help my bubble tip anemone

I left my house 5 hours ago and my bubble tip anemone was fine, it's 3 days old, and i fed it for the first time today, brine shrimp - from a turkey baster.. anyway it's all shriveled up and I don't understand why? was it from the food? It ate the food i think because it closed up and when i left it was looking nice and normal. Should I do something? I did move it to the other side of the tank (I just moved it back to where it was)

 

also the bubble tip anemone is half the size it was,

 

My ammonia levels are .5 ppm (mg/l) and I have a little higher nitrate levels then yesterday, still says safe on the test strip though should I take the anemone out of the tank?

 

How old is the tank? My BTA will shrivel up and expel "waste" and open back up again. One thing I have noticed is now that I watch my water levels like a hawk it stays open more often.

But id really like to know where the ammonia is coming from.

Lastly from what I understand you want to put a BTA in a established tank.

 

You should do a water change with completely mixed SW.

Do not feed the anemone again until your parameters are in line. You should only have to feed it every couple weeks a very small amount, if your lighting is sufficient.

 

I think the problem was that on the left side of my tank i dont have as strong of a light as the right side, because the fish store didn't have two - and I have to wait till next week. now that I've moved it back to where it was it seems to be not dying it's open now and it doesn't look as horrible. However tomorrow i will do a 30% water change just in case,

 

You did not answer how old the tank is. Anemones need an established, mature system for any chance at success, at least 6 months of maturity. If not the chance of survival is pretty slim unfortunately.

Anemones will move themselves to where ever they are happy, don't try to make it do anything it does not want to do. It will settle somewhere where it likes the flow, lighting and food availability and you can't do anything about it besides modfy the flow or lighting.

If you are using test strips you probably are not equipped for an anemone so personally I would return it until you are better prepared. It is better to do that than let it die as it may do. Get things more stable, invest in wso me good test kits and study up on anemones tghen try again in 6 months when the system is stable.

 

Well it would be helpful to know how old your aquarium is. Also as others have said do not move it you could cause more problems anemones can move easily on their own.

I would say it could be your water parameters any amount of readable ammonia can definitely cause problems it is very dangerous to the health of your aquarium. Also because you have ammonia it leads me to believe your tank has not been up and running long and you probably have nitrite as well which is also dangerous. Also when you target feed anemones with brine shrimp or other foods they shrink and suck up their tentacles and digest their food and expel waste through their "mouth". Lastly bubble tips like a lot of light as they rely a lot on photosynthesis for food. Hope this helps

 

Regardless of the parameters sometimes anemones just decide to ball up.

I've had good water parameters and my anemones sometimes is smaller then others and usually after eating it gets somewhat smaller and the stomach bloats up.

Give it some time and just let it be, if not you might stress it out moving it around.

 

They will open & close as they want. I would not ever feed any of my RBTA brine shrimp!!! You can buy free shrimp, clams & other meaty foods for them @ any grocery store fish/sea food department... I have ten RBTA's in three tanks... From 2" to 14" & they all eat every 4 to 5 days... You must keep up with your water if you want it to live... Also don't move it around it will move to where it wants to be...
I hope this helps