Advice for an enigmatic anemone

G

gaberosenfield

About 2 weeks ago I purchased a GBTA from a fellow reefer. Within the first 2 days in my tank it split (hurrah! 2 for the price of one!). One of those clones is now open and crawling around in my tank, acting like I think an anemone should. The other one has been parked in a cave underneath my rockwork since the day it split. I can see the shy one through cracks in the rocks and sometimes it is partially inflated, other times it's completely deflated and/or closed. Should I try to open up the cave by rearranging my rockwork? Or should I try to move the nem? Or should I just do nothing and assume it will come out towards the light when it's ready? Thanks in advance for the input.
 
I personally would tend toward leaving it put, and feeding it, if possible, when you feed the other one.

David
 
Yeah, don't go after it, but do keep an eye on it. If it dies you'll need to pull it out quickly. It's not always obvious when this happens.

Have you fed either one (or the original) successfully? What did you feed? I recommend whole silversides as the primary food.

Also check your current and make sure they aren't getting buffeted at all. A gentle movement of the tentacles is what you're after.

If there are clownish in the tank, I'd isolate it from the clones until they settle.
 
I've fed the healthy one small bits of frozen shrimp (not mysis, actually shrimp meant for human consumption that I decided was too fishy for my consumption). I tried to feed the shy one a bit of the same shrimp but I'm not sure whether it got any as it is hard to feed/see it in its current location.

The current seems fine as the healthy one is inflating its tentacles and they are lightly swaying.

Hmm, I have 2 ocellaris clowns. One of them has been eyeing the healthy nem, but neither of them ever goes down into the cave where the shy one is.

Why isn't it obvious when a nem dies? What are the signs? I assumed it would just start disintegrating and lose its color...
 
It's not always obvious because they look pretty bad for a period of time before they die. And they can look just as bad and recover, so it's hard to know if they will turn around or take a dive. Once they actually die, they can foul the tank inside half a day. Once you see them coming apart, they've been dead far too long in the tank. Look for gaping and expulsion of the acontia while being completely flaccid. I've actually seen anemone's bounce back from this state, but more often than not, they die.

As long as the clowns aren't being aggressive with them, they are probably fine. If they are being gentle, then they can actually help the anemone, IME.

Move your rock just enough to gain a visual on the hidden anemone. You want to avoid doing anything to annoy it, but it's important to be able to see it. If you just can't tell what state it's in, poke at the edge of the foot at the point of attachment. If it's firmly attached then it's probably still hanging in there, but if you can easily un-stick it from the substrate, then that's a bad sign. A healthy anemone will actively work to stay stuck--if you un-stick it, it will re-stick within moments.

Shrimp is ok if you feed the entire shrimp-exoskeleton and all. Just feeding the meat won't cut it, IME.
 
Thanks for all the advice! I will move my rocks just enough to always keep an eye on the shy guy. The shrimp I'm is all ground up with the exoskeleton and all, but I think I'll go purchase some other whole food for the nems because I think the ground nature of the shrimp I've been feeding probably doesn't really give them all the stuff a whole food would since all the smaller ground pieces float away and are consumed by the clowns. I'll post again if/when the shy nem recovers or dies. Thanks again!
 
I feed silversides cut into small pieces. Some anemones will only take pencil eraser sized pieces, while others may be large enough to take a whole silverside, in my experience.

David
 
If it stays hidden from light over a week I would try to turn the rock so anemone gets some light or it will just wither away and die


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I have removed a big rock from my tank that was creating the cave in which the anemone in question was sitting. Even while in there it got a little light through the cracks. Now that it has light and I can see it I'm not worried at all. It looks fine and has a sexy shrimp dancing around it. Thanks everyone for the advice!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top