Anemone behavior

jefw100 · 01-03-2005, 05:06 PM

I introduced a RBTA to my tank about 3 months ago. After the first 2 days it never had bubble tips. The fingers are long and thin and look healthy in every other way...just no bubble tips. I feed it every 2 to 3 days in addition to what it gets when I feed the rest of the tank. It is approx 15" below the lights in a 75 gal. tank. The lights are 2x250MH and 2x110 VHO. Water quality is good too. Also I have seen it a few times shrink up to just about nothing and close almost all the way. As it does that it spits out this long thin stringy brown stuff. The fish like to nip at that but most of it ends up going down the overflow. Are either of these thing normal? Anything I am doing wrong?
jeff

redwinger · 01-03-2005, 05:32 PM

Stringy stuff is him pooping Normal.

Beng · 01-03-2005, 05:33 PM

Oh Ohh, if it's puking out brown stuff, it's not a good sign. It's puking out it's zooxanthellae.

I'm NOT an expert but Anemones need zooxanthellae to survive. Without it, it will
slowly die. I had 2 Cody Anemones that did the same things. After a month, both were
pretty much dead.

I'm a bit surprise it would do that since you do have Meta Halides.

Beng

MyUnderWaterWorld · 01-03-2005, 05:43 PM

The brown stuff is its waste from the food. Anemone does not bubble up as much in high flow as it does in low to moderate flow. If there is insufficient flow the anemone will crumble up into a ball and digest its food. Then revert back into its normal size and shape like nothing happened.

Jeremiah · 01-03-2005, 05:45 PM

Both are completely normal.

Skipponator · 01-03-2005, 06:16 PM

Get an anemone crab, it will like eating that stringy stuff, plus it's a really cool crab, mine is one of my favorite tank inhabitants.

Shorty5198 · 01-09-2005, 09:28 PM

I wouldn't worry. That stringy stuff is just the waste. My green carpet does it all the time. As for the bubbles, i agree with underwater world. Too much flow could very well be the cause. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Jive Turkey · 01-10-2005, 12:59 AM

My understanding is that the brown goo can be either waste OR zooxanthellae.

From your description, I'd say the anemone shrinks to digest. My old Sebaes would do it all the time, and they weren't releasing zoox.

jefw100 · 01-10-2005, 04:05 AM

Thanks everyone for weighing in. It still looks the same. Looks great 99% of the time then every once in a while it looks like it died or fell apart and viola, normal again.

j

Sea monkey · 01-10-2005, 10:41 AM

100% normal , infact signs that it is healthy