New Anemone Behavior

[DoxStuckDox]

First time posting after many many months of reading helpful information. Finally, a question which I have not found the answer too:

So I bought an Bubble Tip Anemone today at the fish store, my first attempt into the world of anemones. It looked great at the store, big and full, and I brought it hope to my fully cycled and happy tank (all the levels, including phosphates, were flawless) - to see it shrivel up, turn grey and start producing a smoky looking viscous fluid. Now....I understand that it may take some time for the anemone to find his place and be happy, but is this the type of behavior I should expect? His tentacles are filled at the bottoms, but look grey and almost dead at the top with no apparent change in the past couple hours.

How exactly will a healthy BTA act in the first couple days?

Thanks

[tims]

it's been a while seem i had one...
did you accliment it?
sounds like it pooped.. usally takes a day or so to fully get use to the tank. then it will move until it finds just the right spot.

[DoxStuckDox]

Yeah, I acclimated it by temperature and then dripped the water in the bag until it was submerged, then placed it inside a crevice of live rock. The lighting is more than adequate, and has medium current flow, but still looks horrible.... although he did scared my cleaner shrimp half to death....the shrimp is a all the way in the far corner now pouting....

[JennM]

It was probably water-changing. The water in its tissue was similar to that of the system it came from. It will have purged that and will take in your water, so it has the same water as your tank. I wouldn't worry, it will probably re-inflate in the next 24 hours. If it doesn't, keep an eye if it starts to disintegrate, scoop (do not use a net, use a cup or container) the remains out - however BTA are pretty forgiving and it will probably be fine.

It does sound like it pooped at the same time... one huge purge ...

HTH

Jenn

[tdwyatt]

What Jenn said, it may take up to a week to fully acclimitize to your system, and this purge is just a precursor to normal activity. This assumes that it was not exposed to conditioins that may have damaged the anemone prior to your acquisition of the specimen.

I also would strongly advise that if parts start falling off, that you do as Jenn said and SCOOP it out with a container rather than net it, as the leftovers are just more decompositional material for the tank.

How is it today?