How fast do rbta's grow?

[Magga Pie]

I just aquired a small 2 inch rbta from someone that was selling it. I put in into my tank and it quickly attached its foot to a rock and opened up nicely with bright red colors.

I feed it small mysis and brine shrimp. The anemone is in a 20g L with 2*65 watt pc. My question is how long on average before I start to see any growth?

 

[poolkeeper1]

Growth will depend on several things, including how much you feed it . Along with light and water quality being some others.

 

[Magga Pie]

Ok thanks. So how often should I feed it 3 times a week?

 

[ocellaris123]

i feed my rose 3-4 times a week and my green bubble 2 a week. My rose has put on some size due to those heavy feedings.

 

[fishoutawater]

Can you overfeed? Will an anemone eat too much, or will it just stop taking food? I am new to nem's and have been feeding a very small (2") bta very small pieces of raw shrimp once and sometimes 2x per day. So far, after two weeks it has stayed put and continues to take food and usually looks very full. Hope I'm not jacking the thread but it seems to tie in to op's question.

 

[Magga Pie]

fishoutawater no problem I would like to know the answer as well

 

[ocellaris123]

Well when i first got my green bubble anemone i would feed daily. This would cause him to expel and deflate daily also so i cut back to twice a week for him. IME if the anemone is not hungry he will not digest the food and may not even take it in to his mouth.

 

[1320wrx]

From what I've heard can overfeed any type of anemone. It can hold in its mouth for a period of time till it digests other food. If it holds it long enough it could start to rot, giving off ammonia, which can kill it.

Dont know if its 100% true but I feed once per week to be safe

 

[zaraemna]

I had one that went from about two inches across to about six inches across in about two months. I think they grow pretty fast if you feed them.

 

[walmart]

Whats the hurry? There is no reason to feed an anemone 2 times a day. Its a waste of money. Anemones already grow fast, if you feed it more than it needs it will quickly outgrow your tank, and not properly digest all of the nutrients. Also, it being in a small tank, you will run into nutrient problems.

If I were you I would sell that anemone, or don't feed it all. Or in six months it will be to big and probably die.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

my toonie sized GBTA has grown to about 7-8" in about 6 months...

i only feed him once sometimes twice a week, sometimes once every two weeks..it wont take long if your water quality and lighting are up to PAR....

 

[davocean]

You can definitely overfeed, and that would induce splitting.
Really, light is main source of energy for nems, you could not feed at all, in fact I read that Melev stopped spot just to keep from having too fast growth.
That nem may outgrow that 20g very soon.(hope intakes are covered)
I wouldn't feed more than once a week.

 

[Ninong]

They should be fed twice a week to meet their nutritional needs adequately. They naturally grow quite fast. You could very well have more than one in a year or so.

A friend of mine put a little RBTA in his 110-gal reef tank about six years ago. It has cloned itself quite a few times since then. It overtook everything in his tank about four years after it was introduced. In the past six years, it has produced about a hundred clones. He removes them on a regular basis but it's hard to keep up when you have three dozen or more in the tank all cloning themselves.

This is what his 110-gal tank looks like today:

 

[davocean]

That YT could very easily be one expensive snack!LOL

 

[Ninong]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14395091#post14395091 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by davocean
That YT could very easily be one expensive snack!LOL

That's what I keep telling him but he says it's doing fine in there.

 

[garygb]

That looks like clownfish heaven Ninong.

 

[davocean]

It is pretty, wouldn't mind seeing more pics.

 

[Ninong]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14395700#post14395700 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by davocean
It is pretty, wouldn't mind seeing more pics.

Okay, I'll post a few more pics just to show what a single tiny RBTA can turn into in only five or six years. Remember, this is not my tank, it's my friend's 110-gal tank. As the anemone began taking over more and more space in his tank, he moved his corals to a 75-gal reef tank. That first pic that I posted was actually from almost a year ago, so it's not exactly current. It's a good representation of what the tank looks like today because the anemones are climbing all the walls, so he has to remove them constantly.

Wall-to-wall RBTA. If you look carefully, you will see a few bubble tips in the middle of the pic.

This pic is from more than two years ago, less than four years after adding a single tiny RBTA to his tank.

This pic is from 2-1/2 years ago, approx. 3-1/2 years after adding one tiny RBTA.

This pic is from four years and two months ago, just a couple of years after adding one tiny RBTA to his tank. So the answer to the question that is the topic of this thread, "How fast can an RBTA grow?" Pretty fast!

This is the 75-gal tank that he had to move all of his corals to so that the anemone would not swallow them up. It took less than three years for one little tiny RBTA to eat his entire 110-gal tanik!

P.S. -- Now I have to go tell him that I have been posting his pics over here. :rollface:

 

[Ninong]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14391949#post14391949 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zaraemna
I had one that went from about two inches across to about six inches across in about two months. I think they grow pretty fast if you feed them.

Yes, they do!



P.S. -- I think they should be fed twice a week. Three times a week max. Just because they grow doesn't mean you shouldn't feed them but anything more than three times a week is really overdoing it.

 

[davocean]

Wow, that's awesome!