Sick anemone or...?

[Evster]

So I picked up a green bta yesterday. It looked beautiful in the shop!
I got it home, acclimated it for about 40 minutes, then put it on a rock in the center of my tank. For a few hours it was just sitting there opening and closing. Later that night it was spewing that waste looking stuff for a little bit. It's mouth started to open up real wide too. It hasn't stuck anywhere yet. As a result a few times I've found it face down in the sand. I moved it to the top of my rocks after that and then came back to find it on the other side of the tank on the sand !

Idk if its still trying to get used to my tank or what?
I'm not really sure what to do.
My salinity was 1.26, I just did a water change a few minutes ago, I'm hoping that helps a little. If not, any ideas on what could be wrong or what I can do?

 

[aquandrew]

how old is the tank? what kind of lighting is it under? what are ALL of your water parameters?

 

[dragonfisher33]

how long have you had the tank and is it properly cycled? anemone requires established tank with pristine water condition. anemone does shrivel up time to time and does spew out slimes as that's their way of excretion. but if you anemone is not grabbing onto a piece of rock or is landing itself upside down, i think you might have a problem on your hand. notice i said "might" since i don't know the equipment layout in your system. maybe your flow is too much and the anemone is letting go the footholding so that it can move around? i do not know, i can only guess about what it could happen. please update with your setup info. also let the anemone rest on a live rock in an area without too much current in an upright position and see if that helps.

 

[Evster]

how old is the tank? what kind of lighting is it under? what are ALL of your water parameters?

This tank has been up for about 3-4 months, I upgraded to it from a small 5g. I'm using a 70w metal halide right now.
Not sure of all the water parameters, Ill go test for it. I know I'm missing one of them though, ammonia I believe .

 

[Evster]

how long have you had the tank and is it properly cycled? anemone requires established tank with pristine water condition. anemone does shrivel up time to time and does spew out slimes as that's their way of excretion. but if you anemone is not grabbing onto a piece of rock or is landing itself upside down, i think you might have a problem on your hand. notice i said "might" since i don't know the equipment layout in your system. maybe your flow is too much and the anemone is letting go the footholding so that it can move around? i do not know, i can only guess about what it could happen. please update with your setup info. also let the anemone rest on a live rock in an area without too much current in an upright position and see if that helps.

Okay, I wasn't sure if it needed flow or not !

 

[aquandrew]

This tank has been up for about 3-4 months, I upgraded to it from a small 5g. I'm using a 70w metal halide right now. Not sure of all the water parameters, Ill go test for it. I know I'm missing one of them though, ammonia I believe .

do you have test kits for alkalinity, calcium magnesium?

 

[Evster]

The tank has been cycled. I put in the live rock and sand I had in my 5g for almost a year, i bought other live rock from local stores and got the rest from a friends tank.

I moved the anemone to a more secluded spot, it looks like its trying to attach now but my Clown doesn't seem to want to leave it alone, arghhh

 

[Evster]

Here's a pic of it now.

It's partially attached but the mouth is still open. Is that good/bad?

 

[Evster]

do you have test kits for alkalinity, calcium magnesium?

I have tests for:
Nitrate no3
Nitrate
High range ph
Nitrate no2

So no lol
I just recently got these few

 

[dragonfisher33]

Here's a pic of it now.

It's partially attached but the mouth is still open. Is that good/bad?

mouth can be open or close, nothing indicative of anything. but why is it on the side?

 

[Evster]

mouth can be open or close, nothing indicative of anything. but why is it on the side?

Not sure. I keep trying to prop it up but he's not fully sticking to the rock yet.

 

[dragonfisher33]

Not sure. I keep trying to prop it up but he's not fully sticking to the rock yet.

if that's the case. your nem is most likely sick as nems are just like any animal out there since lying on the side is an indication of weakness somewhere, or it could just be readjusting to the new environment. i would give it a day or two to find out. i would keep your fingers crossed.

i have just gotten a gbta two months ago and perodically it does shrivel up or with mouth wide open, but it returns back to normal the next day. also whether it's wide open or shriveled up, it always grab onto something. i had it one time upside down because it liked the location underneath a "cave structure", but the foot is firmly attached to the live rock. i have not seen it fallen down, "face-planting", like in your case