Help... Need ideas for how to distribute corals around gigantic BTA...

[Newreeflady]

Man, this thing seems to be growing larger by the day!!! I have fed it twice and it has only been in the tank for 10 days. It found its spot the first night and hasn't moved, so I am pretty convinced it will dominate the top portion of the tank. I have a few sps corals that I mounted after a couple of days, but this guy has stretched two inches further than normal today and it is now time to move the sps frags. Here are a couple of shots of the tank:

Day 2:

Day 9 (today):

Homey the clownfish has not adopted the anemone as his home, although he continues to show interest and sometimes even swims through the tentacles, but doesn't seem to touch them.

Anyhow, now I am not sure what I can do to distribute the coral in the tank. I suspect that this guy is claiming the top portion of the tank, the portion that sps coral would also color up best in. Maybe I should consider going with more softies and lps instead of sps. I think for now I may move the sps that are near him over to the opposite side of his rock, but I hope that they will not ultimately be out-competed for space.

I do not want to get rid of the anemone. I think it is a cool creature and I still have hope that the clownfish will adopt it. I am also considering the addition of a second clownfish to the tank.

Thoughts on the coral re-re-distribution? Is there anything maybe in the lps family that people tend to keep near anemones that seem to hold their own?

Thanks,
Angela

 

[finding nemo]

Hi Angela, what have you been feeding your anemone?
From what I see, it has started to bleach from the first picture to the second.
It is becoming dull in color and white at the mouth section.

Your anemone needs meaty foods to survive and should be fed silversides or shrimp to keep growing and keep its zooanthella .
How big is the tank it's in?

 

[Newreeflady]

Hi there. It isn't white, that's for sure. I think it's a matter of it stretched out more so looks much lighter in color. When it is the size of the first pic, it is the same color. It looks very dark right now, for instance, since the light is off and it has retracted to under the rock. The mouth section has white lines radiating from it, from what I read this is normal.

I really don't think it is any more bleached than when it got here, the picture does wash it out a bit worse than it really looks. It was in someone's sump for about 6 months with very low light. This is why I put it at the bottom of my tank when I got it, but it went straight to the top. It is about 4-5" from the 70w halide lamp. LIke I said, it really depends on its size as to what color it looks, when it expands fully like the second picture it looks lighter, when it is half retracted like the first pic, well, it looks like that one. It seems to like to be fully expanded while the halide lamp is on, then it retracts later, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly... not terribly predictable.

I fed it one of the frozen food cube mixes twice, I fed it a whole silverside once, but had trouble with this due to the fire shrimp trying to get at it which is why I went back to the frozen food cube mix. Tank is described below my signature, 12g nanocube.

Do you think I should go back to silversides? Are you certain it is bleached, it has no spots of actual white on it (other than the lines which are normal.)

thanks,
-A

 

[finding nemo]

Really depends on how much the picture is off.
It is turning white from one picture to the next from what I can see.
Please see my web site for bleached anemones.
Silversides are best for them and you can keep the shrimp from stealing it by giving the shrimp a small piece of silverside before feeding the anemone, that will keep him busy.
Formula one is a good food for anemones and I feed them that ever few weeks. Just for something different, but my main food is silversides.
If the color is off in the photos and it isnt as white as it appears I would say he is ok.
But just going by the pictures that you posted for my opinion.
Pretty tank by the way.

 

[Newreeflady]

Hi again. I have read your entire site, didn't realize I was talking to THE Karen

I don't think it is bleached. I will, however, go ahead and switch back to silversides as the main food. The other was the formula 1 frozen blend.

Thank you for the compliment. I know that you have had success in keeping these beauties in mixed reefs, what is the coral you've had most luck with in close-ish proximity to the anem? I am going to have to move the sps from the top or add more rock maybe. What do you think? I like the open look, but now that the anemone has taken over i'm not sure if I should just ditch the sps and give up the top portion of the tank to the RBTA, or try to squeeze more rock in, etc.

Thanks again,
Angela

 

[sarai826]

Corals don't really do well in CLOSE proximity to any anemone...as it grows, they *will* get stung (my original 2 3-4" when expanded anemones are now 4, each in the neighborhood of 7" across). My solution has been a devoted "anemone garden" in my tank... it's about 1/3 of the tank, and doesn't have other corals except for a loose colony of blastos which will likely move in another few months given the current growth rate. Good luck!

 

[Newreeflady]

This is not a large tank. Any splits will be removed.

12 gallons.

No worries, i'll figure it out. I just thought maybe someone had some experience with placement.

Thanks, though.
-A

 

[finding nemo]

Newreef, anything that comes in contact with the anemone will shrivel to get away from it so keep anything from touching it.
I do have to say that I have had many corals, zoos, polps etc that have been living next to the anemones with no problems and they don't close, but in most tanks they will.
Just keep a watch on what does not do well being close to it and move them.

 

[Newreeflady]

I see, so it is pretty hit and miss, then. I will see if I can maybe mount some zoos up there. I know it'll probably fry the sps, right? I've got some sps in close proximity. During the day the anemone opens like in picture two, it folds up above the rock and mounts itself with some adhesive suction type stuff I suppose. Today it is about 3" from any sps, yesterday it was about 1 cm! I am not sure if changing the lamp position a little may have caused this so i'll have to keep watch. It may just be it gets good flow in either spot so it just sticks anywhere, lol!

Thanks again... off to feed a silverside I'll see if I can't get a better picture at some point. It is tough because during the day everything in the room gets washed out.
Angela

 

[SEAFLOWERS]

please be careful about the size of the silverside you feed it. They really don't need anything bigger than the size of their mouth;so cut it up before spot feeding.

 

[starseed]

I would also guess that it has bleached.

I got my rose about 9 days ago. I added it with perfect water conditions and of course a turbo died somewhere and caused an ammonia spike. I missed some of it becuase I didn't test my water until I saw my rose throw-up its alga.

Then I tested and saw no ammonia, but got a nitrite reading of .5 which I'm sure made him sick. My lights were very strong too and I think that stressed him out too.

He lookes just like yours, even sits in the same position, upside down, and slowly acclimating itself to the light. Part of the reason it is streching out so much is because of the bleaching.

I think both will be fine, I could tell mine had a hard time with shipping, and the nitrite spike is almost gone (.10) and my Nitrates are at 5.

I've been feeding mine homemade mix of shrimp, squid, oyster, clam, mussle, and fish everyday and will continue to do so until it get's its alga back.

Are silversides better than a homemade mix? I can give it a nice big ball that is already broken down and easy to eat.

 

[Newreeflady]

oops

 

[Newreeflady]

Well, I guess it's wait and see, i'm really no expert so can't confirm or deny that it is bleached. I haven't noticed a difference, but I see it every day so it's not easy for me to spot. It doesn't help that the camera isn't all that great for these types of pictures, so I can look at it and take a picture and the picture looks completely different.

I would think i fit were not liking the light it would hide instead of sprawling out to collect so much. The first couple of days it didn't come out much, but it is expanded full up to the light at this point, not hiding at all.

"please be careful about the size of the silverside you feed it. They really don't need anything bigger than the size of their mouth;so cut it up before spot feeding."

This would have been good to know before... it took the poor guy about an hour to eat the silverside. I will only feed it half or less next time.

I will keep you all updated. Here are a couple of pictures after lights out. The second one is a little better than the first, the first washed it out a little, the second looks more "true-to-life". I tried to darken the room a little, but I get a lot of light in here and it throws the camera off a bit i'm afraid.

 

[starseed]

That looks better. It still looks a little light and see through though - probably from being in a sump for 6 months.

 

[Newreeflady]

Yeah, that's my evaluation, too. I hope it will color more darkly soon. I will certainly keep an eye out for further lightening, and i'll be feeding smaller portions.

I am leaving town for 9 days in a couple of weeks so the anem won't be fed (I am just leaving an auto-feeder for the fish.) The guy I got him from said he never fed it or the parent so hopefully this will be ok.

Thanks,
Angela

 

[z_rivers]

I dont think your anemone looks bleached at all. RBTAs come in all different shades of colors, not always blood red. although they do like meaty foods (about 1cm x 1cm size) Formula 1 is fine to feed them. when they stretch and expand their color tends to fade a bit like yours. i wouldnt worry, it looks fine.

 

[Newreeflady]

Thank you, Aaron. That is very good to hear I will also be sure to make the fish pieces much smaller. Would you feed them a couple at a time, then, or just one small piece per feeding?

Angela

 

[dantodd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7380745#post7380745 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Newreeflady

I don't think it is bleached. I will, however, go ahead and switch back to silversides as the main food. The other was the formula 1 frozen blend.

I agree it doesn't look bleached to me either.

It will take the anemone some time to acclimate to the new tank (longer than 9 days) so the zoox colony may well change during that time. For example, if it is getting more light in your tank than in its previous home the zoox may make more food than the anemone can use and some may die off. If you put him in a place were there is simply inadequate light for the zoox to survive it will expell the entire colony.

Silverside is a great food for him but variety is best and switching between the silverside and formula1 is a very good idea. You can try all sorts of marine meats, scallops, shrimp, silverside, sand eels, squid. Give him just about anything he'll eat. Cut your silversides etc. up between the size of one half a cube to one cube of formula 1.

 

[Newreeflady]

You have all been so much help. I will do that with switching foods back and forth. I was going to feed every 3rd day, hopefully that works out. If anything, the anemone is getting much more light now than before, but is opening fully and seems to enjoy the light. I wonder how much it will change color... change or no change it is very cool.

Thanks,
Angela