Morphological change in rose anemone

[LouH]

I've owned a rose anemone for about 7 months, and when I bought the anemone it had long slender arms which had some green tinto to them. When fully opened, it had a radius of about 7". Over the past several weeks, the anemone has shrunk in size to about 4"-5" in diameter, sits further back into a crevace than it used to, and the arms are now short ang forming bulbs. The anemone is still feeding great and the color is a nice red, so it seems to be healthy. My clowns, however, don't seem to be as thrilled about the new morph as they spend less time in there.

Changes to the tank during the same time period include adding some mushrooms (Rhodactis and Yumas), and an increase in tank water flow via a Tunze powerhead controlled by an Apex (random, moderate power flow).

Is there an issue here, or is this simply a response to the environment? I preferred the long arms, so I'm wondering what I can do to get the anemone to take on that morphology again.

I forgot to mention that the anemone is under 250W MHs, 14K Hamiltons. The anemone is about 4" below the surface of the water.

Lou

 

[Ron Reefman]

My first reaction is, that the change in the anemone is due to the fact that the clowns aren't using it as much, rather than the clowns are using it because they don't like the change in the anemone. Many people get RBTA and they have bulbs at the tips. They put the nem in the tank and their clowns start to use it and the bulbs go away. My gut feeling is that the anemone benefits from the food that the clown trys to hide there, but isn't thrilled about the clown swimming around in it's tentacles. The anemone is still trying to capture food and the clownfish are a distraction and take up space the anemone could use to catch food on it's own.

I doubt that there is anything 'wrong' with your RBTA... in fact, I think it may be happier than it's been in some time. My question is, why have your clowns started to use it less?

 

[LouH]

I feed the anemone 2-3 times a week with a pea sized piece of cod, so it is well fed. I believe that the reduction in the total expanded size of the anemone is the reason for reduced use by the clown fish. There is simply less space to hide in. When the arms were long and thin, the clowns could disappear in there.

Lou