Anemone closed!! :(

allendehl

New member
Hello guys,

Not sure this is normal so I am kinda freaking out with my new anemone. I brought it home yesterday and It was super happy and fully opened until I turned off all equipment (pump, skimmer and powerheads) for feeding time today. It right away started to close. It must have been less than 10 minutes when I turned everything back on and it is even more closed now (more than an an hour later).
Is this normal?...did I do wrong by turning flow off? It didnt have any flow when I brought it and it wasn't as upset as it is now.
Will it open up again.....hope so!!!
 
Prolly just spooked it is all... all ya can do is wait it out and see what it does..

Mine did the same thing when I first got and turned on my metal halide lights... hell the whole tank freaked out...except the corals...
Nem was about 90 percent closed for a few hours after.. but then it was all good... I still haven't tried the halides again though...and I really wanna run them...they were expencive! Lol

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Photo here...poor thing is all foot.

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Has there been any changes in your tank.. new fish.. anything get in the tank?
What's your parameters?


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Looks like it's puffing it's insides out of its mouth actually.. not a good thing

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I just reread... you said it closed up at feeding time... did you by chance try and feed it?

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It looking a lot better this morning :thumbsup:, though not totally open yet. I did a water change on the morning before I brought her so parameters should be ok. Test kits for alk, mag and calcium are on their way but the others have been very stable and in check for a while so I don't have any reason to believe they went crazy right after a 20% WC.

It happened right when I turned off the pump and powerheads at feeding time, I did put a piece of thawed raw shrimp on her when I turned everything back on as I thought that would make her happy.

Now, she definitely didn't like the sudden change in flow...but on the other hand if I don't turn equipment off the food would get all blown around the tank. How do you guys do it?
 
Nems can be touchy about flow, they tend to dislike it being turned off. There is really no reason to do so for feeding, the fish can chase food just fine.
 
It looking a lot better this morning :thumbsup:, though not totally open yet. I did a water change on the morning before I brought her so parameters should be ok. Test kits for alk, mag and calcium are on their way but the others have been very stable and in check for a while so I don't have any reason to believe they went crazy right after a 20% WC.

It happened right when I turned off the pump and powerheads at feeding time, I did put a piece of thawed raw shrimp on her when I turned everything back on as I thought that would make her happy.

Now, she definitely didn't like the sudden change in flow...but on the other hand if I don't turn equipment off the food would get all blown around the tank. How do you guys do it?

Fish can swim after their food, it won't hurt them. Leave flow on. Just a heads up nems are sensitive creatures, more so than most corals. Not advised really to add them without having proper test kits and knowing your tank parameters. But obviously you are past that now, be sure you are testing very regularly. They benefit a lot from stability.
 
IME they are finicky but also tougher than people give them credit for. I have one that inflates and deflates all the time. More than anything i think it upsets my clown who loves to lay in it when it's open. This has been going on for 6 months+
 
When flow is changed radically, they easily react as if a giant predator is hovering over them; and hide.

They also tend to need some time to stabilise their inner chemical releases as they adjust to new conditions, during which they might retract and rearrange the amount of algae inside their tissue; and that can be a freaky thing to watch for new Anemone keepers.

After they feed they can easily be unhappy looking while concentrating on what happens in their "belly". The "unhappy" feeding look can also return when they need to expel waste later.

When using target feeding and you want to avoid the food spreading, you just feed the Nem first (if it needs feeding that day), and let it close up with the food already inside and then feed the rest of your aquaria and turn the flow back on.

I agree with ReeferNoob4ever that they are finicky but also tougher than they get credit for.

Enjoy.
 
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Oh, also, in regards to "Frozen Foods", remember that humans add tons of things to our own frozen foods, including those called "Fresh Seafood".

If you don't buy food prepared for use in aquariums, make sure you get clean seafood and if needed freeze fresh meaty seafoods yourself, so you can have the frozen food available for feeding your aquaria without the additives used in foods for human consumption.
 
Is that a Magnifica? I’ve never seen a BTA with any bifurcated tentacles like your anemone appears to have. If it is a mag you need to move it up to the top of your rockwork.
 
Is that a Magnifica? I've never seen a BTA with any bifurcated tentacles like your anemone appears to have. If it is a mag you need to move it up to the top of your rockwork.

Not sure, it was sold to me as a "purple bottom maroon" and I was told by some it looks like a LTA.
 
Not sure, it was sold to me as a "purple bottom maroon" and I was told by some it looks like a LTA.

Definitely not an LTA. Try posting a pic in the anemone section. There were some BTAs that looked a lot like mags that came in last year that fooled some people. I'm wondering if what you have may be the same. Nice anemone regardless of whether it's a BTA or a mag. Those are the only possiblities IMO.
 
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