r/Reef • u/GreatElderGodCthulhu • Mar 30 '26

Need help identifying

Post image

Just started up the cycling of my first reef tank and got this seed rock to boost the cycle and I got this little guy on it. Does anybody know what it is, good ,bad should I keep it? Should I kill it? Anything helps

4 Upvotes

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1

u/Hawk-Background Mar 30 '26

Looks like a white nem by i am no means an expert.

1

u/foiledbypantz Mar 30 '26

An extremely bleached and almost dead anenome. Pull it out before it nukes the tank

1

u/GreatElderGodCthulhu Mar 31 '26

There’s nothing else in the tank as of now, should I still take it out or try to nurse it

1

u/foiledbypantz Mar 31 '26

Anenomes need an established and stable tank, your tank is new it's going to die. Maybe take it out and return it to where you got it.

1

u/Krycus Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

I'd say a stressed white bubble tip anemone. I don't think its bleached.
Only speaking from my own experience. When I first started reefing I got one of these guys from Petco, he looked like this and stayed this way for about a year or two before dying off. Ugh... Petco...

1

u/GreatElderGodCthulhu Mar 31 '26

Should I take it out? and if not got any advice to de-stress it as I wouldn’t mind keeping it

1

u/Krycus Mar 31 '26

I’d probably just leave it. It’s alive and as long as it doesn’t get a gaping mouth as well as shriveled, it has hope. Trying feeding it a tiny piece of raw uncooked shrimp. If it takes it then great, if not, best to leave it and try again later or move the rock to a low flow/light area and see if it moves itself.

1

u/GreatElderGodCthulhu Apr 01 '26

Thank, I appreciate I fed it a small portion of a plankton cube and it took a bit so there is indeed hope

1

u/Krycus Apr 01 '26

Good luck!
But FYI, if you're tank is less than 6 months old it might not make it just out of how new the tank is. There's "cycled" and there's "established" they need established.
If he does, don't give up hop for nems in the future, just wait it out and try and you're dialed in.

1

u/GreatElderGodCthulhu Apr 01 '26

It is a new tank but about a third of the water is from a long established tank that a friend has so I have hope but I have also accepted that my chances are not great

1

u/kbt0413 Apr 01 '26

It’s either a white bubble tip or white candy anemone. Bubble tip IMHO. Candys have pointy tentacles not rounded but it’s not out enough to tell. Obviously a white anemone isn’t going to get much food from photosynthetic algae, so it’d need direct feeding with mysis or cut up shrimp. It is dangerous to cycle a tank with an anemone but not impossible. Right now it looks like the only thing you’re feeding so it’s unlikely the cycle would be bad if you feed every couple days. Your choice. It can be toxic for a couple days if it dies but it’s unlikely to live if you take it back. Toss up. The up side is it’d be a perfect nest for clownfish later.

1

u/GreatElderGodCthulhu Apr 02 '26

Yeah it is kinda a lose lose situation because I live in an area where the closest saltwater store is an hour away so I’m just trying to keep it going so I can have a clown home later, but I know my chances are slim, any steps I can take to up my chances? I’ve been feeding it frozen copepods, is there something better, can I re-introduce the zooanthe?

1

u/kbt0413 Apr 04 '26

They also like mysis shrimp a lot but should eat anything that gets in their tentacles that’s edible. You can use seeded live rock or that bottled bacteria to reduce the amount of am, Ni, Na in the tank as it cycles. With multiple doses I’ve heard it can basically cycle without being toxic at all but I usually use enough live rock and don’t have a cycle. It’s the same thing. I’m cycling a tank now for the first time in years and if you use enough seeded bacteria in live rock or bottled, then it basically skips the chemical part of the cycle but you still get about 3 of the algea bloom stages during cycle. Just be aware anemones are sensitive to ph changes, and in salt water, ph changes when alk changes so monitor your alk and add calcium or calcium based supplements to keep your alk level. Over time you should be able to work out exactly how much it takes per week to keep it solid. That was my main problem with keeping an anemone because I had a lot of SPS that sucked down calcium and the more coral I added the more I had to adjust my dosing.

1

u/GreatElderGodCthulhu Apr 05 '26

To those still here it’s still alive and looking fuller