Anemone Worries

Yesterday, my anemone that resulted from my first split looked awesome. It was well inflated in the right-rear corner of my tank looking better than I've ever seen it. It had spent the previous month between my Xenia rock, the one I had pulled them all off of, and the glass. In the last few days it moved to the other side of the rock and opened nicely between my Monti Cap and Green Slimer. I was a little worried it would sting the cap but it didn't stay there long. It moved back t its original location. It then moved back to the corner.

This morning I found the anemone deflated on the bottom of the tan completely deflated. A small section of its tentacles were clear. The ones still with color were fluorescing a bright shade of green. It looked limp and done. There were even a few pieces f tentacles on the sand bed. It looked like it had gotten into a fight with a powerhead and lost. I knew that couldn't be the case since my powerheads were wrapped in bridal veil netting to protect the anemones.

I feared that it was dead or dying. Knowing that a dying anemone can nuke a tank I felt that it may need to removed. I picked it up and noticed the foot was still firmly attached to several pieces or LR rubble. A good sign. I decided to leave it in and observe it. Had it not been attached I would have removed it.

Over the course of the day it moved a little. Climbing the glass an inch or two and then returning to the sandbed. My cleaner shrimp kept picking at it on and off throughout the day.



It's strange how the body of the anemone is sunk within the outside of it's column. I've never seen one do this before.

As of a few minutes ago it crawled to a dark spot on the sandbed. I'm not sure what to think or do at this point. Do I leave it in and risk it dying and killing everything in the tank? Or do I sacrifice it to guarantee the safety of the others?

Not sure what caused this to occur. I do no my nitrates were somewhere around 7 ppm this morning. This is the highest it's been in perhaps a year. I lost a firefish a while ago and noticed some elevated nitrate levels. However last week nitrate was undetectable.

I think I'll do a water change and run carbon tonight. I can't get myself to destroy an animal that may be going through some ordinary thing.

New Additions

Last night I picked up three new additions:

ORA Bird of Paradise




ORA Joe the Coral


Unknown Purple Acro w/ Blue Tips with some green

Lighting change

I changed some of my bulbs around yesterday. I wanted a more blueish look. I added some of the stock actinics from my fixture. I like the new look. I hoping some of the corals that have been doing well like my mushrooms and clove polyps respond positively to the change.

The new bulb order from front to back is now:

Front
ATI Blue Plus
Current Actinic
Korallen-zucht Fiji Purple
Current Actinic
UV Super Actinic
ATI Blue Plus
Back

Interference

This morning I decided to move my leather. It had been continuously rubbing up against my monti cap. The bottom of the cap was looking dark where it was being rubbed.



I never observed any permanent damage caused by the leather rubbing up against the cap. I just didn't like the way it looked and I felt that growth was being restricted. The leather was also starting to shade my frogspawn. The frogspawn was sending out sweeper tentacles that on occasion reached the leather. This was another indicator that it was time to move it. It's now on the sandbed under my green slimer and next to my colt. I'm not sure if this is an ideal location but it is the best location I have for it right now.

The leather had grown so that it was adhering slightly to a second rock. I needed to perform some delicate surgery to cut some flesh from the second rock. I'll be curious to see if a new leather develops from hat rock.

BTA Split

One of my two BTAs split again last night. I consider this the original mother because after it split the first time this was the larger of the two.

When I came home from work yesterday I noticed a hole in the anemone. The live rock was clearly visible through the hole.



It appears that it split on one side of the mouth first starting within the anemone. It didn't split starting from the edge as I imagined it would. At the time I took this picture it hadn't even started splitting on the other side of the mouth. It looks like it split on one side first and then the other.

I couldn't stay up and watch the whole thing. When I woke up the split had completed.





The anemone split right through the center of its mouth. The remnants of the mouth are clearly visible in the pictures above. The other half was hiding behind the rock and was barely visible.

When I came home from work both halves had moved behind the rock but were still somewhat visible.