Ritteri Anemone Behavior

[foxface]

I've been out of the picture for a few weeks but I've been busy learning and upgrading ( I updated my sig with the info) but now I'm back with a question or two.
I tried to do research on this subject but I find the info is a bit vague.
My daughter has since set up her own tank with my help and everything is going well but she went to the LFS on her own about 4 days ago and was convinced by the clerk that she should have one of the 3 Ritteri anemones he had just recieved for her 2 maroon clowns.
She brought him home and put him in her tank and within 2 days he was looking terrible, kind of flat with his mouth gaping open. We did a bit of research and learned of the lighting requirements which she doesn't have and foot injuries. I checked the foot and all that is visible looks good. Anyways we made a trade even though I never would have added an anemone to my tank and under my MH his color is still good (Nice reddish purple foot and light green tentacles with yellowish tips) and his mouth has closed up. She was feeding him a piece of shrimp everyday about the size and thickness of 3 pennies.
Anyways all I really want to know is:
1) What does it mean when it closes up like a ball and re-opens a while later?
2) Is it normal for the tentacles to deflate and inflate throughout the day?
3) Should I remove the browish poo from the tank or will the skimmer take care of it?
Basically I need a site that give in depth info on behavior if I'm going to help him survive.
By the way my 2 Perculas are not interested in him at all :oP
Louise

[foxface]

The anemone is settling although it looks deflated (is this the right term?) 50% of the time and my clowns had no interest whatsoever in it., They have been staying in their usual spot but tonight even though it was deflated they started rubbing around in it vigorously! Now the anemone has started moving down off it's rock and towards the clown area, could the clowns be guiding it down to where they hang out? How aware of it's surroundings is an Anemone?
Louise :)

[Murfman]

Anenomeas will move to where they like the flow and lighting. If it keeps moving around, then it is not too happy. As for the balling up, that is normal. Your skimmer should remove the waste. I don't think your tank is large enough for it, once it becomes full grown.

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1897&articleid=2153

[foxface]

Well I'm back again after a major disaster! I was going to throw in the towel but I decided to start over, if everyone hasn't guessed, the Anemone died! :(
The same night after my last post he started climbing the wall and I said to myself, 'tomorrow morning I have to get him out of the tank before something happens.'

Well that was too late! I got up 6 hours later to a milky white tank and dead fish. The tank room smelled like stagnant ocean water mixed with rotten fish. My heart was in my throat! I felt so heart broken to see all my fish (who depended on me to live) laying in the bottom of the tank dead!

As I was looking around I saw my 2 clowns still swimming around and quickly netted them and put them in the QT. (more on that later) then I turned on all my lights for a better look and found the anemone in the Tunze powerhead.

All the rest of the fish were dead, a Yellow Tang, Sunny, 6 Green Chromis, Larry and the rest Daryl, a little Fire Goby, Alfalfa, 2 Blue Devils Damsels, Bobo and Little Debbil, a Bicolor Anthias, Girlyman and a Scooter Blenny, Sgt. Bilko.

I started taking apart the tank right away and luckily I had 12 gallons of salt water ready so I took out all the live rock and snails and 1 cleaner shrimp (which didn't seem affected,) and my corals and put them in a 25 gallon Rubbermaid container. As I got to the last rock I found my Lawnmower Blenny, Mr. Chu! (which I had forgotten) He was alive so I quickly scooped him out and put him with the clowns.

Drained and vacuumed the CC of all the skanky water as far down into the crushed coral as possible and then drained the sump. From there I started refilling and heating the tank. By the evening the tank was full and 78f. did tests and it looked fine although I figured it might change. I put back the rocks and corals and let it sit until the next day, did the tests again and still good. I then restarted the sump and let it sit a few more days. All tests after 4 days were good so I put back my last 3 fish. 17 days later they are still in excellent shape, like nothing happened! I guess the fact that the anemone had died 6 or less hours before I found them may have helped somewhere along the line.

Now for the QT! I don’t know why they survived in there because in my panic, I forgot to check the QT. Those 3 poor little fish were yanked from a 78-79F. tank and just quickly dumped into 64-65F. water! The QT had been unplugged for about a week so it was cold in there, (now it’s always running!) An hour after they were put in I decided to check in on them and that’s when it dawned on me! I quickly checked everything and that’s when I noticed the temperature. Luckily the tests for the usual were ok, nitrates a bit high at 20, but better than what they were in I guess. It took a few hours to bring up the temp. and I helped it along by heating about 1 liter of water and adding it really slowly.
Since being added back to the main tank, I’ve checked them everyday and nothing has popped up so I’m hoping they’re out of the woods/kelp :P

All is well for now and I hope nobody ever has to go through something like that, ever!

Louise :)

[Murfman]

Wow, sorry to hear about your loss. It's never a good time when we loose something, let alone almost the whole tank. Most have us have had major losses, at one time or another and know how you feel. Glad you decided not to quit and start over.

[D12monkey]

I feel for you... When I upgraded to my 155 bow front I lost 95% of my coral stock, thanks to my LFS messing up the stand the day I went to pick it up. Since then I've been fighting a nasty case of hair algae along with cyanobacteria problem.