Bubble Anemone Shrinking

[thefurrywarrior]

Hey,
I recently purchased a green bubble anemone and it has been in my tank for about 4 days now. Every day soon after I turn my lights on the anemone shrinks up to about 3 inches across and its tentacles shrivel up as well. This lasts for a few hours then it returns to normal and is fine until the next day when I turn my lights on. Is this normal or should I be worried? I also have a domino damsel that has already been hosting with it. I know that is supposed to help with the anemone's health. Thanks for the help!

 

[thefurrywarrior]

If it makes any difference, it appears to be starting to split.

 

[sesheru95]

This happens with a lot of anemones so I've heard and to my GBTA. I guess this a way to "flush" out the water inside them and replace it with new "fresh" water to clear them self's out of any impure water. I believe its just normal as mine does it almost every night, unless it does it for a prolonged time than that would be a cause for worry. As long as your parameters, lighting and tank maturity is good I'd say that your anemone is fine if all of those requirements are met.

 

[thefurrywarrior]

I have 4 t-5s 1 white, 2 purple, 1 blue for my lighting, pH 8.2ish, nitrites 0, nitrates 10. And my tank has been running for about 8 months now. I know it hasnt been running super long but everything has been stable thus far. My corals are in perfect health and always have been. Same for fish. I have been very fortunate thus far and would not like to end my spree. How long should it keep doing this before I do get worried.

 

[thefurrywarrior]

Its a 55 gal tank as well.

 

[sesheru95]

Well if it seems like everything is doing good and your parameters look OK (do you know salinity?and ammonia?) maturity seems OK. Can we get some actual wattage on lights? Individual reflectors? and the anemone may do it every night, week, month it all depends I don't think it's any bad unless it does the shrinking thing for days at a time but my anemone does this almost every night and puffs back up in the morning like yours and it seems to be OK. Maybe as your tank gets older the anemone will get more stabilized and maybe do that less but its only been there for 4 days so give it a few weeks/months and see what happens. Good luck

 

[thefurrywarrior]

Not certain of actual wattage atm, I need to find out. I am upgrading to halides with 2 t5s for actinics within the next month or so.

 

[thefurrywarrior]

salinity is a bit high at 1.027, ammonia at 0

 

[sesheru95]

sounds good 1.026 is natural sea water and anemone's preferable amount so just bring it down a bit and make sure when you upgrade to the MH which are a lot more light than the t-5's most likely to acclimate your corals and anemone to your lights so they don't go into shock. Todrex has a good light acclimation technique , lets see if he will chime in. Like I said it is mostly ok that the BTA is doing this and maybe as you have it for longer it might do this less frequently, I don't know but as long as its puffing back up in a reasonable amount of time I'd say the BTA is good. Good Luck!

 

[2Addicted]

Salinity needs to be 1.026 as stated before. Get the nitrates down. Let us know the wattage on those bulbs and if there are individual reflectors. Are you acclimating the anemone to your lights? Most likely it is deflating to get away from the intense lighting that it is not use to.

 

[thefurrywarrior]

I was told if my nitrates are below much below 10 then something is wrong with your filtration in your tank and that nitrates up to 15-20 are fine. Is that correct?

 

[2Addicted]

I was told if my nitrates are below much below 10 then something is wrong with your filtration in your tank and that nitrates up to 15-20 are fine. Is that correct?

Your goal is to have nitrates at 0. Ime anemones dont like nitrates.

 

[Sangogo]

sounds good 1.026 is natural sea water

While I think 1.026 is a great salinity to keep a tank at, it should probably be clarified that not all sea water is 1.026. The natural seawater I use, which is collected from local coral reefs, is anywhere between 1.024 to 1.028 depending on the season. This year it has mostly been closer to 1.024, so my tank this year is closer to 1.024 than in previous years. My anemones come from local waters, so it makes sense to me to keep the salinity to what local water is. I've also known people who have raised very healthy anemones for years at 1.022 (the recommended salinity for tanks in Japan, no idea why). In any case, I don't think salinity is the make it or break it factor here, though I lowering the salinity a bit probably would help.

There are also some people out there who believe that a *small* level of nitrates are necessary to keep the colors of some anemones. I don't know if this is true or not. I'd personally try to keep the nitrates as close to 0 as possible and leave that speculation to the experts.

 

[marcin11379]

What is going happen with anemones if salinity well be 1.021.I'm trying to keep low, so allergy not growing

 

[thefurrywarrior]

Ok, well its apparently not my lighting because today, in order to see if it was just acclimating to my lights, I waited an hour longer than normal to turn on my lights. When I came in to turn them on the anemone was already shrunk up and starting to re-inflate. I also noticed that the crack running through it that I noticed yesterday had spread to its mouth and the mouth was open. I have heard that an open mouth is a bad sign but it appears to be splitting so this may be normal, I dont know.

 

[2Addicted]

While I think 1.026 is a great salinity to keep a tank at, it should probably be clarified that not all sea water is 1.026. The natural seawater I use, which is collected from local coral reefs, is anywhere between 1.024 to 1.028 depending on the season. This year it has mostly been closer to 1.024, so my tank this year is closer to 1.024 than in previous years. My anemones come from local waters, so it makes sense to me to keep the salinity to what local water is. I've also known people who have raised very healthy anemones for years at 1.022 (the recommended salinity for tanks in Japan, no idea why). In any case, I don't think salinity is the make it or break it factor here, though I lowering the salinity a bit probably would help.

There are also some people out there who believe that a *small* level of nitrates are necessary to keep the colors of some anemones. I don't know if this is true or not. I'd personally try to keep the nitrates as close to 0 as possible and leave that speculation to the experts.

Good point.

 

[SwampyBill]

Sounds like something is stressing your nem to make it split. Prolly the damsel, maybe just the stress of a different tank, or maybe nitrates. Can you house the domino damsel somewhere else for awhile to let the anemone settle in & attach itself? I'd do a few small water changes every 4 or 5 days to help bring nitrates down more. How did you acclimate the nem to your T5's? Check out toddrtrex thread on here about lighting acclimation.