anemone GUTS hanging out

[timrandlerv10]

well, everymorning i've been coming in and he's been all droopy. 2 mornings his mouth was open.

today i came in and he had large 'bubbles' (of intestine?) floating up out of his wide open oral disk.

i turned on the light, the guts went back in, he stood back up, lengthened his tentacles, and ten minutes later looks great.

is he okay?


water:
8.3
0/0/5 nitrates
78 degrees

i got him sunday, put him in monday night. fed him one silverside monday (2 halves, he looked hungry).

we just turned the light off, and a few minutes later he deflated again.

what gives?

 

[Sk8r]

Pooping. They do that now and again. He's also running water through his tissues, perhaps to correct an imbalance. You might hike the temp 2 degrees, and watch your ph: keep it at 8.2, and watch your salinity, too.

 

[timrandlerv10]

1.024

what about the in/de flating when the lights come on and off?

 

[raoul]

Nems deflate/inflate for different reasons. One was mentioned earlier, kind of a self water change to balance out the water in the nem with the water outside of the nem.
As far as lights go, it's typical for an established nem to deflate when the lights go out. They're photosynthetic and when there's no light, there's no reason to spend the energy inflated to absorb the light that isn't there, that's how it was explained to me anyway.

I have an H. crispa, and it kind of balls up at night, but rapidly opens when the lights come on, expanding the oral disk and tentacles. Think of it as sleeping when the lights are out and waking up when they come on.

A word of caution: most people recommend letting your tank mature for a minimum of 6 months before introducing an anemone. Your tank is still pretty new, and may not be established enough. It looks like you're keeping a close eye on things, I would encourage you to continue to do so.

Good luck, and keep asking questions if you need too