Why does anemone flip itself inside out when dying?

[vaporize]

I know that anemones are dying (or gone) when they flip itself inside out, I am curious to know why exactly physiologically they are doing it and anybody have any luck in doing somethin to counter that?

Thanks

p.s. This is a general question regarding that pre-dying sypmtom so please skip "what are your water parameters questions".

[kkonowalchuk]

Out of curiousity, when a Zoanthid "turns inside out", is it dieing too? I had one or 2 little ones turn inside out one day a while back, and they either disappeared or went right-side out by the next day. My water parameters are also good. ;)

[msobon]

Not sure what you mean by inside out but my anemones sometimes do that just because, or if they take a big poop, they also respond to minute changes in the water like to go all soft and look like melting away sometimes. I think it may be a defense mechanism trying to get rid off anything that they may have consumed out of their system ie. poisonous fish or something similar that they might come across in nature. Unfortunatly they may not recover and die that way?

[vaporize]

By inside out, I mean that it significantly flip its internal outside, not the normal release waste type of mouth opening :D

I can understand the deflating part, which might be a response to expell the poisonious water out of their system since it's mainly water based. But flipping its mouth inside out, that I cannot understand the purpose.

[ajx22]

Unfortunately - I really don't think that anyone knows this answer - as very little research has been done on our oceans.

"Why" is a very hard question to answer.

[vaporize]

Thanks AJ, I know it's not a easy question with a straight answer, that's why I ask on our forum, maybe through some of our collaborative observations, we can better understand these interesting organisms :D Can't always wait for researchers to feed us the answers.

[ajx22]

I've been waiting for that all my life...

Unfortunately, once the modern world had the oceans and seas secure in respect to military - they moved on to securing the skies and beyond. We know more about outer space and the moon then we know about our own oceans and seas...and this is part of what attracts me so greatly to the hobby.

It will still be a long time in the making - however, I'm looking forward to learning as we go...