[Calm]

I first purchased a sebae anemone on an impulse. I saw it, "oohed" and "ahhed", bought it, and plopped it in my tank (acclimation of course).

It looked like this!

A beautiful, white, DYING color (I didn't know!)

The first few weeks were hell. It kept moving around, and we couldn't feed it. Lost a cardinalfish in the process. By the third week, It finally settled in an low flow alcove. Though it wasn't for another week of force feeding it at the same time every night before it's foot finally anchored in.

By then it looked like this:

The second month was pure observation and mild panic at anemone behavior. We learned how it shriveled up to expel. The "poop" was always mucousy brown strings. Not for too long and not too much. But, EVERYTIME it did it's business, it was brown.

After three months, it nearly doubled in size and the color started turning yellow and brown. Which is great!

It's the fourth month now and today it's done something i've NEVER seen it do before.

It's expelling while fully open, mouth gaping, and it's expelling A LOT. So much that the tank is getting cloudy now. The mucus is both brown AND white - and the anemone is all shriveled, but not falling apart.

The poor clowns are rubbing their faces in it!

 

[Calm]

here, you can see it's big open mouth. Never seen this behaviour

As of a few days ago all paramaters were in "normal" range
pH 8.2 - 8.4
Temp 78
Alkalinity 12dKH
Ca 400
Mg 800
Nitrates 20ppm
Ammonia 0

The tank:
144gal bowfront Oceanic reef tank
29gal sump
48 3watt LEDs day
445nnm royal blue ecozotic LEDs
150lb live rock

Live rock cycled for 2 years. - cleaned and moved.
Anemone added 2 months after move.

 

[Calm]

Currently, anemone is still flat with tentacles partially shriveled. However, mouth is closed. I'm going to skip feeding tonight. I hope it's OK.

Does anyone have any idea o whether this anemone is in peril or normal behavior?

 

[jenny.moriwaki]

are u feeding it everynight? im no expert but i think feeding a bleach anemone once every 3 days is more than enough. read somewhere that they take quite a while to digest. think force feeding can stress the anemone too, especially if its happening everyday..

 

[Calm]

Not anymore. Actually, the clowns kinda do. When we throw krill in the tank the clowns will shove a few pieces in the anemones mouth. If the anemone is hungry it's tentacles will reach out during feeding time, in which we will give it a nice meaty chunk.

I was feeding one small krill every day for one week in the beginning so it would "know" that's where food is and wouldn't go searching. Plus? it was white. From what I understand, H. crispa need to feed til the zooanthellae returns.

Though, once It anchored, feeding was every other day or if it signaled being hungry.

 

[james30ct]

Sorry about the nem but thats a cool tank you've got. Whats the height of the tank?

 

[Calm]

Thanks James. The nem is still alive, just acting strange.

The actual tank itself is approx 30" in height.

 

[ray-the-pilot]

Not anymore. Actually, the clowns kinda do. When we throw krill in the tank the clowns will shove a few pieces in the anemones mouth. If the anemone is hungry it's tentacles will reach out during feeding time, in which we will give it a nice meaty chunk.

I was feeding one small krill every day for one week in the beginning so it would "know" that's where food is and wouldn't go searching. Plus? it was white. From what I understand, H. crispa need to feed til the zooanthellae returns.

Though, once It anchored, feeding was every other day or if it signaled being hungry.

What you are describing is a very common nem condition that I call nem decline. It is typical to see the cycles of good and bad but gradually the nem declines enough and dies.

Nem decline is associated with food. My feeling is that the best thing you can do is to stop feeding your nem. Photosynthetic nems can go for month or years without any food; so don't think it will starve.

If the nem recovers, and is fully expanded, feed it only live black or tubifex worms. Small portions is the thing.
Honestly, I am not very optimistic but keep us posted about your success/failure.

 

[Calm]

What you are describing is a very common nem condition that I call nem decline. It is typical to see the cycles of good and bad but gradually the nem declines enough and dies.

Nem decline is associated with food. My feeling is that the best thing you can do is to stop feeding your nem. Photosynthetic nems can go for month or years without any food; so don't think it will starve.

If the nem recovers, and is fully expanded, feed it only live black or tubifex worms. Small portions is the thing.
Honestly, I am not very optimistic but keep us posted about your success/failure.

Thank you Ray for your response. How long should I stop feeding? I understand that different nems have different requirements - and I though the species HEteractus Crispa were voracious eaters. Have i been misinformed? Did I really overfeed? It's tentacles always reached out and had a strong grip when hovering food. If it didn't reach, I didn't feed.

Today: back to being more poufy, but mouth isn't so tight. Wish I could feel how sticky it is, but the clowns will tear me up.

 

[jenny.moriwaki]

open mouth is not a bad sign always,(as long those guts are not coming out) nems take quite some time to adjust to the tank,thats why force feeding will cause it more stress and die over time. mine took over a month to adjust untill it accepted any food. think i read somewhere that overfeeding could kill them as they use all their energy to digest food.. maybe that was another species or something i remember wrongly.. not sure!

 

[ray-the-pilot]

Thank you Ray for your response. How long should I stop feeding? I understand that different nems have different requirements - and I though the species HEteractus Crispa were voracious eaters. Have i been misinformed? Did I really overfeed? It's tentacles always reached out and had a strong grip when hovering food. If it didn't reach, I didn't feed.

I'd wait at least a week or two.
Really, they can go for long periods without any food. I even believe that there are people on this forum that never feed their nems and the only food the nem gets is what comes to it accidently.
I think everyone who gets a nem for the first time thinks it is a little "Audrey 2" from "The Little Shop of Horrors" and is just looking for a piece of human arm to chew on. Definitely not the case.

 

[Calm]

You know, the "mini - Audrey" did come to mind when it came to feeding.

I've left my anemone completely alone these past few days. I am happy to say that the nem was super poufy and expanded today. Nice puckered mouth. Looking good so far! I think i'm going to ask for a really nice camera for Christmas this year as Iphone pictures don't take well under moonlighting.

 

[tbardoni]

It looks good in the last pic. Good color. I think it might be fine. If you have good lighting, I wouldn't feed it. If your light is weak, then you will need to feed...once per week is usually fine.

 

[Calm]

It moved a little bit today. Foot is firmly attached to the LR and lifted itself off the sand bed. Poor porcelain crab is all vulnerable now.

Nem is still poufy and extended. It grabbed a piece of krill that floated by while we were feeding the fish. I guess it's doing alright!

Moving on up:

 

[Calm]

Anemone on the move now

Things still seem positive. Although the nem is stil creeping up the rock. It's moved further up the live rock about 3 inches now and completely off the sand bed.

I can now see underneath and it is clearly anchored it's foot on the rock behind. Poufy body, reactive tentacles, puckered mouth, but obviously moving - very slowly.

Is this positive?

 

[jenny.moriwaki]

yeap.. its searching for that sweet spot..

 

[Calm]

Still searching. Gonna have to move the jasmine polyps. Husband seems to think its moving because we haven't fed it. Thoughts?

Ah sorry it's sideways.

 

[ray-the-pilot]

It is difficult to say what a nem is responding to but I doubt that it is looking for food since it has no way of finding food. More likely it is responding to the light level or the water flow. These are the primary stimuli for anemome.

 

[Zark]

Anemones will wander from time to time. Mine will sit in one place for a month, and then just decide to move. The best thing you can do is let it find its own spot without causing it undo stress.

From your picture it doesnt seem to be in imminent danger of death.

 

[Calm]

Super! So glad our nem is doing well. I don't care if it's moving around, so long as it's healthy & happy.