Carpet anemone drastically changed colour!

[Reef_rookies]

I got a carpet anemone about 7 months ago. In the beginning it was mostly white with lime green dashes in certain parts...about 3 months ago it changed to predominantly lime green and white dashes now! Does anyone know why this drastic change happened?

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[shred5]

It bleached out some. It looks like it lost a good part of its zooxanthellae but not all and should recover well. Some sort of stress causes it and you need to find out what it is..
Was it acclimated well? Was there a lighting change, are you water parameters out of wack, was there a rapid temp change?
Since this is posted in new to the hobby I am assuming you are new to the hobby. Anemones are for more experienced people in the hobby especially carpet anemones.
That looks like a Stichodactyla haddoni to me.

 

[Reef_rookies]

Thanks for responding....I got this anemone for a great deal! I had no idea that it was for experts! I have learned now not to make any impulsive purchases and to do my research first! I'm thinking that the store I purchased it from didn't have it under the correct light and was neglecting it. I was very worried about it surviving at first....after 7 months of having it , it's doing much much better! They are definitely fascinating creatures!

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[Reef_rookies]

The picture of the anemone when white is what it looked like when I first got it

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[shred5]

So the first pics are of it now?.
If so you are doing a great job because it has recovered. The little/cell phone picture is of it bleached.

 

[Reef_rookies]

Yes! Thank you! It took awhile to get it back to healthy! A couple of times I thought it was dying because it was upside down floating around in the tank! It also attached itself to the heater and burnt itself! I recently put an emerald crab in the tank to help control the algae and it ended up irritating the anemone because it just had to pick a rock to go into that was under the flaps of the anemone!! Anyway I think its used to it now because its feeding reaction is back to normal and it looks great!

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[shred5]

Yes! Thank you! It took awhile to get it back to healthy! A couple of times I thought it was dying because it was upside down floating around in the tank! It also attached itself to the heater and burnt itself! I recently put an emerald crab in the tank to help control the algae and it ended up irritating the anemone because it just had to pick a rock to go into that was under the flaps of the anemone!! Anyway I think its used to it now because its feeding reaction is back to normal and it looks great!

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Yea it looks very healthy now.

Sometimes anemones release because they are unhappy where they are and will float somewhere else, usually they blow up like a balloon when they do this.. Sometimes it is damage to their foot and they are in most cases goners.

 

[billdogg]

I agree! It was white because it was having a near death experience. Many kudos to you for bringing it back!!!! Whatever it is you are doing, keep doing it. I would expect it to continue to color up as it's health improves.