Ritteri problems or not?

[AQUA DAVE]

I have had a ritteri for about two months now and he recently deflated twice but hasn't done it in about a week. I noticed before it deflated that It looked like there was a tear on the inside of the anemones body next to the mouth. After the deflation happened, the anemone hasn't quite fully inflated again and the mouth while not gaping is a little open. BUT!!!! the tear seems to slowly be healing. The anemone still eats with no problems and im just trying to get some feedback from people who have successfully brought one of these guys back from the ritteri perrils that so many of us go through. Thanks in advance for your feedback. Oh and it also seems that the specific side of the anemone that the tear was on is not inflating near as much as the rest of the anemone.

 

[delphinus]

I'm not 100% sure what to suggest. If the tear appears to be healing then hopefully eventually your stress will be a thing of the past. The only thing I can think of, is to ensure that things are as optimal for the anemone as you can make it. Which, as you know, involves a mixture of lighting and water currents.

I've found that my ritteri needs to eat a fair amount, I try to feed mine FW mysis (high protein content, also the size is about right for what their natural foods appear to be). Sometimes I've fed mine shrimp, chopped up, and sometimes other foods as well (mussels, fish, scallops), but for the most part it seems to show a preference for the small shrimpy type foods (it will actually reject most shellfish type foods). Anyhow my thinking on this is, it takes energy to heal up and grow, so that energy has to be provided somehow, so I would be looking to feed that anemone something like mysis, at least a couple times per week.

The flipside of this, however, is that if the anemone is compromised, overfeeding can be a very dnagerous thing to do. If the food offered decomposes faster than it is digested, then that opens the door for an opportunistic bacterial typer infection, which if happens, could well be game over.

So anyhow, there's the dilemma. I think you want to make sure the anemone -is- eating, but "slightly not enough" might be better than "slightly too much."

But if you can find that balance, and of course follow the general rules of good tank husbandry, clean water, good flow, good lighting, etc. etc. etc., hopefully that would get you there.

Good luck!