Help! My anemone is swollen!

[oscarlikesfish]

Hello all. I recently purchased a Nano tank. I have 2 ocellaris clownfish, a royal dottyback, one Banggai cardinal and a yellow angelfish. (The yellow angelfish was brought to my tank only 3 days ago)
I noticed around 2 days ago that my anemone had suddenly shrunk (It was never that big but definitely bigger than it’s current state) Around midway down its tentacles they were all swollen up.
I have fed it shrimp often so it can’t be starved.

water parameters are

Ammonia: 0.06
Salinity: 1.023
PH: 8.2-8.3

cant remember the others sorry, but they were checked yesterday.I’ll attach an image now, and please let me know if you know what has happened and how to help.

 

[Colin_T]

It's a baby bubble tip anemone and is fine. That's what they look like when they are happy.

If the tentacles shrink and look withered, then the anemone is unhappy.

 

[oscarlikesfish]

It's a baby bubble tip anemone and is fine. That's what they look like when they are happy.

If the tentacles shrink and look withered, then the anemone is unhappy.

Thank you for answering so quickly! That’s really relieving! So it’s totally normal that they used to have long wavy tentacles and now small bubbly ones? Anyway, thank you!

 

[Colin_T]

Bubble tip anemones can have long wavey tentacles for part of the day and then shrink them down a bit for the rest of the day. They are very flexible and can change shape and size throughout the day and night.

If you feed it every day, it will swell up a bit after feeding. A few hours later it will shrink back down a bit. When you do feed it, use small bits of food and only offer a few bits to it. Basically the sea anemone should get the same amount of food as the clownfish does, and it should be small pieces of food so it's easier for the anemone to digest.

If you put big pieces of food (a whole prawn or white bait) on the anemone, it will engulf the food and spend a few hours digesting it, then regurgitate the remaining parts and they will float off into the tank and get lodged somewhere and cause water quality problems.

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Have good light on the tank and the anemone will be able to use that. Anemones have symbiotic algae in their cells of the disc and tentacles, and that gives them their colour. Corals have the same thing. If there is good light, the algae will photosynthesise and produce food for the anemone. If there is not enough light, the anemone will fade and lose colour.

If the water temperature gets too high (above 30C), the anemone can expel the symbiotic algae and turn white. Corals do the same thing and it is called bleaching. If this happens, the anemone can gather more algae when the water cools down and it has recovered from the heat.

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Keep the tank and filter clean and do big regular water changes. Feed the anemone and give it good light, and within a few months it will be full sized. When it has been kept under good conditions for a few months, it might divide in 2 and you get 2 identical anemones in the tank. One half will usually stay where it is and the other one will wander off and find somewhere else to live.​

If well cared for, sea anemones are immortal and will live forever. This is not a joke, they can literally live forever as long as they have good conditions. They are truly incredible creatures.