I need some insight on my RBTA

[Dubs83]

So I picked this guy up about a month ago and he did great until about 3 days ago.

Here he is when during his first 4-5 weeks

I have a pair of juvenile clowns with it and they haven't hosted until about 3 days ago. And that's when I noticed the change. The clowns hosted for a few hours and they went back to corner of the tank. Since then, I noticed some of the tentacles, mostly on the edge, have shriveled a bit and his bubbles have deflated a bit.

Yesterday, he completely closed up. I mean completely.

Is this normal? Should I she concerned?

My water is
pH - 8.2 to 8.3
Temp- 77
Alk- 8.4
Mg- 1360
Cal- 440
Nitrate-5
PO4- 0.03
SG- 1.025

I use two reef Breeders photon v2 that peak at 50% over a 125 gallon

 

[JaimeAdams]

How does it look today?

 

[Dubs83]

How does it look today?

This was about 2 hours ago

And this is as of right now

He will open up at some point but never to his original shape

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Wow looks like it's declining fast. Your parameters look spot on.

How big are your clowns in comparison to the anemone? Would they both jump in it at the same time or take turns? Have you changed your lighting intensity or schedule? Have you seen it dispensing any waste?

 

[Dubs83]

Wow looks like it's declining fast. Your parameters look spot on.

How big are your clowns in comparison to the anemone? Would they both jump in it at the same time or take turns? Have you changed your lighting intensity or schedule? Have you seen it dispensing any waste?

My clowns are juveniles. I'd say just barely over an inch. The RBTA was 4-5" when fully opened. Maybe 6 but that's a stretch.
Only one clown jumped in and stayed in for about 3-4 hours chasing the other one away. Since then, they're both swimming together in the corner of the tank.

I changed the lighting intensity since the nem started this behavior from peaking at 40% to 50%. No change in behavior.

I have not observed it dispense anything. If I try to feed it (clams, pe mysid) it'll gladly take it but I've stopped since its starting acting up. Previous to this, I spot fed it once a week.

This is it right now.

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

You could try returning the light intensity back down to 40% and see what that does.

The last pic you showed looked good. It's dispensing waste and anemones shrivel up when doing this. Completely normal.

It could be due to the clowns feeding the anemone since they started to host it. It's not uncommon for a clown to occasionally their nem. Mine do this and my GBTA shrivels up almost daily at noon to dispense waste.

 

[Dubs83]

You could try returning the light intensity back down to 40% and see what that does.

The last pic you showed looked good. It's dispensing waste and anemones shrivel up when doing this. Completely normal.

It could be due to the clowns feeding the anemone since they started to host it. It's not uncommon for a clown to occasionally their nem. Mine do this and my GBTA shrivels up almost daily at noon to dispense waste.

Yes. I can certainly come back down to 40% and see what happens.

Your suggestion that the clowns are feeding it could very well be but I only saw one of the clowns host it for, literally, 3-4 hours. They have shown no interest in the nem in about 1 week.

I'll report back.

This is about as open as it gets. For a solid week now. Here's a comparison

Now

2 weeks ago

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Yeah only time will tell. I'm sure he'll pull through.

 

[Dubs83]

Yeah only time will tell. I'm sure he'll pull through.

True. Thanks for the advice and I'll report back.

Here's a close up of its mouth if that's any help

 

[abstractxx02195]

Any updates ? Mine is doing the same thing .. in fact .. he's upside down so it just looks like he's hanging .. but he still attached so isn't it still alive ? Colors are still vibrant but he's seems to be shriveled up all the time. Myclowns aren't going to it anymore. Let me know what happens to yours or if you have updates

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Any updates ? Mine is doing the same thing .. in fact .. he's upside down so it just looks like he's hanging .. but he still attached so isn't it still alive ? Colors are still vibrant but he's seems to be shriveled up all the time. Myclowns aren't going to it anymore. Let me know what happens to yours or if you have updates

Generally speaking, it's always a good sign if they're still attached.

 

[Catchemall]

True. Thanks for the advice and I'll report back.

Here's a close up of its mouth if that's any help

Mouth is closed that's good good color too atleast his mouth isn't gaping have you turned down the lights?

 

[abstractxx02195]

I read the comments and I turned down the lights today , let's see if it helps ...

 

[Dubs83]

Mouth is closed that's good good color too atleast his mouth isn't gaping have you turned down the lights?

Sorry. I stopped receiving notifications for some reason.

Yes. I turned the lights down to 40% again and it's still behaving the same way. I did observe that it'll stay closed like this until around 4PM when the lights start to ramp down. Then it'll starting poking out and I'm assuming stay out, although not to it's original form, the rest of night. The reason I say this is because when I approach the tank in the morning it's out. The clowns have not returned to it but I believe they've decided on which will be the female as one has become considerably larger.

I did speak to some one at the LFS, a guy who's given me good advice in the past, and he mentioned that sometimes first time hosting clowns may get a little rough with the nem which could be causing this. He also mentioned that nems essentially do their own water changes and it could be my salinity. It's consistently at 34.5 to 35.5, or 1.024-1.025 depending on the temp

 

[Dubs83]

I read the comments and I turned down the lights today , let's see if it helps ...

Do you have any pictures you could share? Let me know how it works out.

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

My maroons are freaking aggressive with my BTA. They dive bomb in it, lay there for a bit and then thrash about. The nem doesn't mind it much because it's fairly bigger than the clown.

How about flow? You mentioned it starts to come out at night and returns to its cave in the morning. Does a power head turn off or decrease during these hours?

 

[Dubs83]

My maroons are freaking aggressive with my BTA. They dive bomb in it, lay there for a bit and then thrash about. The nem doesn't mind it much because it's fairly bigger than the clown.

How about flow? You mentioned it starts to come out at night and returns to its cave in the morning. Does a power head turn off or decrease during these hours?

I do have an MP40 but it's sitting about 14" to the right and about 8" above it. Initially, the nem was getting quite a bit of flow and it didn't seem to bother it. After it started acting up I thought it maybe the flow so I moved the power head up and it's now just getting a gentle sweep.

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Fluctuating flow could be causing it to act that way.

 

[AMEE]

I wouldn't worry to much about it. Anemones change shapes a lot. Like somebody mentioned if it's being fed by the clowns or being disturbed it will do that. Let things naturally level out don't start changing too many things. There isn't much you can do and if they clowns haven't been bothering it lately it should be ok, if it doesn't like the light or flow it will move on it's own.