RBTA losing its tentacles???

[bigtoysrock]

Ok, so I'm kinda new with anemones. Never heard or seen this. I got mine off here and has been in the same spot for almost 3 weeks. It was under twin 250 halides and its now under 165w leds. So I fully expected it to move around the tank. No coral in there so I didn't care. But I tried to get flow so it wouldn't move.

Here's his original spot.

So 3 days ago I come home from work and BOOM he moved or jumped from the top of the rock he was on to the bottom of it. Checked his foot and he was attached. He looked ok, mouth was a little puffy, but ok. So since his foot was attached and he looked like he did when he was on top of the rock (stringy tentacles, not bubbles), I figured it wanted a change as I hadn't moved or changed anything since he got introduced.

Where it moved to.

Now over the past few days it has moved up the side of the rock just a bit where it's oral disk is horizontal. It is still taking food I might add.

Current spot.

Tonight I come home and notice something behind the rock it is on, 5 full tentacles. No it didn't get to the powerhead as I think they would be in pieces.

On the left you can see them.

So could it shed the tentacles? Could the clowns, fire fish, damsel or hermit crab pulled them off? Water parameters making him not happy causing self destruct? Just take perplexed with this.

[jestep]

He still looks healthy so that's good. I don't think it's the tank conditions.

What size are your hermits. They're opportunistic, but they would have to be pretty large to do that. My guess is that you have some other hitchhiker in the tank you don't know about, or the clowns are a little overzealous on the hosting and accidentally caused it.

Edited November 1, 2014 by jestep

[bigtoysrock]

The one hermit lives in a Mexican turbos shell, a little bigger than a golf ball. So he is pretty big. Never seen him on the RBTA or really close to it.

[Reburn]

He looks fine. Really is a beautiful nem. My guess is your clowns accidentally pulled them off. I see mine putting the tentacles in their mouth all the time. I would just watch it and see if it continues. I would bet a nickel its a one time thing.

[JCAB]

I had mine lose all it's tentacles while I was out on vacation (my ph kept reading high so I had my friend dose vinegar - turned out probe had lost calibration so it was never as high as I thought). They grew back after a few months. One year later, it's 3/4 to normal length.

[bigtoysrock]

So next question on this guy. I think it's a good sign though.

The front half of tentacles have shrunk up into bubbles and the back half is still long and stringy.

[FarmerTy]

They do weird stuff all the time. I'm sure is fine.

Anemones are indestructible in my opinion and I don't think they get the credit for being as resilient as they are.

[Gig 'em @ NDstructible]

I've seen clownfish too tentacles off, peppermint shrimp will eat tentacles, my bta lost most of it's tentacles in a chemical warfare incident with a dozen maxi mini anemones. They just lose tentacles sometimes, luckily they usually grow back just fine

[bigtoysrock]

It kinda looks like it has a mullet. Not to concerned as it still eats. Really intriguing little guy with all the things it does. Like everyday like clock work it deflates when my white light shuts off and is only atinic. By the time all the lights go out it's back to normal.