I've been worrying about my Bubble Tip Anemone (BTA) for some time now. It simply hasn't looked healthy, or even coming close to its former glory. However, I've continued to feed it various things trying to give it the energy to rebound. I believe what has been happening is that it simply isn't getting enough to eat.

Apparently the Percula Clownfish is trying to keep its home clean of any debris (food!) and then my Coral Banded Shrimp always runs over at feeding time to see what it can steal. Typically the BTA closes up around the food so that I can't see it at all, but the CBS does reach in with its claws hoping to snatch something.

Last night I kept the Clownfish and the CBS away from the BTA for 10 minutes so it would eat in peace, and today it looked much better than it has. I may have to continue with this method to assure it gets its meal.

Take note: Sometimes things go wrong in our tanks and we react quickly trying to save the livestock. However, it is very important to not overreact and look for possible erroneous indicators. My 29g reef's temperature has been rising steadily for the past couple of days. The reading was 83.3 yesterday, so I unplugged the heater in case it was faulty, to avoid cooking the tank. Today it was 84.9F at 9pm, which is impossible. I decided to check the probe from the thermometer and it was giving a false reading. A floating thermometer quickly assured me that the tank was at 80F so the heater was plugged back in for when it is needed.

I had used a digital thermometer purchased at Walmart. By sealing the probe in a vial so it was water-tight, it would give me current readings, but somehow saltwater got into the vial and probably compromised the sensor. If it can't be fixed, I'll make a new one. It was scary to think the tank was getting so hot, and I'm glad that in reality it was not.

Toadstool Leather coral is showing more growth each day.

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Blue Ricordia's mouth was visible today.