All shriveled up!

[on:]

So Ricky and I had a real shock yesterday.


Saturday we went fish shopping again and brought home a Diamond Goby and a Condylactis (Pink-Tipped) Anemone. They acclimated just fine (used float method this time on both of them, worked like a charm). The Condylactis moved about over the next couple hours to find its "spot", and ended up clamping down inside a hole in one of our rocks. It still entends so that we can see it, but yesterday we had quite a scare.

The Condylactis was shriveled up and completely inside the hole. When I walked into the room it wasn't visible at all - I thought maybe it had moved to the back of the tank or something. But it was still in its spot. Its tentacles were extremely small and had gone purple and a pasty white color. It really looked like crap and Ricky thought it might be dying.

My parents both said they had seen it earlier in the day, extended and looking quite healthy, as it was on Saturday.

I tried to do as much research as I could but all I could pull up was that dying Condylactis actually fall apart - and that it is quite likely to poison the tank once deceased. This made me panic a little because I wanted to remove it if this were the case - but I wasn't exactly sure. Turns out there is very little online on the care of Condylactis... I called the two fish stores that we use, both were closed of course on a Sunday evening.

Ricky suggested that we try feeding it. I had some frozen shrimp and I thawed one out under hot water and cut off a tiny piece. I waved it in front of the anemone. It twitched, which was a good sign because healthy anemones will react to touch. Once it realized I was offering it food, it reached out with two tentacles, grabbed the shrimp, and pulled it to it's mouth. Ricky and I watched in amazement.

It started to inflate over the next hour or so. We switched off the light, and when I got back later that night it was fully inflated once more. This morning after I got ready for work, I fed the clowns and checked on the Condylactis - glad to see that it was once again looking extremely healthy.

Is this normal behavior? Does anyone else have a Condylactis...?

Ricky and I have decided to give it a small piece of shrimp 2-3 times a week.

[Reply #1 on:]

I did some research on the Condylactis Anemone and it sounds like a really neat creature. I heard they pack a nice sting too hope you don't have to feel that anytime soon.

The anemone could be expelling waste since it was fine during the morning.  If it is at night it could just be resting.  Also small pieces of Silverside make a good meal 2-3 times a week.

They probably walk really slowly huh?  Someone suggested covering the filter intake with mesh so they don't get caught up and sliced apart.  That sounds like it could be devastating to a tank.

[Reply #2 on:]

They are fine to handle with bare hands - the skin on your palms is too thick for them to do any damage. I've handled it myself, and it's rather just sticky. It "clings" to me.

However on other parts of the body, such as the sensitive skin on your forearms - yes. That'll leave welts.

I'll definitely have to see about getting mesh over the filter intake - I think it's already too small for the anemone to get sucked through. And even if it did, the filter pad would stop it before it got to our waterfall wheel ^_^

[Reply #3 on:]

We have 3 anemones,pink tipped,purple, and one that looks like a flower.(sorry,but I never remember names).the pink and purple shrivel quite frequently.scary at first!! If your tank is Very clean, you might need to feed them by dropping stuff right over and into their middle.they eat food and stuff floating,if you have a skimmer there isn't much for them to get.We give shrimp bits every other day,and they seem to be doing quite well. Thank you for the tip about poisoning the tank,if they died,makes sense,but we didn't know that ,DUH!! lol

[Reply #4 on:]

Definitely good to know!

Feeding every other day sounds good to me - right now our tank is extremely clean because we don't have many fish and it was just established. So I don't think there is enough stuff floating around for it to eat.

[Reply #5 on:]

How is your anemone doing? When do we get to see some photos of it?

[Reply #6 on:]

It's fine. It gets fed twice a week - brine shrimp and then a small piece of regular shrimp. Today is brine shrimp day. We found that it changes shapes quite often... sometimes it's stem is long, sometimes short and fat. Sometimes it's tentacles are opaque, sometimes light brown... It just changes all the time!

I have a video of it but I need to upload it