Anemone twisted in stalk like a knot

[tstrelch]

My beautiful large rose tipped anemone will somehow end up twisted like a knot in the stalk-- maybe once/twice a year. This does not involve the tentacles, just the anemone's stalk.

I've never seen how it occurs and always suspected a water jet and its Clarke clown would cause the twisting to occur via some repetitive actions. When I've noticed this before it didn't look healthy so I've "helped out" and untwisted it-- usually it's 4 or 5 twists (in a single direction of course).

Today, this twisting happened again (haven't seen this happen for over six months). It's so wound up I cannot count how many turns there are. I was only able to reverse maybe 1-2 turns and stopped trying-- I noticed a white material in the twists that didn't resemble the exterior of the anemone that I've ever seen. I half thought that some form of worm twisted around it but didn't see movement so discounted that. My anemone moves around the tank (only 10G or so) a lot sometimes. It even did this today when it was twisted like this (I could see it inflating both above and below the knotted section).

Does anybody know what's going on with the anemone? Is this twisting something it does in reaction to something? Or possibly for breeding purposes?

For that matter how do anemones breed? I'm unfamiliar with this.

Thanks for any advice on these topics!

Timothy

 

[Reef99]

How old are your bulbs? It sounds like it may be stretching to reach light and getting twisted. A 10g is pretty small for anemones.

Anemones breed by releasing gamets into the water. What you are seeing is not breeding.

They also reproduce by cloning. They will split themselves in half, usually caused by stress.

 

[tstrelch]

My bulb (singular since it is a small tank and I'm not trying to grow corals) is probably 1.5 years old -- so I do imagine I should change it and had forgotten about that.

Note - It has been almost five months since my posted question and the anemone is doing fine. Within a couple days it had untwisted itself. It has probably done the twisting maybe once since then and worked itself out again. Strange.

Thanks for the advice and info!

Timothy

 

[Reef99]

1.5 years is pretty old, anemones do need light that is similar to coral. I like to change mine out ever 9 - 12 months. What bulb are you using.

I did notice that this thread was old, but seen that it was unanswered. So thought it may help you or someone else.