess that they can survive with some TLC.

[Cesar]

[mik]

You know what though MIK, that picture was taken when I got it, which was somewhere around 5 months ago. The recent picture s totaly different, nice and tan.

 

boarder dude see how cesars tanned up after he got it bleached from the lfs. From your description yours did not indicating somethings wrong with your lighting,feedings, or something else. Oh yeah cesar you are right about condys if fed heavily can survive under strong to moderate pc/t5's

 

again good luck

mik

[boarderguy]

not quite the same as that one but close..

 

sorry i did not mean that i have 5year old tank.. i meant that i got it from a friend who has such a tank.. anyways i learned my lesson with anemones and it has gone back to his tank.. however is there anything i can do for my ric's?? its it is from a sting by the condy then what are the chances it will make a recovery???

 

also i noticed yesterday that my Nitrates were up a bit but a added a little PRIME and that put everything back to normal.. but could using Prime have caused my ric's to start dying??

 

i am noticing that the pink algae or part of the ric's that is below them on the rock is now falling apart and peeling.. is this a sign of soon to be died ricordia??

[mik]

k dont worry bout it as long as you learned your lesson im cool with it. Anyways it could possibly be that prime stuff you mentioned cause nitrate removers and cycle speeders, etc are nothing but bad for reefs 99.999% of the time. Anyways by pink algae do u mean coraline or the base of the ric. If you maintain excellent water quality, place it high up in the tank,and keep your ph,alk,calcium,iodine,etc levels good it should make a good recovery.

 

good luck

mik

[boarderguy]

the base of the ric i assume... sorry i'm just learning this stuff.. slowly and apparently very painfully.. well its like a thick pink algae and i've noticed its usually near most peoples ric's that ive seen pictures of.. ( i wish i had a camera) the ric itself is green on top and purple on the bottom then the rock is covered in this thick pink stuff around the ric.. but the pink stuff its peeling and falling apart, the bottom of the ric is brown and the top is a dark dull green rather than that bright pastel green it was b4.. however the centres are still bright flourescent orange

[mik]

yeah its good to take this hobby slow. I highly recomends some of eric bournemans(sp) books on reefs got lots of good info. Anyways im still not sure if its the rics base or corraline cuz lr in established tanks is covered in corraline. Anyways if your friends reef is doing really well you might want to transfer it to that and see if it gets better.

 

mik

[Cesar]

Sorry dude I dont want it to seem as if im hijacking your thread, but are you talking about this: Example mine has a purplee base looking thing which is the LR. Are you saying that is Pink?

 

 

[boarderguy]

no i know what purple coraline algae is.. but this stuff its like light pink and THICK... and it was really healthy b4 and since hte ric has started dying.. so has the pink stuff..

[Cesar]

Hmm yeah a picture will be good.

[SaltyDawg]

What type of lighting was the RICORDEA which this thread was supposed to be about, housed under before you got it. I need wattage as well as kelvin spec's.

I have had many , many , many corals come to me one color and end up another. It all depends on lighting differences where they from and where they going most of the time. It is prety HARD to kill a ricordea. even if you feed it nothing , ever. You almost have to burrie them to kill them.

Is the ric shrinking? is it looking les puffy and more willted ?

Is it a florida ric or a Yuma?

Are you sure it isnt a coralimorph.

They will just look saggy from time to time if it is a coralimorph.

If it is a Yuma they will do the same thing from time to time providing which type of Yuma it is, IE bulbous or smooth type.

If you have low wattage lighting move the animal as close to the top of the tank as you can get it until you upgrade your lighting.

also if you dose Iodine for any other corals make SURE you do not dose it into the tank near the ric. they dont like it very well even though they rely on this as with all trace elements . The concentrated solution dosent agree at all with them like it does other corals. ( in my own experiences any how.) If it is TRUELY ill it wil detach it's self from the rock it is on and float around on the substrate in most cases as well. If it is as ill as you may suspect it to be try feeding it Mysis shrimp or SMALL peices of silver sides.

Oh yeah, Mik, and other peeps:

There are such things as naturaly white anemones.

Seabe anemones for one, rock anemones, tube anemones, flower anemones, ball anemones, mushroom anemones (ehh not posetive about the discoma mushrooms but possible.)

even florida ricordea mushroom anemones.

THey do bleach though dont get me wrong! most of them are too. But: there are white anemones. Just as there are non-photosentic anemones.

A white anemone dose not nessecarily denote a bleached one either. Again most of the time it may but not in all cases. In most all cases how ever they will have a darker colored base.

[boarderguy]

well it does sag.. but hasnt removed itself from the rock yet.. however a few tiny rics that were growing on the sides of the rock have fallen off or are saging quite a bit.. also a few of the oranges centers on my large rics are now excreting some type of grey slime or something.. they are beginning to look a Little healthier than they were yesterday..

[SaltyDawg]

How long have you had them in your tank? What type of lighting do you have?

What are your water parameters. It realy sounds to me as if they arent getting either enough current or enough light. contrary to popular beleif they do require a small amount of current. It makes them puff up realy nice when they are happy. I think the inflate like this to keep themselves stable and to catch any food that may happen by them. Just a theory on that one though.

Could be somthing else but to my knowledge there are no known ric diseases to make them do this. Have you dosed anything lately?

[boarderguy]

as i mentioned b4.. i dont have a test kit here.. but i had it tested by a neighbor of mine that has been info reefs and sw for years and he said its fine.. everything is either perfect or close enough that nothing should be wrong in my tank..

 

I dosed with PRIME but only enough to do half my tank for a minor nitrate rise..

 

The only other thing put into my tank would be Kent Micro Vert to feed my corals..

 

The ric is in a stock jbj nano cube (stock lighting) and is at the very top of the tank about 1/2" below the water line so is getting as much lighting as i can provide and is just to the left of the powerhead of the filter so is getting moderate current..

 

previously it was at the top of a tank under 400w MH and it was never opening up.. once in my tank it puffed out awesome and showed great colour.. within a day of my condy touching it, the ric's bottom and edges have gone from bright purple to brown and the tops from bright pastel green to dull medium green.. it still seems ok other than the discolouration.. smaller rics on the same rock have fallen off or are saging..

however there is one ric (a bit bigger than a nickle) on the back part of the rock where the condy wouldnt have been able to touch is still the bright purple and pastel green..

 

also some of the large rics orange centers are excreting some type of a grey slime of some sort..

[BKtomodachi]

Grey slime usually isnt good... that can mean they are spitting the algae they need.

 

Also, anemones do not, I repeat not, need to be fed foods any larger than planktonic size. It helps if you dont have appropriate lighting, though.

[boarderguy]

yeah ever since they started spitting this grey slime they have been disappearing at night.. its gone from a nice 5" diameter group to just 2 medium unhealthy looking rics left.. it was a horrible lesson to learn and as they are very uncommon in my LFS's it was an expensive lesson..

[SaltyDawg]

Well thats your answer and it is DEFINATLEY A GONNER! sorry dude !

IF it was touched by a condy it is history. They sting and kill any thing they touch unless they have some sort of symbionic relationship with it. For the one, or ones it touched and stung there is nothing you can do but trash them if they are turning grey.

 

 

BKtomodachi: Ricordea anemones do not have to be fed but it is a good idea to.

Condy's, BTA's and the like must be fed to insure a LONG life span.

They are not FILTER FEEDERS. So they get little or nothing from MICROVERT. Feed them some mysis shrimp or silversides and whatch what they do then. They will start to look more colorful and healthier then they have ever looked I promise you.