So my anemone I have had for about 2 months now an has looked great but the past week it has acted very weird. Closing up a lot and now it appears to be pushing its mouth out which a know is a bad sign leading to death. Water is the same but its in a small tank so maybe the swings killed it. Its still moving and my maroon still swims in it but not as much since it closes a lot. The anemone BTA will open back up sometimes but today it just looks bad. Any thoughts?
I have a new 40g breeder which I wanted to just grow out coral in but I’m thinking maybe the anemone and clown need to move in as well. The stock list for the 40 was only going to be a purple tang. Being a new tank and a stressed anemone I thought a move would not be good. Let me know what you think about doing this ?
Its almost like it ate something bad and wants to expell is but can not. From my daily non stop observations.
Few things I can think of as important.
Salinity is overlooked a lot of times
nutrients out of whack like a tank still cycling (Idk how old your tank is)
Do you dose?
Temperature
Are there any other corals? If so how are they
Salinity has been 1.027 for the last 6 months, tank has been running for 9 months. There is a rock anemone doing great about doubled in size. Bought at the same time as the BTA, temp is 78 daytime 76 night time.
I do not dose , about 2 days ago I tried to raise the alk and ph some by adding Kent marine 2 part for nano tanks. The ph and alk spiked. Have let it come back down.
An hour after the photos I took this morning it looks normal again but I know something isn’t right. Sometimes after it deflates and closes up it opens and looks like 2 heads. I wondered if it was trying to split.
I’ve had BTAs for about 9 months so take my advice with a “grain of salt”. What I can tell you is I’ve seen mine look similar to yours and then in a couple of days look “normal” again. They’ve split and grown from 2 to 5 so overall I think they are happy.
One time I ran my lights much lower for about 2 months battling algae and their healthy / appearance did steadily go down. Once I figured out what was happening, it took a few weeks for them to look healthy again. Again in my limited experience their health went up or down slowly and I noticed it more in their tentacles (tips breaking off, shriveled for more than a week, etc). Whenever they inflated \ deflated \ changed shape it seemed mostly random.
Any chance you are at home more and simply observing them more?
Well that is something I can hope for. I have attached a photo of how it looks this morning. The tenticals seems small and brownish. I have an a80 10 inches from the tenticals. It runs 100% intensity and 30% color. The maroon is also hard on it and I’m not sure if what I am seeing is related to that. I have had the same observation time since I have had it. The colors are def not as bright switching from xr15 to kessel a 80 but I expected that. My 40g breeder has been up to weeks with a xr15 and turbo start. I think that tank is still too new but I could move it there if it needs more light! I di notice last night the base seemed swollen with a bulge in its side. But as I was looking it sucked in the bulge
The other photo I added is my rock anemone , same tank. Had the same period of time. Started of about Nickle sized. Now is about golf ball size. It is about 5 inches lower in the tank.
The clownfish could be irritating it. Maroon clownfish are the most aggressive and sometimes newer nems or unhappy nems do not fair well to their abuse.
The A80 is probably to weak of a light and that’s why its all the way at the top. I definitely can vouch that under radions they color up so much better then they do under t5/reefbrites.
If all of your parameters are good just give it time. Worse case you might have to separate the nem and clown so it gets back to being full and healthy.
Do you think it may be a good idea to move the nem over and let it recover some then move the clown over?
Tagging @MarineMike5 who is also a nem expert.
Thanks Adam. I have never had an anemone die on me. I have had a couple look bad but always bounce back. Looks like 1 of 2 things, which were already mentioned. Splitting or getting picked on. Also how much flow is it getting? What type of lights are you using? What are you feeding it? How long has it been in that spot. If it’s a lighting problem it will move around til it finds a happy spot. If it can’t find a happy spot… I have not come across that problem yet. I have used metal halides, T5’s, and LED’s and no problems. I bought my first RBTA 6 years ago. And now I can say I have had it split and then split again and again so many times I have had well over 100. Sold given away you name it. I now have about 35 between 2 tanks. Good luck with your Nem. I can always give you one if he/she doesn’t make it.
The 1 I got from you years ago has become over 200 total. Past couple months I have gotten rid of 60 to 100 from the glass alone and still have over 30 smaller ones on the glass and definitely over 100 on rocks. Your anemones are great in color but split like crazy for me. Over rode my tank thats for sure. I don’t touch that tank except to feed the fish.
Thanks , it was in a 10 gallon low flow with a kessel A80. It was looking very bad last night expelling something brown which I assume was dead zoenthelle. So I moved it to another tank 40 gallon breeder. With more flow and an xr15. If it recovers I will move the clown over. I think the light source was too low but can not say for certain. I’ll see how it looks in a few days
It wasn’t expelling dead zoenthelle - it was just pooping.
An anemone will inflate and deflate occasionally, when it seems to be happening more often it is generally because the internal water and external water are at different parameters and it’s trying to balance itself out to its environment.
Flow, light, and a mature tank are extremely important for a nem, so is occasionally feeding them meaty foods in order to ensure they’re receiving all of their required nutrients. Most require bright light, and enough flow to carry food to them, but not so much flow that it’s blowing them off their rock. A mature tank is required to ensure stability of parameters.
Also keep in mind that a splitting nem is not always an indicator of health. A nem will often split because it is stressed or not getting enough light. The idea is that a smaller organism requires less light to survive than a large one, so it splits in order to survive.
Good points Craig and a few I did not think so much about.
Lighting i didn’t even think so much in the splitting part so it doesn’t need so much. mine are under a 6bulb t5 all ati blue plus and 2 reef brite xho strips. last I tested par in that tank it was 200 mid and 300 at the top. They have always split for me. It used to be only when I would change the flow and cause stress that they would split.
Hey @Cdangel0! Nice to hear from you. Hope things are going well!
Hey Craig, good to see you are back.
Are you back in the hobby?
Damn. How many generations are we talking about the ONE RBTA and are we talking 500 or more offspring? That’s crazy. We are good reefers.
I just saw on unlimited color corals web site that RBTA are selling for $100 dollars each. Are you fing kidding me. My price just went up to a dollar each. I could have retired by now.
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Most vendors sell for $80-120 depending on size and coloring.
My rainbows came from you Mike. In total over the years of having them i have probably had roughly 300+ in total all from that 1. You also had a good lineage still to this day the SC rainbows tend to have the nicest coloration vs what everyone sells as a rainbow.
How much do you all sell them for, do you have pictures.
I did end up moving the nem to the 40g breeder and it looks way better after 2 days. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow. Still rough but better. Hoping it gets back to the colorful way it was. The xlown fish is sad and I will move him over at some point. But scared he may beat it up. The new is about the size of my hand when opened up.
Hey John - I am not back in the hobby - but still have experience to share, so thought I’d stop by and find something to chime in on.
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