Rock Anemone with weird protrusion??

JonChicago

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Any idea what this blue protrusion on my dad's rock anemone could be. Have had these in the tank for about 5-6 weeks and there are 4 clustered near each other in a newer established 180 gallon. Only one of the anemones has the soft looking blue protruding finger like growth that we just noticed coming out of it. Hadn't been recently fed. About 8hours into the daylight cycle with 4 Kessil lights (I'm not sure what type of Kessil my dad has but they are new)After about 3-4 hours the "blue finger" disappeared. Paremeters are as follows and measured with an Apex and Trident. Started Trident controlled dosing 2wks ago.
Salt 34.1
Temp 79
pH 8.04
ORP 311
ALK 8.01
CA 492
MG 1310

Any ideas what this could be. I did some searching on R2R and found other posts with similar questions and related looking pictures but didn't seem like those posts were ever definitively answered so figured I'd try to seek out an answer again. Appreciate any insight.
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Ron Reefman

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Any idea what this blue protrusion on my dad's rock anemone could be. Have had these in the tank for about 5-6 weeks and there are 4 clustered near each other in a newer established 180 gallon. Only one of the anemones has the soft looking blue protruding finger like growth that we just noticed coming out of it. Hadn't been recently fed. About 8hours into the daylight cycle with 4 Kessil lights (I'm not sure what type of Kessil my dad has but they are new)After about 3-4 hours the "blue finger" disappeared. Paremeters are as follows and measured with an Apex and Trident. Started Trident controlled dosing 2wks ago.

Any ideas what this could be. I did some searching on R2R and found other posts with similar questions and related looking pictures but didn't seem like those posts were ever definitively answered so figured I'd try to seek out an answer again. Appreciate any insight.

Jon, good question! Daniel, thanks for your confidence, I hope I can follow through!

IMHO, many, maybe even all anemones do this occasionally. I can't say I 'know' the reason, but I have read that it may be the way the anemone clears it's gut when it's eaten something that doesn't agree with it. Maybe bones from a fish that it can't digest? Maybe something toxic that upsets it's systems, like a paly toxin? It may even be just a simple periodic cleansing of it's insides.

I see this fairly regularly with my anemones (I have 30+ in breeding tank and 5 more in my DT). And it's not uncommon that they leave there gut out exposed for anywhere from hours to 2 or 3 days! I've never had an anemone do this and then have other issues afterwards.

My recommendation is to leave it alone and give it time. It will retract it's gut and should be fine in a few days.
 
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JonChicago

JonChicago

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Jon, good question! Daniel, thanks for your confidence, I hope I can follow through!

IMHO, many, maybe even all anemones do this occasionally. I can't say I 'know' the reason, but I have read that it may be the way the anemone clears it's gut when it's eaten something that doesn't agree with it. Maybe bones from a fish that it can't digest? Maybe something toxic that upsets it's systems, like a paly toxin? It may even be just a simple periodic cleansing of it's insides.

I see this fairly regularly with my anemones (I have 30+ in breeding tank and 5 more in my DT). And it's not uncommon that they leave there gut out exposed for anywhere from hours to 2 or 3 days! I've never had an anemone do this and then have other issues afterwards.

My recommendation is to leave it alone and give it time. It will retract it's gut and should be fine in a few days.
Thanks for the response! It had seemed to retract after a day and my dad hasn't noticed it happening again.
 

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