Pink Bubble Tip Anemone

[sandfire]

I put a captive bred pink bubble tip anemone in my aquarium about 2 weeks now. I originally placed it quite high in the tank a few inches from the surface.

It has a habit of moving when I turn the lights off at night but stays put during the day. It first travelled down the back of the rocks and now sits right at the bottom. When the lights are off it shrinks and totally deflates, but when the lights are on it looks stunning, I have only seen it with its mouth open once as they are normally hidden by its bubble tentacles and at this point I fed it a defrosted prawn and it greedy eaten it.

I took a sample of the water from the aquarium it came from and found it had almost no hardness or calcium, my tank has very hard water and I dose with calcium and Iodine when I top up with freshwater. The other difference is it came from a HUGE tank which must have been over 100 gal with a 150watt metal halide and mine is a lot smaller and has just over 200 watts of T5 lighting (2 x marine whites, 2 x blue actinic and 1 x Tri ) and works out about 9 watts per gallon.

Is it normal for them to deflate at night as my Furry Mushrooms do the same and has it moved to the bottom of the tank to escape the light?

Should I reduce the lighting levels to give it time to adjust?

 

[SkiFletch]

It sounds like perfectly normal bulb-tip behavior to me. They are not very high-light demanding nems and will often seek out crevaces or the bottom of the tank, this is normal. Deflating at night is also very normal and likely occurs within an hour or two after lights-out. Usually they'll puff up real big for a brief time searching for food, and then deflate as the night goes on, re-inflating in the morning. And since it is readily accepting foods and not bleached, it is likely still healthy. Keep doing what you're doing, it appears to be working

PS, got pics?

 

[BigC]

Yeah Ditto
Would love to see pics of your BTA.
Regards
BigC

 

[sandfire]

I will take some photos this weekend. So relieved its normal.

He does exactly like you say: his foot is wedged between two rocks and when the lights go out he shrinks into the crevice and then when the lights go on in the morning he inflates again and stay out all day, he has not moved in 24 hours now.

He is at his biggest at Midday and is about 5 inches across, I have only fed him once in two weeks, his mouth is always shut tight under his tentacles and as I have no fish in the tank I have millions of little bugs running about and I think he eats them as I can see his tentacles constantly moving about and reaching against the rocks, a few will rapidly retract and then return to normal.

I love this guy, his main colour is light opaic brown with white splashes of colour and tiny iridescent green pigments and the bubble tips are deep magenta pink, the bubbles are about a cm when fully puffed out.

How often should they be fed and what are the signs to watch for?

 

[Lynden]

I feed my anemones about once every three days, they often get whatever the morays don't eat so it often works out to be as often as every other day. The food itself consists entirely of raw prawns but I plan to enrich this with squid and silversides when the opportunity presents itself.

Signs to watch out for include moving, and deflating often during the day. It indicates that a water change is needed.

 

[sandfire]

Photos!

I took this about 10pm just before the final lights went out so he is about to go to bed!

He reached about 7 inches across at midday, I saw his mouth which was about 3inches across but closed tight.

By sandfire at 2008-02-04

So pretty, the guy who bred him had a HUGE parent one, must have been over a 1ft sq which keeps splitting I was so lucky to pick this one up.

 

[nanocubeking]

I like the bubbles in him. There clear which is something that ive never seen before.

 

[Lynden]

Very, very nice.

 

[SkiFletch]

Agreed, looks phenomenal

 

[sandfire]

Thanks guys,

He is still moving about at night, but opens up like this every morning and stays open and stays put all day, he is currently moving his way back up the tank, but only at night.

His bubbles when not blown up look pale brown are all splashed with white and go green under the actinic, when he puffs up his tentacles they go very clear (think because they are so stretched). The pink tips have gotten a little darker from pale baby pink to the colour you see now.

I dose with Red Sea Calcium +3 which Contains calcium, iodine, strontium and molybdenum. I end up dosing a drop a day and every time I top up with fresh water. I have noticed that all the inverts in the tank have increasing in size since I have been using it. The pink coraline algae is really starting to spread can even see some on the back glass now.

I just hope I can keep him happy and healthy.

 

[sandfire]

Well I almost had a disaster…

I was woken up the day after this post, to my other half saying, "your anemone has desided to stick itself to the filter"…

Shock Horror ran through me and I sprinted to the tank and it was my worst nightmare, the anemone had not stuck itself to the filter it was STUCK half in and half out the inlet strainers to the internal rotating power head it had been sucked through a series of prefilter holes which were openings about 1mm wide running up the front of the unit.

I quickly ripped out the power head part and visually assess the damage.

The poor anemone was half in half out and not happy, I tried to remove it but could feel it would damage the anemone even worse. I so so desided to direct a little extra flow water flow across it and hope it could sort itself out.

LUCKILY through the day and during the night he pulled himself into the main filter chamber and then the next day had climbed out.

He has now moved to another location in the tank and has not moved in days, he has fully inflated and has no sign of open mouth and the colour has returned, he has gone back to his old self.

I have now covered the strainers with foam as well, I had no idea they could get through such ridiculously small gaps.

BIG LESSON LEARNT!

 

[SkiFletch]

Good thing you caught it before it got chopped entirely through the pump as all too often happens. And now that you've learned this lesson, make sure you do your best to teach others not to repeat your same mistakes

 

[sandfire]

Good thing you caught it before it got chopped entirely through the pump as all too often happens. And now that you've learned this lesson, make sure you do your best to teach others not to repeat your same mistakes

Tell me about it!

I thought because I had guards around the pumps it would be ok, but he got sucked through a gap that my finger nail cannot get through.

I suggest filter guards with filter foam! I have even gone as far as to cable tie foam around pumps, it don't look pretty but not risking him again.

It's a miracle he has survived, I gave him a cockle last night and he gobbled it up.

Poor guy…how guilty do I feel.

 

[connorsbala]

My Condy nem did the same thing after being in the tank for 3 months Had the same guards as you (probs like 1mm thick or something. But, unfortunately, by reading this, i feel that i could have saved i instead of thinking it was dead and removing it from the guard vigorously. Half of it was in and out etc, so i could have done what you did... duh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, on the plus side ive learnt my lesson and to try and cover that particular powerhead even more. But it was on the Sand bed and the powerhead was at the water surface, so it must have extended its tentacles loads as it hasnt moved all the time its been in my tank!
So yeah, on the + ill be getting a Rose BTA soon

 

[sandfire]

My Condy nem did the same thing after being in the tank for 3 months Had the same guards as you (probs like 1mm thick or something. But, unfortunately, by reading this, I feel that I could have saved me instead of thinking it was dead and removing it from the guard vigorously. Half of it was in and out etc, so I could have done what you did... duh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, on the plus side I've learnt my lesson and to try and cover that particular powerhead even more. But it was on the Sand bed and the powerhead was at the water surface, so it must have extended its tentacles loads as it hasn't moved all the time it's been in my tank!
So yeah, on the + ill be getting a Rose BTA soon

My first reaction was to try and pull it free as well, but I could tell I would have to rip it in half to get it out. I was lucky in that some of the tentacles were inflated and stopping it getting sucked all the way in. So I could tell it was alive (Just!!!).

Having had it happen to me, my advice would be if it happens to anyone else

1. Make sure you turn off and removed the powerhead fast (remove the powerhead so if the nem goes further in it can get out)

2. Do not try to manually remove the nem.

3. Direct a steady gentle flow of water in the direction you want it to go in, this seems to do two things 1) create a gentle current to ease the effort it needs escape, mine would have had to fight the current from a Protein Skimmer and also it helps pull it free and 2nd) if the nem is distressed it will have well oxygenated clean water passing over it.

4. A partial water change encase they produced toxins and measure water chemistry daily

5. Leave the anemone to recover.

Has this happened to anyone else before and if so how did you save your nems?