Question about new Ritteri

[Postal]

Should the mouth of a healthy ritteri be puckered and protruding like an "out-y"?

I picked up the nem from the LFS yesterday. It is slightly bleached but looked pretty good.
The mouth was gaping when I got it home (to be expected). I turned off the flow in the tank and the nem quickly (a minute or two) attached to the rock. When I kicked the flow back on the tentacles filled out nicely and the mouth closed up tightly.
This morning the nem looked a little deflated with the mouth open and expelling waste or zooxanthellae. When the lights came on the nem perked back up and the mouth closed. However, the mouth sticks out from the oral disk.
Is this normal?

I'll grab pics later if I can. Right now the majority of the nem is facing the back of the tank.

Thanks

 

[jeffreylesser]

I have never owned a magnifica, but puckered is OK. As long as the mouth is closed it is usually a good sign. I have noticed and this is completely observational, but whether the mouth is puckered, or a slit, or a small pinpoint, a lot of time depends on the animals state of expansion, and the position of its column.

A gaping mouth can mean many different things, almost all of them bad(aside from expelling waste). I owned an LTA at one point (it has since returned to the LFS), that's "closed" state was still open enough to maybe fit a pencil in it's mouth.

From the sounds of it, expanded with the mouth closed and puckered is the "peak" state of the anemone right now as it is adjusting to your tank.

Good Luck.

 

[Quickcord]

My Mag's mouth is puckered up 98% of the time, unless it is eating.

Quickcord

 

[garygb]

Yes, I agree, for mags that is pretty typical. As was mentioned, gaping open is a sign of problems.