My anemone moved...

[KillerReef]

Fri, my RBTA moved from where it had been for the past month prior. I thought it was doing better, it was feeding well, silversides every other day, and was reaching for the lights. It is hosted by my pair of black ocellaris. Well, friday, after lights out, it moved to under the cave right next to its spot. It moved to the opening in the back where it could still get light and flow, so I wasn't too concerned at that time. Well, Saturday night it moved back to a spot in the cave where it now gets very little flow and no lights. I has not opened completely since and is definitely gaping. What should I do?

Should I move it to above the cave where it will get lots of light? Or should I just leave it a couple more days and keep a close eye on it?

tank params:
no3 20
po4 .5
sg 1.026
ph 7.8
calc 400
alk 8


thanks, dave

 

[David Jr.]

Hi dave,
My RBTA did the same thing a while back. It could be one of your params. (My problem was alkalinity-low :hmm3: But yours look fine. Hopefully its dividing, they hide when they do that. I would keep a very close eye on it, and I would like to hear what happens!

 

[KillerReef]

thanks David for the reply...

it has since moved to the hole in the back to get some light, but he is starting to look a bit bleached and definitely not good. I think I'm going to leave him be, I keep thinking he may be moving toward the top to get to the light, but he never finishes the journey.

I think my lighting may be a bit weak, but not sure, any experts want to chime in, I'm all ears. I do plan to upgrade in January to a galaxy electronic ballast and 25w 20k, either XM or Radium, not 100% sure yet...

Unfortunately where he is now, I cannot hand feed him with the silversides like before, so hopefully his clowns will help in that area.

 

[lkc]

The same thing happened to my nem and it almost died. I stupidly let it stay down in this arc close to the sand and it started to die. After a month of watching it lanquish, it took me ten minutes to pry it out of there. I put it into a different tank and it slowly recovered over time. People say to let them go where they want, but they don't always know what's good for them.

One thing to watch out for are "anemone traps" in your rockwork. These tend to be caves and arcs near the sand where the anemones tend to end up and but are not well suited for them. These formations seem to be easy for the anemone to get into but hard to get out of. They are hard to predict ahead of time but over time, if you see your anemones ending up in these frequently but not attaching, consider rearranging the rockwork to eliminate the trap.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

If you can get a powerhead to aim directly at it, it will move for you. I had to do this with my rbta once when it went down into my rockwork. It didn't take long for it to start moving once the powerhead was blowing on it.

 

[KillerReef]

thanks for the suggestions, yesterday it had moved so it could extend out the whole in the back. It is now in a spot where I can no longer hand feed it but it least it looked like it was getting some light and flow. I'll keep an eye on it and try the powerhead thing if he doesn't come out again...