Is my nem "Special"

B

Ben

Premium Member
I got a new GBTA about a week ago and he's great as long as the lights are on. In the night after the lights are out he gets himself into trouble.

When I first put him in he was all inflated and bubbled up, very nice looking, strong foothold to where he was. He ate some mysis I gave him. He stayed like this all day long and was in the same place when I checked on him before I went to bed. The lights had been out for several hours when I checked too. It seemed like I got a good nem and would have no issues. Guess I should have knocked on wood.

I get up the next morning and he's under the rock he was on the day before, hanging upside down. I leave him like this for a few days and he doesn't move but looks dejected and deflated. So yesterday morning I flip his rock over so he's pointing up and he bubbles right up and eats again no problem. Stays like that for at least 12 hours and is good when I go to bed.

I get up this morning and during the night he let loose of his rock and got sucked halfway through a few of the overflow holes. I gently push his body back through the overflow holes and pull him off and stick him down in a shady spot between some rocks. All I had time to do before leaving for work.

Is this normal behavior for nems or is this one "Special"? I have 2 other birdsplatter GBTA's that are about the size of a quarter and they're doing fine and haven't moved much. They're all in the same general part of the tank as well, so no difference in lighting or flow.
 
IMHO opinion, I think sometimes there is a tipping point for multiple nems in the tank. I have a Sherman that is happy all by its self. Stays in its spot, doesn't bother any other corals. It has it's routine on coming out, basking in the light, etc. But when it splits, and there is another Nem in the tank, it wanders, pouts, etc. When the clone is gone, it wanders back to its "Choice spot" and is happy as a nem!!!
 
Even with very small ones? This problem nem is about the size of a racketball when he's inflated and basking in the light. The other 2 nems are not much larger than a marble when inflated and basking.
 
@Ben Runnels wrote:
Even with very small ones? This problem nem is about the size of a racketball when he's inflated and basking in the light. The other 2 nems are not much larger than a marble when inflated and basking. said:
Oh! They are little....Just leave it be....Just make sure they don't go Sump diving or powerhead fighting. It may just need more time to find it's sweet spot
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Every single 'nem I have ever added to my tank will start off wandering, hanging upside down, and all of the other behavior described. I have a tri bubble, 2 reds, one green, one seabea and I think 4 or 5 mini maxis all doing well.

Give him plenty of light. Feed him if he will eat. Keep him out of the power heads and overflows.
Chances are it will settle down and thrive if you keep the water quality up.
 
Agree with Howard. If it looks like it is in a bad spot, help it out to make sure it gets light primarily, and hope it will settle into one spot for the time being.

What are these other anemones that are so small? They sound like Majanos.
 
@Marc wrote:
What are these other anemones that are so small? They sound like Majanos. said:
That's what I was thinking, just due to the "marble size". Hopefully they were free hitch hikers and not purchased if that's the case. :)
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@ReefJunky wrote:
[I]@Marc wrote:[/I][quote="What are these other anemones that are so small? They sound like Majanos. said:
That's what I was thinking, just due to the "marble size". Hopefully they were free hitch hikers and not purchased if that's the case. :)"]
No, they're for sure GBTA's that I got from another member. They look a lot like this but much smaller
lg-040213-647a.jpg
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If it looks like Howard's image, it's a pest anemone and not a BTA. Don't worry, I actually bought four of those from my LFS many years ago because I thought they were pretty. Within a few months, I had forty of those tribbles, and to this day I'm still trying to kill off any I find.
 
I have a srbta that likes to wander around. I have found if I tuck them into a crevices, they feel more secure and less likely to wander. It's curious behavior for a simple creature.
 
I had some of those and took the rock out and chipped them off

~introducing fish and coral into a electronically balanced body of water since 2007~
 
If it is a GBTA they like to move a lot when used to grow them. They like a lot of flow compared to RBTA. They will try and go towards the light more than the RBTA. Also, if you have older bulbs you may want to replace them. I used LEDs and they would go up to the top just as high as most sps in the tank. How many hours are you running your lights? I liked to keep them at about 10 hours of full light with an hour before and after with blues only. Then I had moon lights on the tank as well, not sure if that helped at all. But it sounds like you may have light in the room that they are reaching for. If they go under rock work leave them there they are trying to split. I have seen them sit under a rock for a couple weeks then come out as 2 or 3.

If they are manjos get them out ASAP like mentioned before.
 
Well after a few weeks of the "Special" nem staying put attached to some rocks at the bottom of the tank in the far back where I could barely see him he decided to let loose again when the lights went out. I saw this before I went to bed and shoved him into a rock crevice and blocked him in there with my plastic scraper so he couldn't get blown loose by any current. In the night he crawled out of this confinement and let loose to float around again and got sucked into the powerhead and shredded. He had over 75% of his tentacles whacked off but no foot damage so I thought he might pull through. Put him in the refugium with good light and flow all day yesterday and his remaining tentacles responded to light but he didn't attach. Checked him this morning and he seemed to be much less firm than yesterday so I flushed him before he went jelly.

The tank was very cloudy yesterday so I wet skimmed and started running carbon. No ammonia or nitrite spikes when I checked several times yesterday and this morning but still a little cloudy. None of the zoas, torch, frogspawn, or duncan seem to be affected.

I still have the 2 small green nems that were traded to me by another member for a clown. They were touted to be BTA's that had split off his main BTA. They're bigger now than when I got them, don't move around, bubble up nicely under light, have not split, and are about the size of a quarter now when inflated. When I feed them the close up into a ball with just a couple tentacles sticking out the top so they look a lot like a huge closed up zoa. I'm still hopeful that they are not manjano's but if they split they're going to Mr Tidy bowl's big reef tank in the sky.

All in all I think I'm done with nems for the most part. If anyone wants to trade a black misbar clown for a few small zoa frags let me know. He's lonely now without his nem to sleep in at night and is cuddling up to my torch again. I'll even throw in 3 nice green chromis that I've had for a while assuming the fish trap will catch them. I'm going to go sans fish for a while as I have a 2 week vacation coming up the beginning of June so the less someone has to feed while I'm gone the better.
 
Well I took a picture of one of the small nems by flashlight. This was the best I could get because of where he is and the LED's really freaking out the camera on my phone. What is strange though is the flashlight is LED too... [smilie=rofl.gif]

You kinda get a size comparison with the small nerite snails bottom left and top left, dwarf cerith under and to the right, and florida cerith top right.

[attachment=0]nem1-small.jpg[/attachment]
 
Hmmmm. Might actually be a tiny bubble tip anemone.
 
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