Reeferella
Community Member
Your picture of the anemone shrunken into a ball is what an anemone typically looks like when it's expelling waste. It's a normal event providing it doesn't happen too often. You'll usually see some brown stringy stuff come out of the mouth at the same time. By too often I mean daily or even several times daily. In my experience that suggests the anemone is consuming the contents of it's own tissue and the end is near if something doesn't improve quickly. I personally do not want to see my BTA's expel waste more than a couple times per week but I've read claims from anemone keepers of their healthy BTA's expelling waste daily.
The picture of the anemone stretched flat is both good and bad. First of all as someone else stated, stretching is often a sign of an impending split however in my experience the stretching would be far more extreme. For me, when an anemone is stretched and flattened in a relatively symmetrical shape, I tend to lean towards light-hunger. I believe your anemone was trying to expand it's surface area so to absorb more lighting. By both good and bad I mean that it's good that your anemone is still exhibiting normal responses to stress but bad that it appears stressed.
Clearly, your anemone is thin (for lack of better term) and has shed a significant portion of it's zoanthelle, meaning it's bleached. It's bleached significantly, but not entirely and if the conditions in your tank are near perfect, it has a good shot at recovery. A couple less obvious positive signs will be the bulking up of the foot and the darkening of the tentacles.
Basically, it's a waiting game at this point. Don't touch it.
The picture of the anemone stretched flat is both good and bad. First of all as someone else stated, stretching is often a sign of an impending split however in my experience the stretching would be far more extreme. For me, when an anemone is stretched and flattened in a relatively symmetrical shape, I tend to lean towards light-hunger. I believe your anemone was trying to expand it's surface area so to absorb more lighting. By both good and bad I mean that it's good that your anemone is still exhibiting normal responses to stress but bad that it appears stressed.
Clearly, your anemone is thin (for lack of better term) and has shed a significant portion of it's zoanthelle, meaning it's bleached. It's bleached significantly, but not entirely and if the conditions in your tank are near perfect, it has a good shot at recovery. A couple less obvious positive signs will be the bulking up of the foot and the darkening of the tentacles.
Basically, it's a waiting game at this point. Don't touch it.
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