I thought he was my friend but he turned out to be my Anemone

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My youngest daughter and I have been keeping a small reef tank for a while now with great success.

I’d read very mixed things about anemones, but we wanted to get one so our clown fish could host it.

I had read that anemones only live for a year, and I’ve also read that they are immortal. Some say they don’t move around a lot, others say they do. Some say you feed them every other day, others say never because they photosynthesize. There’s lots of contradictory info from very credible sources.

We decided to give it a shot, and it was awesome. The clownfish dove right in. the anemone grabbed a rock and started doing its tentacle thing, and instantly the the tank seemed a happier, more exciting and more exotic place.

The next day the anemone moved behind a rock to the back of the tank where we couldn’t see him. No problem. We heard they might move around a bit. Our patience paid off, and he move around to the front a few days later.

Last night he started moving again.

This morning I awoke to a horror story. There was no sign of the anemone other than a tentacle fragment tangled in the filter intake. The water in the tank changed from crystal clear to milk.

He’d gotten himself into the filter intake, sucked into the filter, shredded in the impellor of the filter motor, and now he is evenly distributed as a milky haze throughout the tank, with the occasional little meaty bit floating by. My tank is anemone soup.

I feel horrible. It’s a nasty death, being sucked into a churning vortex and ground up while still alive. It’s my fault, too though I still can’t figure out how he managed to get sucked in.

It’s a real problem because this could spike ammonia, and nitrates and kill the whole tank. I’m doing filter cleanings and water changes, but I may end up losing everything in the tank

2

That’s a sad story. I had no idea anemone moved around. Sorry yours came to a sad and messy end and I hope you can get your tank back on track. I love the look of saltwater tanks, but no way could I cope with the maintenance.

Are you going to try again?

3

Do I really have to make the observation that this is obviously an escape attempt by the rest of the fish? Make sure you close the window while you have them all in plastic bags.

4

Sad story but it could have been much worse. The anemone chose the (relatively ) dignified death of being torn to pieces by machinery but at least it was a clean death.

I’m guessing that those chickens that had the great misfortune of catching Pirate’s eye were yearning for a jet engine.

5

I’m sorry. But with fronds like these, who needs anemones?

6

Keep your fronds close but your anemones closer.

7

The clown fish lured him to the filter with money.

Here’s hoping you are successful in your damage control!

8

(Sea) Life is a cabaret o’ chum!

Gum-shoe the cabaret…!
musical interlude

9

I did a 30% water change, cleaned the filter again, and put on my water polisher. Our Damsel fish died, and our lawnmower Blenny, Murray, also died.

10

I’m sorry for your misfortune and I hope you won’t be Finding Nemo belly-up.

11

Sorry the anemone went away. They really are cool to watch, even with such slow motions they use. I do wanna say it sounds like you should not have anything that clings loosely to stuff, or swims weakly, as a basis for its location in a tank without an overflow-box/sump that limits water current at any one area. Some shrimp (peppermint shrimp, IME) can be killed really easily by an intake pipe as well, fwiw. Not chastising, I promise, but saying what I learned in my years of coral-growing/trading. Certain creatures just gotta have that next level of equipment ($$$) to keep them safe from themselves :slight_smile:

I kept reef tanks for years and I would never set up a more-than-just-fish tank unless it used an overflow/sump/skimmer set-up because of exactly what happened to your anemone, Scylla. More than once, I had several different types of anemone (Pacific and Atlantic types) become semi-stuck in slots in overflow box(es), but no damage to anemone(s) - just shut down the pump/flow and gently slid 'em back into tank proper, no harm at all.

You may try hiding/barracading the intake pipe behind a mound of live-rock or a large-area plastic-mesh screen or such, IMHO. Anything without its own strongish swimming strength, though, shouldn’t be in a tank that has a strong ‘suction source’ in plain access.

I fed my anemones about once a week with damsels, sardines, and often a concentrated bolus of brine shrimp from a big syringe. I am sure I could have fed much less, but they’d grow fast and I would trade my big ones for a small one and some other organisms, too (profit!).

Also, you prolly need to do a number of water changes to lessen the nitrite/nitrate load that is gonna happen really soon from all the dead stuff in the water. Or run a skimmer until its not foaming like crazy from all the organics in water. IMHO.

ETA - oops, sounds like the water quality went to shit already, so never mind, I guess. Live and learn, right? :slight_smile:

12

Ionizer:

That’s good advice and I appreciate it. I am sorry that my ignorance caused me to kill those fish. I will not be getting another anemone unless or until I can be sure this won’t happen again.

13

This seems like an appropriate link…