Carpet Anemone Closed Up

The anemone wanted the fish.

Carpet anemone closed up.

Let us add something to the archive then we have a 90 gallon reef with mostly soft corals a midas blenny assorted. It s like the anemone know s it was a live fish and not just some food. Blindly guessing here though without a clear and close up picture. Anthony carpet anemone hi how goes it thanks for any help you can give me on this as i read through your site and could find nothing that pertains.

If a specimen s mouth is opened up for no apparent reason and especially if any of the guts are protruding from the mouth you should not purchase it. The anemones will start to drink up and the open rate will vary among blooms but after 6 8 hours in water you should start to see the petals open up. Another important thing to look for is a closed mouth. It then opened so it could eat the fish.

If the anemone lives in an intertidal zone where it is exposed to air during low tide the anemone keeps its tentacles shut perhaps as a protective measure. For instance it may be harder for birds or other predators to get to an anemone s interal parts if it s closed and staying closed may prevent excess water loss. Some blooms may take 1 2 days before they are fully open whereas others may be fully open in less than a day. Last night he extended his tentacles a tiny bit and began blowing them up but nothing near full extension and nothing near what he looked like in the lfs.

I was quite pleased. A carpet anemone s mouth is usually easy enough to spot being right in the middle of its disc. It should not be gaping open.