Anemone expands when lights go off

[O'Man]

My anemone gets bigger when the lights go out. I thought they tended to expand by day & shrink by night? It appears to be an H. Crispa. Photos in My Gallery are by day. After the lights go out it increases in size by 1/3 to 1/2, easily, & the tentacles get longer. I guess it is trying to catch food. As an experiment, I shinned a small flash light on it and it contracted. The contracting started at the point where the light hit it first & then spread. Any thoughts?

 

[s2svetko]

i have the same problem with my bta. at night is expands and durring the day it closes up. im running 300w mh and 200w pc's

 

[O'Man]

I checked at night again and it looks like it is expanded & reaching to catch food. The column is stretched to push the disk up higher in the water and the tentacles are all long and waving. I threw in some small food, enriched brine shrimp, and it caught them. The perculas did not seem to try so hard to eat its' food, but I went to bed before I could confirm it ate and actually got to keep the food. Maybe I have my way to feed it finally. The percs seem to eat everything I feed to it. Maybe the trick is to feed it while they sleep, and they sleep in it.

 

[Canyon]

I wonder is it in their genetics to open at night as some fish have poorer vision at night and may "wander" closer than they would in the day. I am just throwing this out there as I have very little to backup that statement.

 

[KyleP]

My LTA does this also. I too figured it was a feeding mechanism. Better chance of fish wandering into the anemone at night.