So my anemone just went full shrink ray mode

[TDDredge]

So I've been looking at other forum threads and I might have an idea of what's going on but I wanted to post pictures. I got this BTA this past Friday. It has been happy as can be (had a minor panic attack when it purged the first time lol). So I go to take a look at it this evening, and in the space of maybe 2 hours max, it went to mini-me size. You also can't see well in the picture, but it is also sticking something out of its mouth. Is this something it is doing to take a little break from the lights? This nem was placed in the tank in a spot I thought it would like and it has not moved pretty much at all. It seems to really like the spot and went from being like it is in the really happy pic here to the super shrink size in seriously about 2 hours. This is why I think it seems like it is doing something it should naturally do, but I don't know.

 

[Jekyl]

Mine looks like chewed gum once a night. As long as your parameters are good, lighting is good, and the nem doesn't look like it's melting you're generally ok.

 

[TDDredge]

Mine looks like chewed gum once a night. As long as your parameters are good, lighting is good, and the nem doesn't look like it's melting you're generally ok.

They seem to do some quirky things. Unless my parameters went to hell over 3 days which I doubt, then yeah all this should be good. My nitrates and phosphates have been very low, about nil for nitrates and phosphates around .03. Those should be going up a little bit, I started putting a bit of nori in the tank because my fat lard starry blenny is a little pig and hogs all the food at feeding time and is a jerk to everyone else. So naturally, the nincompoop has dutifully ignored the nori sheet... That does mean that some extra nitrates and phosphates are getting in, certainly nothing major (it's maybe a 1" x 2" sheet in a veggie clip), and frankly I'm deeply suspicious they're so low because my euphylia and zoas have probably sucked them up. This nem has been super happy in the first location I put it in, came in all sorts of stringy and stressed out as it naturally should be, and then puffed up like crazy as seen above in maybe an hour and a half after introduction. Happy as can be since, until it did this tonight. Very much smaller than it used to be.

 

[Jekyl]

Lower nitrates would probably be worse than a little higher. Just leave it alone for a while. Don't try to feed it for at least a week. Let it get acclimated and find a spot.

 

[Jekyl]

What lights are you running?

 

[DaddyFish]

You taught me how to spell nincompoop. My day is complete.
Good luck with the nem.

 

[TDDredge]

What lights are you running?

AI hydra 32s. Ran 2 of them, on a red sea reefer 250. More than enough firepower, I have them turned down a bit.

 

[MasonK24]

my 3 do this quite often, probably a few times a week. Within an hour or two they inflate back up like nothing ever happened.

 

[Jekyl]

my 3 do this quite often, probably a few times a week. Within an hour or two they inflate back up like nothing ever happened.

Mine deflate every night when the lights start dimming.

 

[TDDredge]

my 3 do this quite often, probably a few times a week. Within an hour or two they inflate back up like nothing ever happened.

Mine seems to be reinflating. The thing that caught me off guard was, there was a lot of time left before tank night. It definitely likes to shrink down and purge at night, but this was a new level of mini-me.

 

[MasonK24]

Mine deflate every night when the lights start dimming.

they have minds of their own, haha. it should be fine. mine have survived harsher conditions that killed all my sps. they are pretty hardy for the most part

 

[TDDredge]

Mine deflate every night when the lights start dimming.

What surprised me was that it was not even close to tank night. At this point it does seem to be reinflating. It does like to purge and shrink down a little at night, but never to this level. Seems to be just a quirk.

 

[TDDredge]

they have minds of their own, haha. it should be fine. mine have survived harsher conditions that killed all my sps. they are pretty hardy for the most part

It has certainly, in 3 days, been the quirkiest addition to my tank. I am happy though that, so far, knocking on wood here because I took off the media bags around my powerheads that were acting as nem guards, it has really liked where I put it and stayed there. Very much hoping that trend continues.

 

[MasonK24]

mine do it at random, could be mid day, could be in the morning. whenever they fee like it to be honest

 

[MasonK24]

It has certainly, in 3 days, been the quirkiest addition to my tank. I am happy though that, so far, knocking on wood here because I took off the media bags around my powerheads that were acting as nem guards, it has really liked where I put it and stayed there. Very much hoping that trend continues.

definitely be happy it stayed, for now. if they dont like where they are the will not hesitate to run all over the tank, most of the time somewhere you dont want them. ive had to rip mine off of the rock a few times. talk about a pain in the *** ..

 

[TDDredge]

definitely be happy it stayed, for now. if they dont like where they are the will not hesitate to run all over the tank, most of the time somewhere you dont want them. ive had to rip mine off of the rock a few times. talk about a pain in the *** ..

Glad to hear someone has experienced them doing this at random times. And yes, I'm hoping it is settled, my Euphylia forest is going to be getting a couple torches at some point. That's a punching match I'm not sure I'd like to see. Working on getting some blastos and acans at some point too, and more zoas. I think the BTA has a higher caliber than those, but the torches will definitely be the heaviest hitter in the tank once they join. I've seen the war sweepers from the other hammers, so I know their range. The BTA is in a really nice pocket though, and I very much hope it stays there.

 

[MasonK24]

sounds like you have a nice build coming together. id love to see some pics once you get everything settled in.

 

[TDDredge]

sounds like you have a nice build coming together. id love to see some pics once you get everything settled in.

The strange thing is, rather than an algae outbreak for my tank's ugly phase, I got a fungus outbreak. That has been steadily losing at this point. Once some spirorbid worms started showing (tank is now 7 months old) I figured it was stable enough for a nem. I inherited a large forest of euphylia from a friend who was offloading them because his other corals were blocking them out. They've been steadily regaining color in my tank. Euphylia seem to love my tank. I'm going to inherit an acro frag from that friend too. He had a crash recently, a couple frags from his acro survived, and so if I take one, he has an insurance policy and if he has another crash I can give him a starter frag. Nice mutual benefit. Still a lot of uncovered rock, so it's not the prettiest thing yet. The pistol and ywg are phenomenal and hang out with the cleaner shrimp, the clown doesn't care about the nem at all, the RG is an awesome model citizen, and then there's the starry blenny, my fat little food hog. The fish are the biggest attraction for now, but I'm getting big eyes for corals so that'll fill in fairly quickly I think...

 

[MasonK24]

The strange thing is, rather than an algae outbreak for my tank's ugly phase, I got a fungus outbreak. That has been steadily losing at this point. Once some spirorbid worms started showing (tank is now 7 months old) I figured it was stable enough for a nem. I inherited a large forest of euphylia from a friend who was offloading them because his other corals were blocking them out. They've been steadily regaining color in my tank. Euphylia seem to love my tank. I'm going to inherit an acro frag from that friend too. He had a crash recently, a couple frags from his acro survived, and so if I take one, he has an insurance policy and if he has another crash I can give him a starter frag. Nice mutual benefit. Still a lot of uncovered rock, so it's not the prettiest thing yet. The pistol and ywg are phenomenal and hang out with the cleaner shrimp, the clown doesn't care about the nem at all, the RG is an awesome model citizen, and then there's the starry blenny, my fat little food hog. The fish are the biggest attraction for now, but I'm getting big eyes for corals so that'll fill in fairly quickly I think...

thats awesome. i also have a goby/pistol shrimp combo, they are so cool. before you know it, you’ll have the 1st world problem of too many corals and no real estate to add new. if i was to share any advice to you that i wished id shared with myself when adding new stuff is to not add anything invasive. xenia, green star polyps, kenya tree, certain mushrooms and zoas. I have over 30 green fuzzy mushrooms and 100+ heads of pandora zoas. the stupid kenya tree drops babies like rabbits. i feel bad complaining about stuff like that because some people cant even grow simple stuff but man i gave these things an inch and they took a mile. lol you cant ever go wrong with acros and euphyllia though.

 

[TDDredge]

thats awesome. i also have a goby/pistol shrimp combo, they are so cool. before you know it, you’ll have the 1st world problem of too many corals and no real estate to add new. if i was to share any advice to you that i wished id shared with myself when adding new stuff is to not add anything invasive. xenia, green star polyps, kenya tree, certain mushrooms and zoas. I have over 30 green fuzzy mushrooms and 100+ heads of pandora zoas. the stupid kenya tree drops babies like rabbits. i feel bad complaining about stuff like that because some people cant even grow simple stuff but man i gave these things an inch and they took a mile. lol you cant ever go wrong with acros and euphyllia though.

I have actually mostly avoided the invasives. I had considered kenya tree for a while but ended up deciding against it. Interestingly enough, I'm one of those people who can't grow zoas lol. They happily stay the same old size and look great on their tiny little frag plugs. Trying to get a nice zoa garden in part of my rock work, but have other things dominate other areas of the tank so they can't be too invasive. But the funny bit is that much as they won't grow, I get some rather rapid growth out of euphyllia. I've gotten multiple branches on one of them in the course of a month. They seem to love my tank. So I'll take it lol. Tons of great colors and choices with euphyllia to choose from and play with! Next is torches, acans and blastos, and maybe some more zoa frags, and the incoming acro. Gotta be a little careful with that though, I don't have a Ca reactor. Thus far though my Ca has been a beautiful steady 430 with weekly 8% water changes. I've heard mushroom horror stories lol.