Green Bubble Tip Anemone

[The Cat Burglar]

HI Guys, Ive had my gbta for about a month now, I've noticed the last couple of days that he has been closing in totally with no tentacles showing periodically and I've just noticed that the mouth is wide open with some brown stringy material coming from it (see pic attached), it's has been moving around for the past few days too but in the same general area (not all over the tank). I've been feeding him frozen mysis twice a week including today and it's been eating it. Should I be worried about this at all? Tested my parameters and they are good.

 

[hotelbravo]

sounds very normal to me. they shrivle up and expel waste and sometimes fully enclose on themselves for periods of time

 

[rt67ghy]

Is it hosting any clown? A clown would help it to settle in quickly.

 

[hotelbravo]

Is it hosting any clown? A clown would help it to settle in quickly.

a clown could also cause it to go downhill. some clowns love their anemones to much. maroons are notorious for that just as an example.
if the nem is stressed out i always recommend NOT adding a clown cause you never know how rough it will be on an already stressed anemone.

 

[The Cat Burglar]

Is it hosting any clown? A clown would help it to settle in quickly.

Not hosting a clownfish as yet, I was a bit worried that it was shrinking and expelling the brown fluid. It's still moving around the same general area of the tank but looks healthy and is eating so I guess I'll just keep an eye on it for the time being.

 

[rt67ghy]

If you've noticed the change in the last few days and it wasn't doing this before I'd expect that something is bothering it. I'd still advise getting a small clown if it's clearly not dying. I had a GBTA and it wondered around my tank for the whole of the first month. This stopped as soon as it started hosting a tomato clown; it started eating whatever I fed it and grew to be around 10" fully expanded in 4 months. A clown much smaller relative to the nem should not be an issue.

 

[The Cat Burglar]

If you've noticed the change in the last few days and it wasn't doing this before I'd expect that something is bothering it. I'd still advise getting a small clown if it's clearly not dying. I had a GBTA and it wondered around my tank for the whole of the first month. This stopped as soon as it started hosting a tomato clown; it started eating whatever I fed it and grew to be around 10" fully expanded in 4 months. A clown much smaller relative to the nem should not be an issue.

Yeah it thought it strange that it seemed settled and then began its current behaviour. I have 2 ocellaris clownfish in the tank but they aren't showing much interest in the anemone, I had a tomatoe clown in the tank who the anemone hosted but he had to leave due to his aggressive behaviour towards every other fish in the tank, he had them all pinned behind rocks and when they decided to come out he would attack them, not to mention attacking my hand anytime I put it into the tank. I was thinking about putting the 2 clown's and the anemone into a breeder box hanging in the tank to try "force" hosting. I saw a few videos of this and it seemed successful but my worry is if the anemone is already stressed then doing this might kill it altogether???

 

[rt67ghy]

You are correct in thinking this would increase the stress. I wouldn't force it to host by putting them in a breeder box. I'd let nature take it's course - better for all concerned. One tip which worked for me when I wanted my sebae anemone to host a clarkii pair - I would target feed the fish just above the nem and let some sinking pellets fall on the nem. The clowns didn't waste much time to adopt the nem.

 

[kelp47]

I'm pretty new to anemones, too, and I've just had a BTA for one month now. It seems to be doing very well, but I do notice that it gets stressed and closes sometimes when a shrimp bothers it. My peppermint mainly only bothers it when it sees that the anemone has food. (But I've learned to be sure to feed some meat to the general population in the tank before feeding the anemone). But the other day, I was just lucky enough to get a glimpse of a pistol shrimp (who hides in my rockwork) picking on the anemone when the light went off. There wasn't much I could do, so I let nature take its course. Eventually the shrimp left the anemone alone and he opened back up... not a much as usual, but enough to satisfy me. The next day, he was nice and full. I'm hoping the clowns I have in QT will decide to hang out with the anemone and help keep the shrimp away.

Also, my anemone's mouth has opened and release brown stringy stuff, which some will tell you is a bad thing (meaning it's expelling the beneficial algae). But I feel like that might be okay for an adapting anemone to do it a little. Mine did this a couple weeks ago, but his mouth tightened back up afterwards and I haven't seen it since. I've had a rock flower anemone for over a year now, and it also did this a time or two during the first couple of months. Does your anemone's mouth stay tight when it's not expelling or eating? That would be a good sign. I understand that if it stays loose, that is an indication that something in wrong.

 

[hotelbravo]

Also, my anemone's mouth has opened and release brown stringy stuff, which some will tell you is a bad thing (meaning it's expelling the beneficial algae)its expelling waste not beneficial algae. its a very normal and a healthy thing for them to do.. But I feel like that might be okay for an adapting anemone to do it a little. Mine did this a couple weeks ago, but his mouth tightened back up afterwards and I haven't seen it since. I've had a rock flower anemone for over a year now, and it also did this a time or two during the first couple of months. Does your anemone's mouth stay tight when it's not expelling or eating? That would be a good sign. I understand that if it stays loose, that is an indication that something in wrong.

 

[The Cat Burglar]

I'm pretty new to anemones, too, and I've just had a BTA for one month now. It seems to be doing very well, but I do notice that it gets stressed and closes sometimes when a shrimp bothers it. My peppermint mainly only bothers it when it sees that the anemone has food. (But I've learned to be sure to feed some meat to the general population in the tank before feeding the anemone). But the other day, I was just lucky enough to get a glimpse of a pistol shrimp (who The in my rockwork) picking on the anemone when the light went off. There wasn't much I could do, so I let nature take its course. Eventually the shrimp left the anemone alone and he opened back up... not a much as usual, but enough to satisfy me. The next day, he was nice and full. I'm hoping the clowns I have in QT will decide to hang out with the anemone and help keep the shrimp away.

Also, my anemone's mouth has opened and release brown stringy stuff, which some will tell you is a bad thing (meaning it's expelling the beneficial algae). But I feel like that might be okay for an adapting anemone to do it a little. Mine did this a couple weeks ago, but his mouth tightened back up afterwards and I haven't seen it since. I've had a rock flower anemone for over a year now, and it also did this a time or two during the first couple of months. Does your anemone's mouth stay tight when it's not expelling or eating? That would be a good sign. I understand that if it stays loose, that is an indication that something in wrong.

Cheers for the response guys, greatly appreciate your time to pass on your knowledge. It's mouth is closed the majority of the time, I've only seen it open to expel brown stringy stuff once. I feed it a quarter block of frozen mysis earlier and it ate up and it has been in the same position the last 2 days so fingers crossed it's settling down again. I tested my parameters again yesterday and my dkh was down to 6 so maybe that's a issue, I've started to dose to bring it to 8 or 9.