Anemone lost its tentacles

[DocG]

Here is my story,

I bought an BTA around the middle of November. For the first month it appeared to be doing fine. Not great due to the fact that it kept shrinking and expanding at a rate that seemed to be excessive, however it was staying in one place and was willingly accepting food.
I went on a three week vacation starting on Dec. 26 and had a friend look after the tank.
When I came home (Jan.18), everything in the tank was fine except that I could not find my anemone. I immediately tested the water and all of the parameters were fine, 0 Ammonia, ) Nitrite, 0 Nitrate. The calcium and alkalinity were borderline low, but still in range (I don't remember the exact values). This lead me to believe that the anemone was not dead, he just moved. I looked and looked for him and I couldn't find him anywhere. Two weeks after that (around Feb 1) I added a new powerhead for circulation and low and behold out he comes a couple of hours later.
One big problem - he is upside down on the rock and he has no tenticles at all. The tissue around his mouth is white (looks bleached). I have tried to target feed him and have not had much success. it has been two weeks and I have seen no change.
I have looked around the internet and have not found anybody that has had a similar situation. Can anybody help me out?
Can his tentacles grow back?
Is he a goner?
Thanks in advance for any help.

Don

[sw_addicted]

I have a bubble tip that does the same thing. I bought him around 6 months ago and after I removed the maroon clown that was just mean to anything he up disappeared for 3 months I thought he was dead. He was upside down and totaly flat on the rock and alot smaller then he used to be. Now he is still in the same place but he looks like a bubble tip again someday I will remove him also.

[RanRoc]

What's the temperature of the water? I have a BTA, but I used to keep carribean flower anemones. One of them was kept in a tank without a heater and during the winter, the tank temp dropped down to below 70 degrees F. The anemone lost all of its tentacles. A friend of mine took it and put it in his tank, but it never recovered. I think in order for it to regenerate tentacles it must have energy to do so, but it needs its tentacles to capture food and bring it to its mouth. I don't know if photosynthesis will take place on its disc, but if it does, perhaps providing strong lighting would help it. I don't know if there is much you could do at this point but wait. I'm not sure if feeding directly to its mouth would aggrevate it. Wish you and the BTA well. Keep us informed.
-RY

[DocG]

The temp has been consistently 79-81F
RanRoc - does that mean that it is possible for them to regenerate their tentacles?
It is almost directly under a 250W MH - about 15" deep and shaded a little by the rock.
Personally, I am thinking that I might want to get fairly agressive with trying to feed it so that has the energy to regenerate.
Any more thoughts?

[RanRoc]

Sounds a bit risky to me...you might wind up fouling the rest of the tank in the process. Your temperature and other parameters, including light seem to be fine. I'm pretty sure that they regenerate tentacles. I would wait. Hopefully someone else will chime in. I'm stumped.
-RY

[mwrager]

Yes it will regenerate its "tentacles". It probably will not feed. You might want to feed it, but I would just leave it alone and hope for the best. Also what is your PH. When mine did this my ph dropped to 7.7.

[mick77]

Does it appear to be turning itself inside out? I was reading somewhere that if they're severly stressed they will start to turn themselves inside out, expelling their zooan (hell I'm not even going to try and spell it without a dictionary), but they usually do it when they are first introduced. I personally had a sebae do this to me and there was no turning back for it. I hope you have much better luck than I did and keep us all posted.

[Orvin Farmer]

Just my 2cents. From what I have read about anemones it sounds like that as long as he is still attached to the rock he will be allright, it is when they become unattached and start rolling arround the bottom of the tank is when there is trouble, they are on their way out. Best of luck, tho.

[mwrager]

Orvin Farmer, you are correct. Thats the time to remove them.