Anenome help

[andy83]

I've had a sea anenome in my 75 for the past 6 months or so. It's looked great and grown quite a bit, but every now and then it would shrink up and turn greenish, looking quite ill with tenticals that looked limp and decaying almost. But then a fwe hours later it would be up and large again, looking great. Well this morning I looked at it and it was the smallest and sickest it has ever looked. Not sure why it does this? Any suggestions? All the water parameters are perfect. I'm pretty confused?
-Andrew

[finding nemo]

Andrew , can you post a picture of it for us?

[andy83]

Sure. I'll get a camera this weekend and take a few pics. Today it is happy and healthy again. Odd creature.

[Sea man Dan]

My thoughts is he is exchangeing water and wastes, that would be my guess without pics

[ShellBell]

It could be pooping. My anemone shrivels up and looks pathetic when it is releasing wastes. I was so scared the first time it happened I called the LFS owner really late at night freaking out!!! That's what he gets for putting his cell # on his business card. :D

[Princess Di]

What kind of lighting do you have?

[Yodeling]

Completely normal behavior. Takes time to get used to it.

[NexDog]

Mine has just started doing this everyday for the last 3-4 days. Seems to happen around 4pm daily. Goes limp and greenish for quite a long time. By morning it's okay but definitely doesn't feel normal.

[Flighty]

Hey NexDog, you have my brother's name, except we spell it Flinn...

Anyway, If the anemone is deflating very frequently or at the same time of day every day it is a good idea to start checking for fluctuations in parameters like PH, temp and salinity. In my experience deflating more than for pooping is a very bad sign.

[NexDog]

Could be salinity then. By that time I've evaporated quite a bit and need to dump more RODI in. I'll do that sooner today and see if it helps.

[NexDog]

I found the problem. It was also affect my brain coral too. Basically I hadn't cleaned the bottom of my fuge for ages and it was a sewer down there. I actually siphoned must of the detritus out last weekend and the brain perked up but the anenome was still deflating daily. The HOB fuge is a real pain to get too but on Saturday I made a concerted effort. Pulled out the caulerpa and siphoned the whole thing out and washed it down and did a large water change.

And today (2 days later) the brain is fully extended and the anenome hasn't deflated all day and is actually the most extended I've ever seen it. So for me it was water quality and most importantly high nitrates caused by an inch of detritus in the fuge.