New anemone behavior

dbleoh7 · Mar 4, 2020

I got a rainbow anemone in my tank yesterday around noon and it's been hiding in a cave. My tank has been running 6 weeks but I cured the rocks and sand in a bucket x 2-3 months before that so essentially 4ish months old. I know some people say to wait 6 mo but I figured I would give it a try. I did a 2 hour acclimation. The anemone seemed to be opening up yesterday where I put it in the sand bed but when the lights went down last night it went into hiding in a cave where the water flow is probably the least. Today it's been sitting in the cave completely in the dark and not as full as it was initially(not as bulbous and tentacles are thinner). It still has full color and the mouth looks normal.Is this normal behavior? Wondering should I:

A. Leave it be and keep light settings on AB+ and this is typical of a new anemone in a new tank
B. Put lights at 50% and see if that helps
C. Move out the rock above the nem so that it gets some light
D. other

Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0 - 5 (did a 30% water changes before adding nem)
Light AI prime on full AB+ settings

Ron Reefman · Mar 5, 2020

Anemones frequently exhibit strange behaviors.
Those behaviors can run for days and even weeks or longer.
A BTA can move on it's own, so if it wants to get out of the hole or get more light, it doesn't need your help.
I'd leave it alone and not change anything.
Keep an eye on it and as long as it's maintaining it's size, let it be.
If it starts to shrink or do any other strange behaviors (like turning inside out) pull the rock and give it a different environment (more or less light and more or less flow).

I have a RBTA that was the size of a quarter when I got it. After a few months I moved everything into storage tanks while I swapped out my 40g tank for a 90g tank. While in storage the RBTA was not happy and became quite small, smaller than a dime. Placed in the new tank it moved under a rock high up in the rockscape. I left it alone. Over the last 2 months it has moved out slightly into a bit more light and flow and it has increased in size. It's still smaller than when I got it, but it's doing better and it's all been done on it's own with no help from me.

Cell · Mar 5, 2020

Leave it be.

Sosuke · Mar 5, 2020

I agree I have 4 anemones and when I first got them they hid for a couple of days in a crevice then found the spot they wanted to be in. Sometimes they do just keep moving around. And as said by Ron Reefman as long as it looks normal and isn't showing symptoms of stress let it be.

D-Nak · Mar 5, 2020

BTAs sometimes take a while to acclimate. In the process they do all sort of strange things like move around a lot, deflate, expel brown gunk, etc. Give it a couple of weeks and let it settle in.