Anemone stomach out, but why?

Kyle Brown · Oct 22, 2017

Hello and good morning, I have had this carpet anemone for about a year now in my 125gal Reef tank. I moved it to a small 20gallon Reef with led/t5 lighting and as soon as I did that it’s stomach or foot stayed out of its mouth. I have checked the parameters and they are fine, also I sent for an icp test from Triton and everything was good per them as well. Is it possible for air to be trapped in the stomach? I have acans a rock anemone, and three colonies of sun corals in the tank as well and they are doing just fine. For fish I have two frozen frost bite subzero clowns, a cardinal, a six line wrass, a purple fire fish and a coral banded shrimp. The two clowns are hosted to the anemone also.

Thank you for your, help!
Kyle

Humblefish · Oct 22, 2017

#reefsquad

Humblefish · Oct 22, 2017

@Bob Loblaw knows a lot about carpet anemones

Amoo · Oct 22, 2017

how long has it been like this now?

Bob Loblaw · Oct 22, 2017

Have you tried running Rox, Purigen, or 03? I'm suspecting allelopathy in the cramped quarters.

Kyle Brown · Oct 22, 2017

I have been running Rox for a few months now. It has been like this for about six months.

Kyle Brown · Oct 22, 2017

Yes Bob, I thought it was chemical war fair also so I started using Rox carbon; but even with replacing it every three weeks it did not make a difference.

Amoo · Oct 22, 2017

Seeing as you're experienced with it and your tanks, you may try seeing if you can manually put it back inside yourself and see if it stays.

Kyle Brown · Oct 22, 2017

Hey Amoo, your saying to push the mouth in with my fingers?

Amoo · Oct 22, 2017

worth a shot, 6 months leads me to believe its more of a prolapse condition the allelopathy, hopefully the muscles are still strong enough to respond, but you may be able to manually fix it.

Kyle Brown · Oct 22, 2017

Thank you Amoo for your knowledge in this matter, will try it! If I remember, I will post my results later.

Mr. Bill · Oct 22, 2017

JMO, but that actually looks like the base and foot... a nem's stomach is usually almost clear. Are you sure it didn't get flipped over?

Kyle Brown · Oct 22, 2017

It is definitely the stomach because the foot is anchored to the bottom of the tank.

I did try to push the stomach in, but about 10min later it was out again.

Plan B anyone?

DLHDesign · Oct 22, 2017

Kyle Brown said:
Plan B anyone?

Push it back in and use some duct tape this time?

(Sorry - no; but I wanted to follow along...)

JoshH · Oct 22, 2017

I wish I could help, such a beautiful nem I hope it recovers!

Kyle Brown · Oct 22, 2017

Tried dollar store duck tape did not work going to get gorilla tape tomorrow

Welp guess I will pray for it or put it in a bigger tank maybe, will have to ask the wife(excuse for a new tank though)

Bob Loblaw · Oct 23, 2017

What happens when it catches food? Can you temporarily remove the rock beam to see if that has any affect?

Kyle Brown · Oct 23, 2017

Not sure what you mean by rock beam? However, when it catches food it struggles a little if I place the food on the tentacles. Normally I put the food on top of the stomach and it does not have much of a problem.