Green Bubble Tip Anemone Problem

[MD11]

I'll start off by telling you my tank setup. I have a 29 gallon tank with LEDs. I have a 425GPH power head and a canister filter. I also have a hang on the back protein skimmer. All my water params are up to par. I have a few corals which are all doing fine.

I bought a green bubble tip anemone yesterday evening. The foot of it was about 1 1/2 across. When I first put my BTA in, it was fine. It attached to a rock within an hour. It looked perfectly fine. When I woke up today, it must have moved about 6 inches. It was inside a crevice of a rock. It was still inflated and had the bubble look. This was when my blue lunar lights were on.

I had to leave for about an hour, and when I came back, my regular daylight lights were on. I noticed that my Green BTA was all shriveled up and was "Deflated". It looks like the foot is the same size, but the tentacles are all small.

I really don't what what happened to it. Was it the lights that "spooked" him? All my other corals are fine. He has been shriveled up for about 2 hours now.

 

[tallreefguy]

I wouldn't worry too much at this point. If he starts to have a gaping mouth, or his foot is coming off the rock I would start to worry.
I would say monitor it - and watch for other signs. Is it in the shade or in direct light?
Now that the light is back on he may move again. Keep posting about his progress
What kind of LEDs do you have?

 

[MD11]

He is near the bottom of the tank(Tank is 18" tall). He's in the direct light. I have the True Lumen LEDs.

He is looking fine now. Ill give him another day and let you guys know how he is doing.

 

[tallreefguy]

Ok good - sounds like he is just being cranky in the new environment. It may still do a
Bit of wandering over the next week.

 

[rjn82291]

I agree probably just a little shaken up from the move. Will continue to move until he finds a comfortable spot.

 

[tsharp90]

This is possibly a reaction to too much light. I have found the smaller BTAs seem to be more sensitive to intense lighting. I had this same problem and relocated it to a shadowed area and he perked right up. It was deflated about size of my thumbnail with gaping mouth. moved him to slight shade and he poofed up and is looking much better. This just happened today.

My tank is very shallow though.

 

[Pamelahaley]

Similar GBTA issue

Similar GBTA issue

I have a similar problem but, my nem has been in for 7 days now. When I got him home and acclimated, I inspected it on the way in the tank and saw some gut coming out the foot. I've seen nems spew gut out of stress in the past and pull it back in so it didn't worry me too much.

I put it on the bottom of the tank near between sand and a ledge since the GBT nems I had in the past (it's been 3 years since my last try) liked to scoot to the overflow. I fed it once it was opened up and happy looking on day 2 and 3 (trying to get my onxy clown to move out of the candy's too). It's moved about 4 inches diagonal into a shadier spot.

I only have 2 (month old) 36 watt 50/50 cfs in my 24 cube... I think it's enough b/c I'm scraping epic layers of algae off the glass every week and just traded a bunch of overgrowth to the LFS... anyone around here in ATL metro?

I tried feeding it yesterday when it was still kind of open but, towards the end of the day it was completely deflated except for the foot which is pretty well stuck between 3 rocks. The lights have been on for 3 hours now and it looks just like last night before lights out.

PSH... it looks a little more open now (but not by much) so maybe it's just digesting and I'm acting like a new mom. I have to transfer my candy's out so the clown will go host... I might wait, surprising he finds the candys every time I move them (its been 2 months) but, this time they look fine with him taking up residence...

 

[Mavrk]

At first I thought this was an update to that old thread. Then I saw your post. Anemones will ball up like that after eating to digest and/or poop out the food. Often they sleep this way or just stay this way for hours. As long as the foot is solid, I would just wait and see what happens. The fact that it was eating is a good sign.

 

[Tmoriarty]

The anemone you have most likely did not come from LED's I am guessing, you should acclimate him to the lighting by putting some screening over the tank or dimming down your LED's to give the nem time to adjust. Do this over the course of a couple weeks slowly increasing the brightness.

 

[velvetelvis]

You've probably already heard this before, but watch out for that powerhead! If you haven't covered it already with some sort of screen, it would be a good idea to do so ASAP. BTAs tend to wander until they're settled in a new system, and anemones in general are infamous for blundering into powerheads.

 

[EnV]

Mine also has been doing this, about 3-4 days now in my tank. Seems to always go back to normal, almost like a cycle.

 

[killerbubbles]

You've probably already heard this before, but watch out for that powerhead! If you haven't covered it already with some sort of screen, it would be a good idea to do so ASAP. BTAs tend to wander until they're settled in a new system, and anemones in general are infamous for blundering into powerheads.

+100000000

i do not have powerheads in my nem tank.

 

[Pamelahaley]

Yup, my nem is fine. It pooped. 2 inches away from the clown hosting the candy. :angryfire:

Nems are definitely interesting creatures, they need a lot of light yet, shy away from too much. This one moved a bit but, feeding it seemed to get it to stop.

if you have power heads, you can wrap them in foam. that might help... every one I lost; I lost to an overflow. I have this weird 6th sense, with the last one I'd wake up at 2:30am thinking about it to find the tentacles just beginning to go in; move it and wake up a few hours later to find it again. That one went back to the store. Back then I had 54 gal corner and T5s with a metal halide for noon. Not really sure what it was looking for.

 

[velvetelvis]

+100000000

i do not have powerheads in my nem tank.

Me neither. I was worried enough about one in particular ending up in the overflow, before it finally found its happy place and settled down.