perc's picking at anemone's mouth

jayjohnson · #1 12/21/2007, 04:31 PM

I have a mated pair of perc's that hosted with my capet anemone a week ago. They keep picking at the carpets mouth/stomach. Is this normal? I'll send a pic soon.

Shewillbemine · #2 12/21/2007, 04:43 PM

Yes. They are probably cleaning it (ala making one's bed).

jayjohnson · #3 12/21/2007, 05:42 PM

I don't think they are making their bed. It looks like they are tearing off pieces of the anemones stomach. The anemones mouth is constantly open.

sfarid123 · #4 12/21/2007, 06:03 PM

That is sign of an nem in distress. You should check Your water parameters for any sign of NH4, NO2, NO3, PO4.
Also check salinity and AlK as well.

ezcompany · #5 12/21/2007, 06:15 PM

my true perc picassos did that to my nem and killed it in the process. i would isolate the nem for recovery purposes asap.

jayjohnson · #6 12/21/2007, 07:14 PM

link to pic

littleshark · #7 12/21/2007, 07:38 PM

Whoa that mouth is big. You need to isolate it. My saddlebacks always dive into my haddoni's mouth when frighten but never sleep in it. How long have u had the anmone? Maybe its changing/ getting use to the water.

adtravels · #8 12/21/2007, 08:59 PM

eeek, that looks like a very sick anemone, most likely a gigantea, very hard to tell, the only anemones I have seen looking like that have usually been gonners sorry,
I would remove the clowns firstly as they will compound the problem, monitor the anemone carefully if it detaches I would remove it as it will seriously foul your tank.