Suggestions Why Anemone is Suddenly Closing Up??

[1Meshy]

Hey guys, so I got this green bubbletip anemone about a month ago and it was doing pretty well. It hid for about a week or so and then it started opening up and looking really nice (I did notice it likes to stay in shadier areas of the tank, however). However, I started noticing that it's been closing up tight for some reason, and I can't quite figure out why.

The only new thing I started dosing in the tank was Red Sea's Reef Energy Plus AB+ Coral Nutrition (I started dosing a little less than a week ago). Since it's a 29 gallon biocube, I started with about 2-3mL of the stuff everyday. I'm not sure if this could have affected the nem or not, so any input would be appreciated.

The only other thing I dose in the tank is 12 drops of Brightwell Aquatic's CoralAmino every Monday and Friday, and the occasional alkalinity buffer from the B-Ionic 2 part (sometimes my alk drops a bit, so I have to bring it up again with this stuff). I was also dosing the calcium part of the buffer a couple of weeks ago, but have since stopped because.. I guess I dosed too much? I was following the directions on the bottle, but maybe I miscalculated something somewhere and went a bit higher than I should have... oops!

Everything else seems fine though. I currently have two SPS, a couple LPS and softies in the tank. They seem to be doing well, but I'm currently trying to get my phosphate in check because I think it has since stunted the growth rate of the corals (I just got the hanna checker not too long ago, so I wasn't able to properly check the amount of phosphate the tank had until now).

The tank was set up back in 2015, so it's by no means a new tank. Other than the calcium and phosphate needing to be lowered, everything else has been pretty stable.

My current params are these:
Ammonia - 0ppm (API test)
Nitrite - 0ppm (API test )
Nitrate - 10ppm (API test)
Calcium - ~600ppm (Red Sea test)
Alkalinity - 9.7 dKH (Red Sea test)
Magnesium - 1500ppm (Salifert test)
Phosphate - 0.6ppm (Hanna Checker)

Salinity - 1.025

PH - between 7.8 and 8 (I've never messed with it. It's always been around these two numbers)

I have attached a picture of my current lighting schedule (AI Prime HD), and a few pics of the nem as well (sorry about the quality, ahaha).

One extra note, I do have a tomato clown that loves to go into the bubbletip. I'm not sure if he may be stressing the nem out or not, so I thought I would mention it.

Alright guys, sorry about the long post, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible for your help. I love these little guys, so any advice to keep them healthy and well would be greatly appreciated!
 

[Matteo]

Btas do that. Mine get all deflated and look like crap sometimes but usually it just pooping or doing anemone things.

 

Just watch and observe and I'm sure it'll recover. 

 

Also I appreciate your post. Detail, pics, parameters. Its fresh to see on here haha

[1Meshy]

4 minutes ago, Matteo said:

Btas do that. Mine get all deflated and look like crap sometimes but usually it just pooping or doing anemone things.

 

Just watch and observe and I'm sure it'll recover. 

 

Also I appreciate your post. Detail, pics, parameters. Its fresh to see on here haha

Thank for your reply, Matteo! Do you really think it'll be fine? What do you think about my parameters? 

[Matteo]

I believe they look fine but I'm no expert on parameters really. I don't even test my water 🤫

 

But yes I'd say watch and observe for now 🙂

[1Meshy]

7 minutes ago, Matteo said:

I believe they look fine but I'm no expert on parameters really. I don't even test my water 🤫

 

But yes I'd say watch and observe for now 🙂

Lol okay, thanks for your input 🙂 

 

Anybody else have any suggestions?

[1Meshy]

Anyone?

1 hour ago, 1Meshy said:

Hey guys, so I got this green bubbletip anemone about a month ago and it was doing pretty well. It hid for about a week or so and then it started opening up and looking really nice (I did notice it likes to stay in shadier areas of the tank, however). However, I started noticing that it's been closing up tight for some reason, and I can't quite figure out why.

The only new thing I started dosing in the tank was Red Sea's Reef Energy Plus AB+ Coral Nutrition (I started dosing a little less than a week ago). Since it's a 29 gallon biocube, I started with about 2-3mL of the stuff everyday. I'm not sure if this could have affected the nem or not, so any input would be appreciated.

The only other thing I dose in the tank is 12 drops of Brightwell Aquatic's CoralAmino every Monday and Friday, and the occasional alkalinity buffer from the B-Ionic 2 part (sometimes my alk drops a bit, so I have to bring it up again with this stuff). I was also dosing the calcium part of the buffer a couple of weeks ago, but have since stopped because.. I guess I dosed too much? I was following the directions on the bottle, but maybe I miscalculated something somewhere and went a bit higher than I should have... oops!

Everything else seems fine though. I currently have two SPS, a couple LPS and softies in the tank. They seem to be doing well, but I'm currently trying to get my phosphate in check because I think it has since stunted the growth rate of the corals (I just got the hanna checker not too long ago, so I wasn't able to properly check the amount of phosphate the tank had until now).

The tank was set up back in 2015, so it's by no means a new tank. Other than the calcium and phosphate needing to be lowered, everything else has been pretty stable.

My current params are these:
Ammonia - 0ppm (API test)
Nitrite - 0ppm (API test )
Nitrate - 10ppm (API test)
Calcium - ~600ppm (Red Sea test)
Alkalinity - 9.7 dKH (Red Sea test)
Magnesium - 1500ppm (Salifert test)
Phosphate - 0.6ppm (Hanna Checker)

Salinity - 1.025

PH - between 7.8 and 8 (I've never messed with it. It's always been around these two numbers)

I have attached a picture of my current lighting schedule (AI Prime HD), and a few pics of the nem as well (sorry about the quality, ahaha).

One extra note, I do have a tomato clown that loves to go into the bubbletip. I'm not sure if he may be stressing the nem out or not, so I thought I would mention it.

Alright guys, sorry about the long post, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible for your help. I love these little guys, so any advice to keep them healthy and well would be greatly appreciated!
 

Anyone?

[DevilDuck]

How long has it been shriveled up?

 

Mine does this from time to time, completely deflate for a couple of days then come back, especially after I fed it a large meal.

It does it also does this at night when the lights go out. Freaked me out the first time I saw this happen.

 

Other times it will pull all its tentacles in and blow up like a ballon. Nems are weird alien creatures.

 

I think for nems the imporatant thing to look for is color. Is the color lightening up a lot? 

And the condition of the foot and mouth. Mouth should not be gaping and the foot should be firmly anchored.

[1Meshy]

26 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

How long has it been shriveled up?

 

Mine does this from time to time, completely deflate for a couple of days then come back, especially after I fed it a large meal.

It does it also does this at night when the lights go out. Freaked me out the first time I saw this happen.

 

Other times it will pull all its tentacles in and blow up like a ballon. Nems are weird alien creatures.

 

I think for nems the imporatant thing to look for is color. Is the color lightening up a lot? 

And the condition of the foot and mouth. Mouth should not be gaping and the foot should be firmly anchored.

I noticed it shriveling up just a couple days ago. It would shrivel for a while and then open up. Today is maybe the second or third time I've seen it this way.

 

As for the color, it hasn't seemed to have changed. It's still neon green, although I'm wondering if it should actually be darker than it is now (it was a light neon green when I bought it). 

 

And its mouth isn't gaping or anything. It's still closed, and its foot is still attached to the rockwork. 

[DevilDuck]

13 hours ago, 1Meshy said:

I noticed it shriveling up just a couple days ago. It would shrivel for a while and then open up. Today is maybe the second or third time I've seen it this way.

 

As for the color, it hasn't seemed to have changed. It's still neon green, although I'm wondering if it should actually be darker than it is now (it was a light neon green when I bought it). 

 

And its mouth isn't gaping or anything. It's still closed, and its foot is still attached to the rockwork. 

Sounds pretty normal to me. You water parameters look good, although I think your phosphate should be lowered ideally around .05 ppm but its not an emergency.

Just try to keep things stable, consider picking up a doser for your 2 part. 

 

Here's some pictures of my BTA deflated then fully inflated the next day.

 

[1Meshy]

On 5/18/2021 at 8:09 AM, DevilDuck said:

Sounds pretty normal to me. You water parameters look good, although I think your phosphate should be lowered ideally around .05 ppm but its not an emergency.

Just try to keep things stable, consider picking up a doser for your 2 part. 

 

Here's some pictures of my BTA deflated then fully inflated the next day.

 

Nice tank! What kind of lights do you use? If you use an AI Prime, what are your settings at?

 

And yeah, I'm working on lowering the phosphate. I think I may go with some phosphate rx and then possibly get a reactor with some rowaphos to keep it stable. 

 

 

[DevilDuck]

47 minutes ago, 1Meshy said:

Nice tank! What kind of lights do you use? If you use an AI Prime, what are your settings at?

 

And yeah, I'm working on lowering the phosphate. I think I may go with some phosphate rx and then possibly get a reactor with some rowaphos to keep it stable. 

 

 

Thank you, these photos are a few months old, I have updated ones with the full setup in the link in my signature.

 

The tank is a Fluval Evo 13.5g, the lights are the stock light with 2 supplemental 9w blue LED strips. Nothing fancy right now, It's more than enough for the anemones and coral.

You can just toss in a small bag with phosphate remover, I use Seachem Phosguard, for a few days until it hits the desired level then remove it. Do you have any other corals in the tank yet?

 

How's the anemone doing today? 

[rough eye]

On 5/19/2021 at 4:50 PM, DevilDuck said:

Thank you, these photos are a few months old, I have updated ones with the full setup in the link in my signature.

that really is a nice looking tank. what is the coral on upper left? a sinularia of some sort?

[DaJMasta]

I don't know if BTAs react negatively to it, but your calcium is quite high (even 500ppm is quite elevated) and your magnesium is a bit high (in the 1400s is considered elevated but reasonable), though I would not reduce magnesium without reducing calcium, as that's probably all that's keeping the calcium from precipitating.  I don't usually hear about high calcium as being a particular problem, but you're at like 50% higher than normal seawater, so it could be getting to that point.

 

7.8pH isn't by any means the end of the road, but it's on the low side, so it could be that overnight when the lights are off it's dipping below - of course this would show as very slow stony coral growth (or even potentially tissue loss), so if you're not seeing that, it's not likely to happen.

 

That said, it's been a week, so maybe it's decided to open back up on its own.  BTAs can do well even in somewhat dirty water, so aside from the calcium I don't really see anything to be particularly alarmed over.

[DevilDuck]

15 minutes ago, rough eye said:

that really is a nice looking tank. what is the coral on upper left? a sinularia of some sort?

Thanks! That's a big frogspawn, it's almost the same size as the bta now.