A suprise in my tank...

krazysvede

krazysvede

New member
Was cleaning the tank today and found a present. :bounce1: Im guessing sometime in the past couple weeks my rbta budded off a new little guy, its gotta be just under the size of a nickel. It don't think it looks too bad although the mouth is not as tight as I would expect. It also appears to have white/silverish sparkles all over its oral disc and tentacles. Are these things common in new buds? I dont have any experience with nems this small. I did manage to get it to take some mysis earlier today although it was a very slow process. Is there anything else you guys and gals would recommend feeding that would be better for a little guy like this?

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And the big guy; you can see the little guy in the bottom right corner of the pic

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That is one tiny one. I have some that tiny and they do fine but i would be careful with keeping it out in your tank. I keep my tiny ones in a basket so i can easily feed them. It should survive if kept in good conditions.
 
lol I have a strawberry basket over it now to keep my fat pig of a cleaner shrimp away from it. Its not pretty but its functional. I thought of putting it in a shower basket I use for frags earlier but didnt want to risk injuring the foot by trying to move it.
 
aww, so cute and small!!! Not trying to take the attention off your post, but how do anemones do that? How do they bud off little ones like that?
 
No worries at all. I didnt see it happen but from what Ive read its really just like a plant growing a new flower. An entirely new baby grows from the base of the parent nem and the baby detaches from the parent when it has developed as opposed to just straight up streching apart like they do when they split or getting torn in pieces by a falling rock, powerhead or a determined reefer with a razor blade ;)
 
Hmm, I thought they always split and were clones of the parent =/ (Basing this on my vast knowledge of one article I read about surgical cloning of BTA lol)

But what I would like to know, is how do people get their BTA to, well, not have the 'bubble' tips? Yours are straight and tentacley.
 
I'm actually a little doubtful if that is actually a baby RBTA. I've seem some extremely tiny bta's, but when they are that small they will not have as many tentacles as can be seen on yours. Furthermore, looking at the foot on that nem, I believe it is similar to the hitchhiker nems I have in my tank. I don't know the exact species, but it is similar to a strawberry anemone. They are very small - you are seeing one that appears "full grown". They appear to be non-photosynthetic as I have found some in the darkest (and brightest) areas of my tank. I'm assuming they are filter feeders. Unlike other hitchhiker nems like aptasia or majano, they do not reach plague proportions or damage surrounding corals significantly. Congrats on the cool new nem in your tank!
 
GhostCon1 said:
But what I would like to know, is how do people get their BTA to, well, not have the 'bubble' tips? Yours are straight and tentacley.
Click to expand...

Mine actually kinda comes and goes with the bubbles. When its been feed recently it has bubbly tentacles other than that its totally random. Somedays its bubbly some days its straight. Ill take a pic next time its all bubbly and make sure to post up.


bues0022 said:
I'm actually a little doubtful if that is actually a baby RBTA. I've seem some extremely tiny bta's, but when they are that small they will not have as many tentacles as can be seen on yours. Furthermore, looking at the foot on that nem, I believe it is similar to the hitchhiker nems I have in my tank.
Click to expand...

It's entirely possible its not a bta and as long as it doesnt kill all my corals and eat all my fish I'm a happy man. :lmao: Only time will tell exactly what it is I guess. Maybe I'm mistaken but aren't the strawberry nems you mentioned usually found in colder waters?
 
You are correct in saying that strawberry nems are usually found in cool water. They are also quite colonial, and will form large areas that are dense in population. That is why I said they were similar, as I'm still not exactly sure of their species. Mine seem to be very separate from each other. I haven't had one irritate or eat anything that I would have liked to keep alive, so I like them!
 
Thanks for the info. Your right after looking at those pics Im skeptical that it is actually a bta. You were right about the tentacles, there are less of them and they are fuller on those little nems. Interesting, very interesting...
 
It almost looks like a mushroom of some kind! Has it moved around? Could be a nem, but a yuma or ric might not be out of the question! The only thing that makes me doubt this too is that it does seem to have a somewhat anemone like base. Anyways, I guess we'll have to wait and see! Sweet find though :)
 
The spot it currently occupies was empty and I was going to use it for some of my acans. When I noticed the nem, I was about to do water change and it was on the underside of the rock its currently on, barely poking the side of its oral disk out of a crack between rocks. As the day went on it came out and is currently right side up. So yes, it has to have moved around. It definantly has the foot of a nem. The foot is about the same color as the foot of my bta. I would rule out yuma, as I dont have any and the mouth looks like no mushroom mouth Ive ever seen.

So Im thinking there are two possibilities;
1. This isnt a baby bta and is something else that somehow hitchiked into my tank. Though thats harder for me to believe because 98% the rock in my tank was dry marco rock and the rest was from my nano from when I started my first tank. All the corals were small frags and a nem would be fairly easy to see as I quarantine everything...

2. This is actually a bta and it split from the parent a while ago and is just now out and visible. I examined the base of the larger bta and dont see anything that would indicate the baby recently split from it. Its possible it settled in a dark place where it wasnt getting enough light after it split and slowly has been using up any nutrient stores it had built up. Thats the only way I can explain why its got so many tentacles that are so short.

Over the past couple days it has expanded slightly and the oral disk is now just over the size of a quarter...

Personally Im still leaning more towards theory number 2 still...
 
When you compare it to the picture i had it doesnt look like a little BTA. But I think it is a BTA. Heres why. The biggest thing for me is the foot it looks alot like a BTA foot. Now the question is why so many tenticles. I think I agree with your 2nd proposal. If the anemone had been hidden long enough it wouldve shrunk up and shriveled up. If no lights had been getting to it and no food from the water column then it would look like this. If you could take it out and put it in a basket and start nursing it back to health I bet it the tenticles would lengthen up and then it might start looking like a BTA again.

Who really knows though only time well tell. just my 2 cents.
 
Mine never split like this... If it is a RBTA I would try Mysis as someone has already mentioned and I would leave it alone to mature. It will get a majority of the nutrients it needs from lighting. Your mature RBTA may have had an injured foot which caused a pre-mature splitting.
 
Zylski said:
When you compare it to the picture i had it doesnt look like a little BTA. But I think it is a BTA. Heres why. The biggest thing for me is the foot it looks alot like a BTA foot. Now the question is why so many tenticles. I think I agree with your 2nd proposal. If the anemone had been hidden long enough it wouldve shrunk up and shriveled up. If no lights had been getting to it and no food from the water column then it would look like this. If you could take it out and put it in a basket and start nursing it back to health I bet it the tenticles would lengthen up and then it might start looking like a BTA again.

Who really knows though only time well tell. just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

Ok, so the rock its on now can be easily moved. Would you just move into the basket on the rock or remove it from the rock and add it to the basket by itself ?

I was just looking at your other thread, what kind of basket is that and whered it come from? and how far from your lighting is it? Now for the feeding, what would you feed and how often? Ive feed mysis twice so far.

Thanks! I really appreciate the help!! :)
 
krazysvede said:
Ok, so the rock its on now can be easily moved. Would you just move into the basket on the rock or remove it from the rock and add it to the basket by itself ?

I was just looking at your other thread, what kind of basket is that and whered it come from? and how far from your lighting is it? Now for the feeding, what would you feed and how often? Ive feed mysis twice so far.

Thanks! I really appreciate the help!! :)
Click to expand...

This basket is made from mesh I bought at hobby lobb sewn together with fish line. It is about 15 inches from the light(250W 10k MH) at the top of the tank. My bigger normal size anemones i feed 2 to 3 times a week mysis, silversides, or other stuff if I have it on hand. I have not tried feeding the 3 tiny ones yet.

It could be put rock and all in the basket that way you dont damage the foot.
 
Thanks Zylski! I went and got some mesh from the hobby shop today and made a basket and moved the nem.

It seems to have acclimated to my T5s and is expanding a little more everyday. The mouth is nice and tight again now too though it still isn't as sticky as it should be and is still having issues holding food. However, its accepted a half single Mysis shrimp everyday since I found it. Ill post some pics tomorrow. It definantly seems like its on the road to recovery though I know Im probably not out of the woods yet...
 
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