Does anyone understand this anemone behavior?

[freeeeezy]

Hey all. I have a green BTA that is healthy, takes food when I give it has great color, hasn't moved since it found its spot. However, it has relatively short tentacles with no bubbles. I figured this was just how he looked as other threads on here said they just vary in size/shape/bubbles etc.

The other night my power went out due to a storm for about two hours. During the outage I went to make sure everything was okay in my tank and the anemones tentacles were about 3 times as long/thick and were bubbling up. It literally looked like a stock photo of an anemone, I had never seen it so perfect.

When the power came back on it slowly reverted back to how it usually looks.

I'm trying to understand what this means as I'm assuming it liked the water conditions while the power was off but that makes no sense to me.

This is what changed while the power was off:
return pump turned off
wave maker turned off
skimmer turned off
Temp changed from stable 77.5 F -> 76.0 F
*Lights had already been off for a few hours on schedule

I'd Imagine it was either the temp or flow but I still doesn't make sense to me.

Side note, the way its tentacles look now is pretty equivalent to how it looked in the LFS when I got it so its not like it changed when I added it to the tank.

Side Side note, I can provide water params if that would help but I feel like that wouldn't matter as they wouldn't have changed in an hour or two of the power being off right?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Do you have photos?

 

[freeeeezy]

Do you have photos?

All I had was my phone flash since the power was off and it just reflected off the glass. You’ll have to take my word for it

 

[PolypPocket]

It could be the flow. When I bought my RBTA it was in a tank with barely any flow and was compact with clear bubble tips. In fact I named her Rainbow Nipples because of how she looked lol. But once she was in my tank with higher flow she barely ever has any nipples and usually has really long tentacles. But she will occasionally vacillate between long ones and short stubby ones. I’m almost certain it’s from the change in flow verses light or parameters (I’ve had her two months at least, enough time to acclimate to how I keep my tank).

I know you said yours is usually short, but I still think the flow idea is plausible. That’s assuming it looks otherwise inflated and healthy. Post a photo if you can.

 

[freeeeezy]

It could be the flow. When I bought my RBTA it was in a tank with barely any flow and was compact with clear bubble tips. In fact I named her Rainbow Nipples because of how she looked lol. But once she was in my tank with higher flow she barely ever has any nipples and usually has really long tentacles. But she will occasionally vacillate between long ones and short stubby ones. I’m almost certain it’s from the change in flow verses light or parameters (I’ve had her two months at least, enough time to acclimate to how I keep my tank).

I know you said yours is usually short, but I still think the flow idea is plausible. That’s assuming it looks otherwise inflated and healthy. Post a photo if you can.

I can get a picture of how it normally looks when I get home today.

The strange thing about this though is that it looked better when the flow was completely gone... I've turned the wavemaker off for varying periods of time like feeding and what not, but I've never had the wave maker and return pump off for longer than it takes to do a water change.

 

[BryanM]

I can get a picture of how it normally looks when I get home today.

The strange thing about this though is that it looked better when the flow was completely gone... I've turned the wavemaker off for varying periods of time like feeding and what not, but I've never had the wave maker and return pump off for longer than it takes to do a water change.

This indicates to me that it wants less flow. But it found its spot, so if possible you'll need to move flow somewhere else and see if it improves.

 

[PolypPocket]

It could be the flow. When I bought my RBTA it was in a tank with barely any flow and was compact with clear bubble tips. In fact I named her Rainbow Nipples because of how she looked lol. But once she was in my tank with higher flow she barely ever has any nipples and usually has really long tentacles. But she will occasionally vacillate between long ones and short stubby ones. I’m almost certain it’s from the change in flow verses light or parameters (I’ve had her two months at least, enough time to acclimate to how I keep my tank).

I know you said yours is usually short, but I still think the flow idea is plausible. That’s assuming it looks otherwise inflated and healthy. Post a photo if you can.

I can get a picture of how it normally looks when I get home today.

The strange thing about this though is that it looked better when the flow was completely gone... I've turned the wavemaker off for varying periods of time like feeding and what not, but I've never had the wave maker and return pump off for longer than it takes to do a water change.

That is my suspicion, that they tend to prefer lower flow. But will adapt to higher flow by changing their structure.

 

[freeeeezy]

That is my suspicion, that they tend to prefer lower flow. But will adapt to higher flow by changing their structure.

Would you suspect flow over the temp decrease?

 

[PolypPocket]

That is my suspicion, that they tend to prefer lower flow. But will adapt to higher flow by changing their structure.

Would you suspect flow over the temp decrease?

I mean it was only about 1 degree right? I don’t think that would cause a reaction - because my tank will go up or down a degree or so throughout the day sometimes and I’ve never seen mine react to it. I don’t claim to be an expert on anemones though, so I suppose it’s possible
When you get a chance try to get a photo.

 

[winxp_man]

Bubble tips when given flow extend their tentacles. The amount of drag on the bubble if there is current keeps them for bubbling up real nice. So when your power went out it gave it the ability to bubble up without any water current to keep it from doing that.


My black widow, Colorado sunburst, and Chicago sunburst all have long tentacles. The Sherman in my 300g system tank decide it’s going to sit at the bottom of a rock and with the lights I have on the system it gets plenty of light, so it more bubbly vs the other three that are in the 150 with a lot of current. My Sherman is about 10” wide. My maroons love it!!


The Darwin pair are menaces! They want to kill anything getting near their nem! They went into being hosting with the nem in minutes. I asked if the original owner had a nem in his tank. Was told no. These two crazies might be wild fish. Which would be crazy considering wild ones can be had any longer. You can see the tentacles and how skinny they are.

Here is the Sherman, and it’s now way more bubbly than these pics, and way larger. Got it form a member here about two weeks ago. Poor thing didn’t travel well. It was crazy cause it started to split, then it stopped once I got it in my tank. This pic was about a week and a half ago.

 

[freeeeezy]

Update: I turned off my wave maker for a few hours, no change. I let my temp drop to where it was in the power outage and also no change. I'm just going to assume it was random chance I saw him extended as the the return pump really isn't impacting the nem much where it is.

only other thing I can think of is the oxygen or something else changed when there was absolutely no flow or circulation. I fail to see how the nem would like this but as of now thats all I got haha.