Strange Condy Behavior?

[mandyem]

Totally new to hosting these truly strange entitys but bought a condy last night along with 2 "nemo" clowns (thanks how they were marketed at the lfs)
Anyway my light cycle is on at night and off during the day. The condy ate well last night and fed again this am. Powered down this AM and put on moon lights and went to bed. Got up at 3pm and all we could see was the foot. It turned itself into itself. I immediately turned on all the lights and turned the rock it was on(found out one of my power heads died(darned equipment failures) and all my parameters are perfect..pH 8.1 Nitrates.ites 0, Specific gravity 1.023.
I did however have to chase the clowns out this AM which might have stressed it as the clowns have Ich and I wanted to medicate them.
Anyway help would be appreciated.
Since turning him/her/it it seems to be reinflating and all the legs/arms whatever have come back out.
Thanks so much
Jenn
Mandyem

 

[SuperNerd]

What's your ammonia, alkalinity, temp?

Most people who are successful at keeping anemones are also succesful at keeping live corals and the big things they test for and monitor include Calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, ammonia, nitrates, pH, salinity (or specific gravity), temperature, and of course lighting and filtration. I don't think I'm forgetting anything else but if I am hopefully someone will catch it and pipe in.

If your parameters are perfect then the anemone should get better but try to keep the water parameters at or near reef conditions. It would be good if you tested the things I listed above in addition to what you are doing now.

How long and in what way did you acclimate the anemone before you put it in your tank and how different was the specific gravity of the water it was in at the LFS versus the water it is in right now? In general inverts are sensitive to fluctuations in specific gravity.

FWIW and OT Condys are not natural hosts to clowns. Many eventually eat the clowns. Condys come from a different part of the world (atlantic) and host other things such as shrimp and certain blennies. Clowns come from the pacific and so too do the anemones they host. Anemones are difficult to keep. If you want one that is "relatively hardy" I would take back the condy and purchase a bubble anemone.

Here's a little link about parameters: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

 

[mandyem]

Thanks For replying supernerd.
Since posting the original post that condy returned to "normal" behavior and began eating EVERYTHING!!!
2 Clowns 2 Cardinals and several crabs!!!!
It went back to the LFS that told me how kind and reef safe it would be.
There happens to be a "Marine Biologist" there that sold it to me and he then back tracked with "don't talk to anyone other than me for advice" Took all I could muster not to feed the person to the condy. IT sure was a gorgious maroon pink from all the meat it was eating. Oh well. The tank recovered and now all my corals I have added are good and I have a new pair of clowns from a new found LFS and will only go to the LFS for food!
Again thanks for the advice and my BTA is on order.
Jenn
Mandyem

 

[Safir]

anemones will periodically shrink up into themselves, it's apparently their way of doing a "water change" of the water inside their bodies - my Condy did the same thing abotu a day after I got it - keep an eye on it, it will likely open back up and be fine.

Condy's are probably even easier to keep than bubble tips, but are usually not a "clownfish" anemone, normally clowns will not host in a condy, but I have seen it happen in a fish store's tanks, so it is not entirely unheard of.

 

[dantodd]

condys are not natural host anemones for any clownfish because they aren't found in the same parts of the world. There are no clownfishes in the caribbean which is the home of condy anemones.

I don't think I would be interested in buying anything from a fish store that labeled ANYTHING as "nemo"

All that said some folks here on RC have kept condy with clownfish without incident.

There is a great document on keeping anemones at the top of this forum. Look in the thread titled "Clownfish & Anemones FAQ"

 

[stykthyn]

this is normal behavior for condylactys anemones, they will often close in on themselves at night and re-open during the day. I have kept several pairs of clowns with these with no incidents. I have never seen a clarkii,perc or ocellaris host them, but maroons and tomatoes I have kept took to them rather readily. IMHO these are one of the easiest nems to keep. a word of caution though. These guys travel quite a bit and have a powerful sting. For this reason many people dont like them in a reef tanks as they may injure other corals and invertebrates. If you have any questions about them pm me and I will be happy to help.