RFA dead, dying, or other?

[Crusher895]

I recently bought 2 RFA's from SaltCritters for my 32g. I received them on tuesday along with an acan and a basically dead green birdsnest from WorldWideCorals. The first day they posted up at the bottom of a rock, 1 in almost direct light and the other getting indirect. The second day they were doing amazingly well, popping colors, opening up as you can see below.

 

But then today being the 3rd day I woke up this morning to see my green RFA closed king of almost bent over. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My other RFA which you cant really see is right next to it to the right under the overhang and is looking completely normal. So far on the first day I fed reef roids, second day I spot fed them a good amount of beta brine from reef nutrition, (it might have been a little to much food for it maybe?) and today I decided not to try and do anything to it to see if anything would change but so far nothing. My water parameters are fine, and I heard they are pretty hardy and forgiving but my water temperature did drop 2 degrees last night but I kinda doubt that's the reason for it looking like this. Also this is an established tank it is not new.

 

Right now the only reasons I can think of are:

-The temperature change from last night that is now back up to 77.9

-Over feeding, (not sure if that is a thing for RFA's?)

-Maybe my pistol shrimp or some of my fish messed with it? (Have a possum wrasse, clown pair, and goby pistol shrimp pair)

-A parameter swing that I didn't catch maybe? But then my other RFA and corals would be showing signs of it also right?

 

What do you guys think?

 

 

 

Edit: I would also like to say that I have a redsea50 LED, and have it on an acclimation mode for my new corals. The reason I have this is because I have tried keeping birdsnests but it is a little tricky and they would bleach and die within a week or two and I think it might have been because it wasn't used to my lighting yet, but I wanted to try it for my new birdsnest because I did the same for some other corals and they did fantastic.

 

[AllAboutDatWrasse]

It looks ok to me. It’s probably just trying to digest all the food given to it. When RFA’s are dying, they literally look like they’re melting. 

[Crusher895]

8 minutes ago, AllAboutDatWrasse said:

It looks ok to me. It’s probably just trying to digest all the food given to it. When RFA’s are dying, they literally look like they’re melting. 

Oh, sorry I am still kinda new to RFA's or anemones in general. I watched a couple of videos and researched but not that much. Is it normal for it to be digesting even after a day or two?

[AllAboutDatWrasse]

2 hours ago, Crusher895 said:

Oh, sorry I am still kinda new to RFA's or anemones in general. I watched a couple of videos and researched but not that much. Is it normal for it to be digesting even after a day or two?

Yes, it’s not uncommon. You may see it pooping in the next day or two. Don’t be alarmed if there’s dark stringy stuff coming out it’s mouth. 

[aclman88]

Also, in my experience with BTAs, anemones tend to shrivel up at night.  Not sure if RFA do the same thing, but I agree for now they look fine but I would stop spot feeding for a few days to allow them to digest and excrete what they need to.

 

Like said above, dying nems looks like they are melting and falling apart.  Yours just look a little shriveled and is likely fine.

[jservedio]

Totally normal - we just need to accept that nems are incredibly weird and do what they want to do. There are very few behaviors from nems that are only a bad sign - most behaviors can go either way depending on how long it goes on.

 

For example, people always say to look out for a gaping mouth on a nem because it's a sure sign it's dying. However, it's also a sign they are going to be splitting within the next 24-48 hours. You never should panic with a nem over something it's doing for only a day or two unless it took a ride through a powerhead. Even if they look like they are melting, it can just be something like a split - they look absolutely horrific while they are in the process of splitting. Always give them some time before attempting to change something or intervene because they are such strange creatures that do weird things constantly.