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Weboh
02/25/2018, 06:43 PM
I noticed today that my shrimp was really picking on my anemone—every time it would open, the shrimp would crawl back over it and make it close. Shortly after that, the anemone has its mouth hanging open which means it's really stressed. I just completed a water change, so I expect it to close up to change its own water. I'm not sure why it's stressed. A possible reason is I've been keeping my salinity at .025 instead of .026 (no ATO and I figured having it be a bit too low is better than a bit too high since my anemone was getting pretty stressed a couple weeks ago from too salty water). Would that do it? Would the shrimp alone do it, or do they only pick on anemones they can tell are stressed? My shrimp has always picked the anemone—usually just when the anemone's been fed. But I haven't fed the anemone for awhile as I didn't want to stress him when he's recovering from the water being too salty

My parameters are:
Ammonia:
Nitrate: 2
Nitrite: 0
pH: 8.3
Alk:
Ca: 325

If it is the shrimp, can I do anything about it? I can't really catch the shrimp. Thanks.

Weboh
02/25/2018, 07:43 PM
Well, the anemone opened back up when the lights went out. It looks fine now. Do you think I should lower the light intensity? I'm not sure if that was the cause since the anemone started looking stressed when the light was starting to ramp down for the night.

Navig8tr
02/25/2018, 08:25 PM
I had a cleaner shrimp that always irritated my anemones because he figured out it was a likely place to get food after they had been fed. I eventually removed him from the system.

ramseynb
02/26/2018, 04:12 AM
Going from 1.026 to 1.025 is not much of a change and I wouldn’t think it would stress out a nem. A cleaner shrimp looking for food will though. I had one that would straight up pull food out of my BTA’s mouth.

adrianreece
02/26/2018, 08:50 AM
I had the same problem with my skunk cleaner shrimp. Once he learned that I fed the anemone on occasion, he would always go over and bother it until it closed. I eventually made a trap with a water bottle and removed the shrimp. I ended up getting a pistol shrimp/goby pair instead and they are much more entertaining anyways! Good luck!

Weboh
02/26/2018, 12:06 PM
How did you make that trap with a water bottle? I'm hoping to trap the shrimp until the clowns decide to host in the anemone. Right now, they swim close but the shrimp scares them off.

adrianreece
03/03/2018, 10:56 AM
How did you make that trap with a water bottle? I'm hoping to trap the shrimp until the clowns decide to host in the anemone. Right now, they swim close but the shrimp scares them off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrHYR-LVH2g

Put some food in the trap and wait. You may catch a fish or two first, but if your shrimp is anything like mine was, his curiosity will eventually outweigh his apprehensiveness. Good luck!