Anemone Advice

[rsc350]

A few weeks ago my ritteri anemone got ahold of a smaller goby and widened its entire mouth open to devour it, I typically feed it silver sides but a fraction of the size of fish. Its mouth widened way out and it has been "open" ever since with its white "guts" hanging out. It rarely eats has not moved to a new location, as a matter of fact it has not moved since the day I got it about 3 months ago. My water quality and parameters are steady and with in specs and I do ~20 gal water changes every two weeks.

I am afraid it caused self inflicted damage trying to squeeze the whole fish in its mouth. The anemone is now looking terrible and I am not sure what to do, I assume it is the lack of eating and have tried clam and Mysis. It typically only take the silver sides and then spits it out the same size it went in with in a few hours.

Thoughts please?

 

[D-Nak]

You may want to read up on silversides killing anemones. There are tons of posts here in this forum.

With regards to your nem eating a goby, if it did try to ingest it, there's not much you can do to help it digest it or purge it. Unfortunately, you will just have to wait it out. Typically an open mouth isn't something to be concerned about though. If it starts to deflate, this probably means it's got an internal infection though since you've had it for 3 months I doubt it's the case. Do you have photos so we can see what you mean by "looking terrible"?

 

[Reefahholic]

Can you post a pic? We can help you better if we can see how he looks.

You may need to treat him.

Is he deflated? Mouth open? How does he look..

 

[fishroomlady]

It sounds like you are continuing to try and feed him, I would suggest that you don't feed him any more at this time. Anemones really don't need to be fed as often as people do it - a small amount of food (PE Mysis) once a week will do - as long as your lighting is sufficient and you feed your tank.

 

[rsc350]

Here is a pic, it is not normally this deflated. Every few nights or so. It seem like it is normally... saggyish. Not sure how to explain it.

 

[rsc350]

Here is a pic of right before he starting with the open mouth and such.