Some BTA questions

Sharkbait19

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Hi,
I’m sort of new to the whole anemone keeping thing and have a couple questions regarding care and how to maintain its health.
So just for background, I’ve been running a Fluval 13.5 for a little over a year and a half. I recently chose to upgrade it to a 40B, and I transferred my sand, rocks, and media over, along with the corals, fish and inverts. Over the weekend, I came across a Hawaiian Punch BTA for an incredible price, and knew I had an anemone in the plans for the bigger tank. Though I probably was a little hasty in adding an anemone, impulse got the best of me. It’s about 2-3” in diameter.

In day one, it did a lot of moving, and chose to settle in the back corner (mostly out of view :rolleyes:), right where the rock meets the sandbed. Here’s where I have some questions, really just asking if these behaviors sound normal:

1. The anemone rarely exposes its mouth. During acclimation and feeding, I was able to see its mouth. Otherwise, all I see is a clump of tentacles, and really just don’t know if this is how they usually look.

2. In the morning to afternoon, it is pointed upward and pretty extended, but towards the evening, even under the same lighting, the anemone crawls underneath the rock, only leaving a few tentacles exposed. Is the lighting perhaps too strong?

3. At night, it balls up once the lights go out, then opens again, looking rather deflated and pale. I’d assume it was sick if it didn’t look better in the morning.

As of now, it’s nighttime, and I honestly can’t tell if the anemone looks good or bad. I’ve attached pictures, but given the anemone’s location, it’s difficult to get a good angle.
5927AA9D-25CE-4E3C-938A-1295B332A3C5.jpeg
57A15AEA-0740-4AE9-81E5-50BD6A8D282B.jpeg


Is this how anemones typically behave, or is it just getting acclimated to its new environment? Are there any immediate red flags you notice? I’d hate to unknowingly let it die, so definitely want to make sure I’m doing everything properly. Any experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
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Pankney72

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Sounds normal. It’s a mobile photosynthetic animal. It’ll kinda act like you would expect with a circadian rhythm, out and open during peak light, retracted and hiding at night. My Rose does the same.

if you fed it, it’ll probably poop at some point. It does this by flushing most of its water and leaking slime out of its mouth. Don’t be alarmed.
 

SudzFD

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Hi,
I’m sort of new to the whole anemone keeping thing and have a couple questions regarding care and how to maintain its health.
So just for background, I’ve been running a Fluval 13.5 for a little over a year and a half. I recently chose to upgrade it to a 40B, and I transferred my sand, rocks, and media over, along with the corals, fish and inverts. Over the weekend, I came across a Hawaiian Punch BTA for an incredible price, and knew I had an anemone in the plans for the bigger tank. Though I probably was a little hasty in adding an anemone, impulse got the best of me. It’s about 2-3” in diameter.

In day one, it did a lot of moving, and chose to settle in the back corner (mostly out of view :rolleyes:), right where the rock meets the sandbed. Here’s where I have some questions, really just asking if these behaviors sound normal:

1. The anemone rarely exposes its mouth. During acclimation and feeding, I was able to see its mouth. Otherwise, all I see is a clump of tentacles, and really just don’t know if this is how they usually look.

2. In the morning to afternoon, it is pointed upward and pretty extended, but towards the evening, even under the same lighting, the anemone crawls underneath the rock, only leaving a few tentacles exposed. Is the lighting perhaps too strong?

3. At night, it balls up once the lights go out, then opens again, looking rather deflated and pale. I’d assume it was sick if it didn’t look better in the morning.

As of now, it’s nighttime, and I honestly can’t tell if the anemone looks good or bad. I’ve attached pictures, but given the anemone’s location, it’s difficult to get a good angle.
5927AA9D-25CE-4E3C-938A-1295B332A3C5.jpeg
57A15AEA-0740-4AE9-81E5-50BD6A8D282B.jpeg


Is this how anemones typically behave, or is it just getting acclimated to its new environment? Are there any immediate red flags you notice? I’d hate to unknowingly let it die, so definitely want to make sure I’m doing everything properly. Any experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
This all sounds very normal to me. Coloring looks great on the Nem. Leave it alone and let it adjust to its new environment.
 

SudzFD

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Normal behavior, nems do weird stuff. It's a bit early to be feeding it though, give it a few weeks to settle in before you directly feed it again. They can catch floating fish food and they get plenty of food/energy from their zooxanthellae
Agree. No feeding is necessary and could be detrimental if done too early and two often. I used to feed my nems one tiny cooked shrimp from the market, once every week or two. Now they just get an occasional reef roids blast.
 

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