What is happening to my anenome?

[oneonta]

I got an anenome with a batch of live rock. I don't have a camera handy, so I'll describe what's happening. It's flat, white, with an orange foot. It has a lot of little white tentacles -- hundreds -- in a pattern surrounding a little hole in the middle. It's pretty big, like the size of your palm. Just now he shriveled up and there was a whole lot of thin wispy tissue coming out of the hole. Now he's completely tightened up around the hole, which is now shut. It's alive, cause he moved a bit when I touched him.

Is it dying? Should I get it out of the tank?

Thanks

 

[stykthyn]

hard to id without a camera, but I would say leave it alone for now and see what it does, it may be a desirable anmene

 

[Juck]

Sounds like maybe a sick crispa,, but without a pic there's no way to diagnose or identify.

A palm-sized anemone is a pretty nice hitchhiker,,, do you know where the rock came from?

 

[oneonta]

It's not a hitchhiker, I got it with a shipment from Tampa Bay Saltwater. It's totally shriveled up and turning green. How much time should I give it, I don't want it rotting in my tank.

 

[stykthyn]

if it doesnt re-inflate by tomorrow there is something wrong with it. how long did you acclimate before putting in the tank? I usually drip acclimate for at least 3 hours.

 

[Sk8r]

Anemones often contract or expand when they're adjusting to a water change (they don't do big parameter changes well at all), or when they're digesting or pooping. As long as it's got its walls intact, no matter how shriveled, it's alive---it's just not happy. Protect your powerheads with sponge or filter medium: they sometimes swell up and float when they're annoyed, and you might run carbon if you haven't---anemones get angry in the open ocean and exude a nasty chemical to warn things away. They don't understand that in a closed tank they have to 'breathe' it too, and it only makes them madder.
Also don't put one next to a stony coral or a leather coral: the one has stinging tentacles of its own and the other spits just like an anemone.

 

[raoul]

You may also want to try offering it a little bit of food, you could try mysis if you have some on hand. Is the nem sticky? I have an H. crispa, it doesn't have an orange foot. Sorry, but I can't remember what does, maybe someone else will. Good luck!

 

[OrangeKoi]

what about those carnation anemone?

 

[jjackson]

Rock Flower Anemone was my guess they are fairly common in the gulf.