Anenome Dyed?

[travis32]

I was just reading through the Guide on Anenomes on this forum as I picked up a beautiful and very healthy looking RBTA last weekend from the LFS.

It's the best LFS I have in my city and they definately put special effort into their employees knowledge of SW species. It's not perfect, but then is any LFS.

Anyways, I picked up the RBTA because it looked very healthy, It was bright red, and looked great overall. I acclimated it and placed in my tank within 20 minutes, and it appears to be doing great. In around a week the last week or so, it has been roaming my tank and last night today it seems to have found a spot. (it hasn't moved in the last 12 hours or so.)

It's bulbs are inflated and it appears to be doing well. I will try feeding today, I wasn't sure how to feed it. I have been feeding reef chili, and it has plenty of light (250W of MH on the side of the tank it's on, plus 2 VHOs for actinics.)

I'll try feeding it today some small pieces of freeze dried krill I have.

My question is as the title states, how do I know if it's been dyed? It's a beautiful brick red in color. No fading or paling or anything like that. The tips seem lighter than the center of it's bulbs.

Is there a more concrete way to see if it's been "painted or dyed". I was concerned that brightly colored anenomes may be painted. Mine is a very solid red not pink in color.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Anemone]

Um, a picture would be much more helpful than a verbal description.

Kevin

 

[bradleym]

^ Agreed

Usually, A dyed anemone has to be "bleached" first, so they tend to look pale or transparent in places with no color. A healthy anemone will have a dark brown/purple color under it's main color(in your case, the brick red).

*Edit* A healthy anemone sometimes can look "painted" because the color on the tentacles is only on the surface.

 

[fairywolf32]

Picture of Anenome

Picture of Anenome

I'm travis32's wife and had a picture handy to post, hopefully it works as this is my first time posting here (I tend to lurk as my husband does all the main work for the saltwater aquarium and I tend to pick out the corals and fish).

 

[bradleym]

Hmm. Yep it looks natural to me. Is that a crab? Awesome!

 

[fairywolf32]

Yes that is an anenome crab that hitchhiked on the anenome we bought, didn't see it until after we got home and had the anenome all acclimated and such.

 

[fairywolf32]

Also I just realized I have been spelling Anemone wrong LOL.

 

[Johndoe0336]

That nem has really nice color to it. Have you had it split yet?

 

[fairywolf32]

No, we just bought it last week. I am unsure of how long it will take for it to split or if/when our two ocellaris clowns will host it, right now they have been avoiding it like the plague.

 

[Mr.Exotic]

Thats not died, I have a neon green beautiful DYED anemone. Usually if to tell a anemone if its dyed or not you will see white color fading on the Nem but your's is not Dyed, If its dyed then it wouldnt be that red in a week. Anyways my Nem is neon green DYED. I had it for over a year now and its still the same color and i didn't expected it be this long.

 

[travis32]

Awesome thanks for the info. Yes, the crab is awesome. He hasn't left the anemone since we got it.

I just saw today that the crab molted. There's a crab skeleton laying on the sand, but the crab is still alive.... So, it molsted in a week. Probably due to acclimation.

And yes, it's a beautiful anemone! I love it! The LFS had 2 the exact same colors and almost same size.

I fed it tonight. Not sure how it like the krill, but I placed some brin / mysis shrimp on him and he readily took it to his mouth. So, he liked that.

How often do you feed them to keep them healthy?

 

[bradleym]

Thats not died, I have a neon green beautiful DYED anemone. Usually if to tell a anemone if its dyed or not you will see white color fading on the Nem but your's is not Dyed, If its dyed then it wouldnt be that red in a week. Anyways my Nem is neon green DYED. I had it for over a year now and its still the same color and i didn't expected it be this long.

If the green hasn't faded and only the white has faded it may only be bleached, and not dyed. I have seen several neon green BTAs that were very healthy.

 

[Toddrtrex]

While there are going to be exceptions, the vast majority of dyed anemones are going to be an H. Crispa, and that is usually yellow (( though pink does happen once in a blue moon )).

 

[Johndoe0336]

No, we just bought it last week. I am unsure of how long it will take for it to split or if/when our two ocellaris clowns will host it, right now they have been avoiding it like the plague.

After I bought my nem my clowns would bounce between the nem and torch now they like the nem better it touch a few months but now i cant put my hand in the tank without my male biting it. My RBTA split with in a the first few months i had it. It has been two months sence the last split and it is starting to split again. I feed it squid a few time a week.