Dying Or Very Unhappy Anemone - Pls Help!

[cullinp]

Hi everyone, Happy New Year to you all.

Three days ago I added 2 Clowns, 1 Cleaning Shrimp and this Anemone to my new tank. When shown the Anemone in the tank in the Aquarium it was already retracted and looking unwell, however the "expert" said that it just required a water change and would be fine in my tank.

So I brought it home and they all went into the tank. The Clowns are doing fine and seem happy, as was the Shrimp I thought that was very busy on Live Rock setting up his cleaning station etc. However this afternoon when I returned home I found the Shrimp at the bottom on the tank motionless, after further investigation I discovered it was indeed dead and I removed it at once.

The Anemone has looked unhappy not only in my tank but also in the shop as mentioned before. This evening it has started to bulb around two of the stalks and I'm unsure what it's doing. I did plan to return to the store tomorrow morning with it as I'm convinced it was ill prior to purchasing it.

I've attached two photographs of poor quality I'm afraid as they were taken on my cell phone.

Can anyone shed any light on the condition of the Anemone from these images?

Thanks.

 

[chrissaysyes]

From the looks of that picture, that's not even an anemone...

 

[Lynden]

Agreed, not an anemone. Rather it is a stony coral, perhaps a hammer by the looks of the branches. If it was dying at the store I'm afraid it has little to no chance of surviving in your tank. Not much you can do here, but it probably wasn't your fault.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Please tell me your LFS didnt tell you this was an anemone...

 

[nanocubeking]

That is not an anemone at all but some bubble coral. From the pictures it looks a little bleached to me.

 

[tat2life]

it looks a bit like a dying candy cane coral, deff not a anemone. should never trust a LFS if they say oh its fine it just needs a water change... bull####

 

[chrissaysyes]

quite right. Nothing that looks bad at the LFS is ever fine unless you know what you're doing 100%. Also, in the future never try to take home a sick or even remotely bad looking nem. Its possible to save a lot of corals. This is the complete opposite case with nems. Its a good way to nuke your tank.

 

[SkiFletch]

The skeleton structure is definitely branching Euphillia. Most likely either paranchora (hammer) or glabrescens (frogspawn) species. That right there, is a near textbook example of whats known amongst the hobby as "brown jelly infection" which is an immune response of the coral due to infection, stress, or both. Brown jelly IME is always lethal and the coral requires fragging to survive. In this case, all the heads are/were infected, thus the whole colony has perished. Sorry about your loss

 

[chrissaysyes]

Go get that refund!

 

[nanocubeking]

I am almost 100% positive that is a bubble coral. Go get a refund or find a new LFS.

 

[chrissaysyes]

It's not bubble coral. It's a sick euphyllia.

 

[nanocubeking]

It looks pretty similiar to this.
http/shotsacrossthebow.com/weblog/images/bubble.jpg

 

[dilbert]

Just another question.

What kind of new tank do you have? When the cleaner shrimp dies a sudden death that is somewhat suspicious, too.

 

[SkiFletch]

It looks pretty similiar to this.
[URL="http/shotsacrossthebow.com/weblog/images/bubble.jpg"]http/shotsacrossthebow.com/weblog/images/bubble.jpg[/URL]

Yes, but bubble corals do not branch when they grow... They grow out in a "wall" pattern, not a branching tree-like pattern. A lot about a coral can be determined by its skeleton