Anemone question

[dralarms]

How many of you have had a panic attack the first time you saw your an draw up like it was dead? Being new to sw, I had my 1st scare yesterday, everything is doing good and all of a sudden one of my an shrivels up and looked dead. I paniced and snatched it out, put it in some water from the aquarium, and called the lfs , to my embaresment he started expanding right in the "bowl" . Anyway all is fine and now I have noticed 3 of the 4 doing this. The lfs says they do this when they move but the 3 that are doing this are not moving, they are just reexpanding right in the same spot.

Anemones will normally do this when expelling wastes as well as a sign of being stressed if too often. In most cases though it should not be a concern.

Moving to "Saltwater general discussion"

Cheers
Steve

[dralarms]

What would be considered too often? Also how much should one get fed?

Too often is relative to why they are doing it. Condylactis will often react to changes in lighting and other environmental changes and are not much to worry about if short lived. The thing to watch for is when they expell wastes more than once a week or so. It means they are getting too much nutrient. With the amount of fish you have, secondary feedings should be more than enough and directly feeding the anemone(s) is not needed at all.

One thing to remember about anemones is when they expell waste material, it uses up a great deal of their stored energies to do this and if too often can be quite stressful. The only time I would ever recommend feeding anemones is in the absence of general tank feedings. Even then, it should be very small portions and sparingly a few times a month...

Do you realize your fish stock is almost twice what it should be for that size tank?

Cheers
Steve