Do I have a ritteri? Sorry no pic :( but descript

Lance M.

New member
Is it easy to mistake a stressed ritteri for a bta?

I run carbon and weekly pwc. The water movement is actually pretty good ~45x total turnover and the lta's are so small I don't worry about it- one is 3'' fully expanded, the other is <.75'' fully expanded and a p.i.t.a. to keep from blowing away.

Hopefully it's just a purple bta... The tentacles are blunt and have solid white tips (like it was dipped in white paint) and the tentacles/oral disc are purplish/brown. The base is a pink color and there are no visible verrucae. The area between where the tentacles start and the verracue should be is smooth (idk if this helps but it does look different when comparing it to the gbta). Now it's postioned halfway in the tank (20 gallon w/ 130watt pc) underneath a flat rock stretching out (it's attached upside down then turns sideways for the light).

I was thinking if it where a ritteri it would seek out the highest point since my rocks go up to about 3'' underneath the surface of the water it could be directly underneath the surface of the water in the light if it wanted to. It hasn't moved (maybe an inch or two) from the place I originally put it a little more then two months ago. It has colored up nicely, it was bleached when I got it but when I saw it I new it would be better off with me then slowly dying at the lfs.

I feed it every 2-3 days a whole silverside. It started off not eating when I got it but now it takes it just as fast as my gbta. In about 10-15 seconds the silverside is completely gone.

Yesterday I took out half the rocks in my tank to find the little half inch lta I have and I had to take the nem out of the tank. I noticed when it was in the bucket and when I put it back in the tank it bulged up and looked like a big egg. From googling ritteri images it looks exactly like some of the pictures, looks like a big pink egg with tentacles coming out of the top.

And the first day I put it in the tank my Ocellaris started hosting it but I don't know if they where doing it just because it was another nem (they have been hosting the gbta) or because it is their natural host. They go back and forth now but the female seems to stay in there most of the time and the male goes between the two nems.

I can't get a pic because I don't have a camera.
 
Without a pic, I can't tell you Lance. The " attached upside down" description sounds more like a BTA, but again a pic would make ID so much easier. Maybe you could borrow a digital camera real quick from somebody.
 
Re: Do I have a ritteri? Sorry no pic :( but descript

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11368580#post11368580 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lance M.
.....underneath a flat rock stretching out (it's attached upside down then turns sideways for the light).
fwiw: None of my magnificas have ever attached to a rock's underside. Many of my BTAs attach and act in such a manner. None of the information provided in the post here or on the other thread eliminate BTA.
 
Ok I've been looking at some more pictures and looking at my nem and I guess it's just a purplish brown bta with white tips. It looks pretty much exactly the same as the H. Magnifica they have in Diver's Den on LA but without the green hue and the tentacles aren't that dense.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?ddid=32277&siteid=20

Yup 20 gallon nano tank with
6'' gbta- 15 months
5'' bta (this is the nem in question)- 3 months
3'' lta- 3 months
.5'' lta.- 2 days

And corals.
 
Divers den picture is not a good picture to use as an H. magnifica baseline.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11369284#post11369284 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lance M.
Yup 20 gallon nano tank with
6'' gbta- 15 months
5'' bta (this is the nem in question)- 3 months
3'' lta- 3 months
.5'' lta.- 2 days
.5" LTA? Call me a sceptic.
 
I just took a tape measurer to it. It's under 1'' fully expanded. I got it from my lfs. They buy nems and then people don't buy them so the nems sit in a sub par environment and slowly wither away and die. I'm sure this nem was bigger when they first got it but because their lighting sucks and they don't feed the nems anything it just got smaller and smaller. It is definitely a lta. Looks like a miniature one of the other one and I can see the verracuae.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11369527#post11369527 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lance M.
Looks like a miniature one of the other one and I can see the verracuae.
White or colored verrucae? fwiw: There are some hitch hikers with verrucae as well. Post a picture :>)
 
Hi Lance,

If the anemone is attached under a rock, it is almost certainly a BTA.

As for you other observations:

BTAs will ball up like magnificas at times. When I feed cyclop-eeze both my BTAs look like balled up mags.

IME, once an ocellaris accepts a BTA as a host they will accept any BTA put in the tank within seconds.
 
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