shrinking bubble anenome

[adamcourtney]

I'm a bit worried about my bubble anenome, since i got it, maybe 3 weeks ago its been fine, it opens up every day to spread about 9 inches across, its looks lovely.

I've fed it every 2-3 days a bit of lance fish, maybe half a lance, occasionally i change this for a peel prawn.

Today its shrunk down to about 1 inch across and the "feelers" are about 1/8 of there normal size, its also covered the rocks around it (where it has shrunk back down) in a kind of cob web, could this be waste or even sperm?

Can it be thats it not been fed enough (I've ben warned by my local store not to overfeed)?

I've checked nitrate, alkalinity, calcium, ph etc and they are all looking great. A substrate clean and 15% water change was also performed today and it all looks good....

Any ideas?

Cheers

Adam

[jimeluiz]

Our Rose Bubble Tip occationally shrinks in this dramatic fashion. At first we were TOTALLY FREAKED - but what to do? We waited, and got our book and started re-reading for some clue.

Seems to us that it periodically shrinks in an effort to take a break from the lighting - or so one author reported. Over the weeks ours has retracted and extended several times. Don't think we've had the wispy web, however...

We don't freak out anymore, but it is an alarming sight.

I hope the same for you.

Originally posted by jimeluiz
At first we were TOTALLY FREAKED - but what to do? We waited, and got our book and started re-reading for some clue.

This advice couldn't be any better. Just wait. The "spermy" look isn't normal and implies a sick anemone but there is nothing you can do that will make the anemone better. Once an anemone gets "sick" it is usually too late to change whatever's gone wrong. A shrivelled anemone is not necessarily sick but a spermy one is (btw, it's mucous, not sperm ). You may have dropped a rock on it or a fish may have poked it or any number of things may have gone wrong. The best you can do now is try to figure out what happened so that your next anemone doesn't fall victim to the same "illness".

But I'm not saying your anemone is doomed; quite the opposite. BTAs are very tough and pull through very well. You need to make sure you don't poke it around and touch it. I think the one thing that kills anemones when they are felling blue is not from the actual "illness". It's from people thinking they need to change the environment drastically to bring the anemone back to life. I have said it many times and many others have said the same thing: anemones can move and WILL move to a spot they like. You don't need to move them. Frankly, anemones are VERY tolerant of bad water - except copper and high ammonia - and you would most likely see a more gradual decline in the anemone's health if it was water quality unless your water is really bad in which case right away you would see the anemone deteriorate and die.

Feeding too little? Not likely. I feed my anemones once a month, sometimes. But I also have about 13 watts per gallon over my tank. If you want to feed your anemone to see if that is the problem, try small pieces but if the anemone doesn't take them, don't force it. Feeding requires energy and your anemone might not have much.

That's all I can think of at the moment. in truth, jimeluiz is probably right and the anemone is just trying to scare you

[Craig Manoukian]

JL and Jup have you on the right track. If you see white stringy stuff coming from the mouth of the anenome that is not a good sign.

Hang in there and keep us posted.

[adamcourtney]

its weird you know as later on last night the atlantic anenome did the exact same thing, it disappeard back into its rock so small, however both of them this morning are back to 3/4 their normal size.

maybe they just weren't keen on the water change, it was ro salt water like normal though..

[Gina]

How long has your tank been set-up? Anemones need a mature tank to do well. We made the mistake of getting an anemone after only a month of having our tank set up. It did well for several weeks then, started shriveling up and finally detatched itself. After a couple of days of not expanding we picked it up and it spewed crap everywhere. Needless to say we lost alot of life a few minutes later and it took several weeks to bring things around again. They can release toxins in the water so, if you think it may have died i personally would remove it before you have a problem. It's a fine line though between it just being shriveled up and maybe not feeling well to it being dead.

Good luck, I hope yours comes around.

[adamcourtney]

Now the other anenome (atlantic) has the "string stuff" coming from it, i've attahced a pic though its a bit hard to capture.

The bubble one has come back to normal now and looks as good as ever...

[adamcourtney]

the bubble now...

[adamcourtney]

ten minutes later and here is the atlantic....

It looks like your anemone is flushing itself. If it continues to do this there might be something wrong in your water. If this only happens a few times and the anemone is new, I wouldn't worry too much. Just don't go poking it around too much

[JennM]

The condy is pooping.

Not unsual for all anemones to water change - expel all the water out of themselves and change it to new water - esp. after a water change, that will change your parameters slightly. The anemone wants to match its surroundings, so it will squeeze most of the water out of itself, and then refill again.

Jenn

[Dracunculus]

I have tried putting bubble tip anemones in my tank twice, and I think that I may have fallen prey to the desire to "do something" that will get them better. Each of them did well for the first three days or so, then went through extended periods of contraction. My water quality was consitently good both times, with pH 8.2, salinity 1.025, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and about 10 nitrates. I think where I failed was in assuming they needed to feed more when they were in this shriveled state and attempting to get food into them. They had both found spots that they seemed to like and did not move from them. However after a few days while shriveled, they began to deteriorate, developing holes in their bodies and feet and eventually detaching from the rock entirely. At that point I took them out of the tank so as not to risk fouling it with their dead bodies. When I had gotten both of them, I inspected their feet to make sure that they were intact. As an aside, I think the second one might have been stressed by my clownfish, since they had taken up residence almost immediately...that coupled with the move to the new tank may have been too much.

Given everything I have read since saying how tough BTAs are and how well they can recuperate, I wonder whether I might have been better off leaving them in the tank to see if they would recover instead of assuming they were dying and taking them out while i could.

I have been successful keeping other cnidarians (leathers, favia brain, montipora, pavona, plerogyra, zoos, and ricordea) so I am not certian why I might have had a problem with anemones. Will probably give it a go once more in the future....the clownfish/anemone symbiosis is one of the things that got me interested in reef keeping in the first place.