Hot Pink Anemone!

[huskysglare1]

Is this anemone bleached or it's just like that? How rare is it? is it expensive?

I saw one at the LFS and they want 90 bucks for it. pretty small about 2"

 

[giambi4343]

if it was bleached than it would be white...

 

[jayinh]

wow thats beatiful

 

[Salamander]

Looks bleached to me.

 

[jenglish]

It could be a Rose BTA starting to lose color, some color morph or it could be dyed. I'm no nem expert.

 

[noahm]

Looks like it has been under lit for a while. Most red nems will get that pinkish look when they are kept too dark. My guess is it would get red/orange-red in the right light

 

[mdrc]

pink looks to vibrant to me to be loosing color, ive seen rbt loose color and its a very translucent, look at some of the tips there solid pink and a very strong pink at that, ive seen some at online stores and they all look about the same, so its one big coincedence that a bunch of stores have anemones that are loosing there color and look the exact same or its the real deal, my vote yes real deal....if i could find one id buy it

 

[SlukBunWalla]

It's not entirely bleached but it's on it's way. Pastel anything is not a color of a healthy anemone. Green btas can look flourescent green when they bleach too.

What you saw at the store is a bleaching RBTA, and at $90 it's an expensive one.

 

[Toddrtrex]

It is either recovering or starting to bleach. If you look closely at the actual bubble tips you can see parts of the pigment. However, there is no other color, which, IMO, indicates that it doesn't have a full complement of zoax. (( symbiotic algae that provides the anemone will a good amount of its "food" )).

 

[suta4242]

We don't get dyed corals here, so I can't comment on that. But I have seen a couple of bleached RBTAs... and they're all varying shades of hot pink.

good luck

 

[huskysglare1]

So, that is a bleached RBTA suta?

 

[FiReBReTHa]

I tried to get this pic to be as actual as possible.

my RBTA started like this under the actinic/MH pg 14k

Then I had to swap lights and put it under a 250w 10k for a month or so. it was starting to bubble up again and then looked like this, (I actually put it back under the 14kactinic setup in the 120g)

 

[Santoki]

Looks perfectly fine to me.
Most people have phosphate and nitrate levels far higher than in the ocean, hence darker anemones.
To say darker is the norm is like saying long stringy tentacles is the norm compared to bubbling tips, since most btas lose their bubble tips after a while in captivity.
$90 is about the going rate for a "rose" at most LFS (in my area), however, I would not make the purchase if it was wild collected. These anemones tend to clone themselves quite readily and can usually be found through your local reef club for much less.

 

[huskysglare1]

yup, that does looks like the anemone i saw at the fish store!

 

[Toddrtrex]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15335579#post15335579 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Santoki
Looks perfectly fine to me.
Most people have phosphate and nitrate levels far higher than in the ocean, hence darker anemones.
To say darker is the norm is like saying long stringy tentacles is the norm compared to bubbling tips, since most btas lose their bubble tips after a while in captivity.
$90 is about the going rate for a "rose" at most LFS (in my area), however, I would not make the purchase if it was wild collected. These anemones tend to clone themselves quite readily and can usually be found through your local reef club for much less.

This is the first I have heard about higher levels of phosphates and nitrates causing darking anemones. My dark blue Haddoni, in my 58 which has zeros for phosphates and 'trates would beg to differ about that.

I am going to stick with saying that that BTA isn't perfectly healthy, sure I have seen worse, but the one in the first post isn't what I would use as an example of a fully healthy anemone.

 

[fishgeek12]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15334216#post15334216 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SlukBunWalla
It's not entirely bleached but it's on it's way. Pastel anything is not a color of a healthy anemone. Green btas can look flourescent green when they bleach too.

What you saw at the store is a bleaching RBTA, and at $90 it's an expensive one.

^^agreed... it is definitely slightly bleached. Under the right conditions it would color back up....

 

[Santoki]

P & N are fertilizers for algae, including zooxanthellae. Just like limiting nutrients to lighten coral colors, the same general principle applies for anemones as well. I don't know about your Haddoni, but the BTAs I see when diving on the reefs are quite pale when compared with the average captive specimen.
Also, because your phosphate test does not turn up any phosphate, does not mean you have none. Phosphates as well as nitrates are almost used up immediately as they are released into the water column. Anemones also take up much lighter shades when kept under extremely powerful lighting, as it needs less zooxanthellae to produce the food it needs.
Perhaps there is a difference in the interpretation of "bleached". To me, an animal is bleached if it has lost all its' zooxanthellae and pigment. Something which the top picture does not show imo.

 

[Toddrtrex]

By looking at the algae (( or lack there of )) I know that I don't have phosphate/nitrate issues in my tank -- am aware that test kits aren't always accurate for that.

It is my understanding that under more intense lighting (( assuming not a sudden increase )) that the anemones would actually be darker, due to the increase in pigment (( which gives them their main color )) which would shade the Zoox. Also Zoox tend to be shades of brown. I know that for the first 3-6 months that I had the blue Haddoni it was under 6*65 PCs (( standard 75 gallon tank )) and it was lighter in color. However, when I went to MH (( 2*250 + 2*54 T5 )) it became a lot darker blue. After it had been acclimated to the increase in light.

I didn't say that they anemone pictured was fully bleached. Stated that it was either starting too bleach, or recovering from being bleached.

 

[downhillbiker]

I have owned both RBTA anemone and BPBTA anemones. There are true pink ones, but you never know. I bought one as a pink that actually stayed pink for over a year now.

 

[Dejavu]

Well I can't say if that one is bleached or not, but I have seen pink BT's before. In fact quite a few. Most come in wild and need so time to adjust, but they will stay pink.

My LFS has one in there display that has held it's pink color for a few years now. I will see if I can get pics of it.