RBTA Burst - Any Ideas??? At A Complete Lost

[tanglovers]

Hi All,

Well I recently purchased two large RBTA clones from a fellow reefer. First time dealings but have heard tons of good things about him and I would consider him a very reliable source. These RBTA were splits that the anemone went under naturally - not manual slicing. The fellow reefer got the original mother RBTA I think about 4 years ago - been quite a while ago.

I added these RBTAs to our system after a 2.5 or so hour drip acclimation bringing the total water volume to four times the original. My system is around 300 gallons or so and full SPS, I added the to a side tank off this system that was going to be dedicated to the anemones. Our system parameters are:

Temp - 79
Salinity - 1.026
PO4 - 0.03 Hanna
Nitrate - 2 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Ammonia - <0.25 ppm
pH - 8.2
kH - 9.5
Calcium - 450
Magnesium - 1350

All these tests were done with Salifert except the PO4 this was done with a Hanna Colorimeter. System parameters are rock solid and have been for months.

I added the roses Sunday afternoon and they did very well, footed down relatively quickly and only did small movements nothing excessive. They expanded very nice. I did not feed them as I wanted them to settle in for 4-6 days before offering any food. I have a pair of pink skunk clowns in the system who quickly took to hosting in them. They use to host in a sebae anemone about 1/2 the size of the smaller rose (7 or so inches across) but got rid of this anemone a while ago to make more room in the display for corals.

Anyhow, checked all the tanks today around 8:30 am, everything was great, went to work came home around 1:30 pm to find pieces of the roses everywhere. The two feet (what was left) were not sticky at all and had the white guts and brown film coming out of them. Each was maybe 2-3" across (if that) - these were a 7" and 10" (roughly) RBTAs. I instantly got into emergency mode as there are thousands of dollars of corals in the tank and we all know how finicky SPS are. I turned off all the pumps in the system and started siphoning out as many of the pieces as I could and cleaned all the pump intakes and overflow screens of pieces. I changed about 15% water volume (always have water change water on hand mixed to temp and salinity) and changed my carbon and poly filters. I also set my skimmer to skim a little wetter then normal.

The equipment on the rose tank: 4x54w T5 Icecap retrofit kit. NO POWERHEADS - the pump that feeds this tank goes into a manifold with 4 returns into the anemone tank.

Now any ideas what could have transpired? The wierd part is there is a third RBTA in the system - in my fuge. This anemone is from a different source and is completely uneffected. The only ones bothered were the two I just got who were side by side. I did take pics of the foot/remains of one of the RBTA that I will be posting shortly.

I am at a complete lost not to mention heartbroken to have lost two gorgeous RBTA and put my system through quite a shock I am sure.

The system is about 3.5 years old, was moved last July and has been rock solid stable since December (has had SPS corals in it the whole time since the move). No cleanup crew of anything else in the anemone tank just a shallow sand bed, LR (about 30 lbs - fully cured from system), the two RBTAs (now RIP) and a pair of pink skunks. The anemone tank is a 40long glass tank.

I appologise if this post is not completely organized and well thought out I just have all kinds of things going through my mind to try and figure out what happened. I want to get more but obviously am not going to consider it for a while to see what happens and see if this creates a cycle in the system or what.

Have water being made up for another water change if need be.

Scott

 

[OrionN]

I think your aneomes got chew up by the pump. They craw around and got suck down the overflow. I think that is the only explaination that make sense. After division, BTA often roam around, or flow around to another spot. Likely this was what they did.

 

[tanglovers]

My overflow has grating material over it that is about 3/8". Also the remains I found (foot etc) was still in the tank that originally housed them. Pieces of RBTA were on pump intakes but not anything very large.

 

[tanglovers]

Here is a quick pic of one of the remains. What concerns me is the brown film - this can't be normal is it?

 

[GSMguy]

it looks like it went into a pump to me

 

[tanglovers]

How do you guys have your overflows set up for this then? I guess I thought I had them safe. The anemone system has two 1" standpipes, at the top I placed a 1" coupling with a piece of egg crate in the top to keep small fish from going down the overflow.

How likely is it that both of these anemones unattached themselves, went down the overflow and through the skimmer and return pump (the same one for the anemone tank - not the 4 other return pumps). I run 5 Eheim 1262 pumps on my system and the intake screening is quite small (1/8-1/4" slots).

Not saying you guys are wrong this just seems like a very unlikely scenario IMO but this is why I posted to get to the bottom if this.

 

[Jovreefer]

any powerheads in the tank its self?

 

[MarinaP]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12483321#post12483321 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tanglovers
What concerns me is the brown film - this can't be normal is it?

Nope, that brown stuff does not look right. Can you take a clear pic?

So, you only have 2 fish in the tank, right?

 

[tanglovers]

No powerheads at all in the tank, only return nozzles. No intakes or heaters.

I will try to get a clearer pic of it.

Yes only two fish are the pink skunks. No cleanup crew or anything.

I am just confused about it.

 

[tanglovers]

Here are a couple better shots:

Maybe this will help shed a little light on the topic. Like I said very confused about it all.

 

[crjennin]

1/8"-1/4" slots are certainly enough for them to go through... One of mine was partially sucked into a MaxiJet with the tube screen covering the intake. The slots on that are less then 1/16"

I'm wondering if they went on a walk and got caught in the overflow and the current tore them in half and the part in your picture is a portion on the tank side of the overflow.


Calvin

 

[tanglovers]

Overflow flow is around 300-350 gph over each overflow so not real signficant.

I do have the remains in tank water but it is very foul smelling so I am thinking both are complete losses but I will keep my fingers crossed. A freind of mine had a sebae go through a SEIO once and survived.

How do you guys have overflows set up to keep them from going over if they become aggitated while you are away?

 

[Smo]

My guess would be the skunks.

The RBTA's were new and needed time to acclimate to a different system (i.e. - lights, salinity trace elements, etc, etc). During this acclimation phase of a week or more, it's best not to disturb them or have them host too soon.
Send in the clowns, I mean skunks, maybe pink skunks and let them play and wiggle in these new nems. The RBTA's get irritated and detach, become free floating in the water.

Then.........whoosh.........through the intakes they go. All they need is a little bit of them to get sucked into a grate or powerhead and then they go with the flow. Shrinking in size to fit through this new obstacle.

My $0.02 worth.

 

[Jovreefer]

Ew, I could smell it from here with those last pictures! If it smells take it out of the tank, its dead & will only foul the water more.

 

[WDLV]

The brown stuff looks like mine did when it went through my closed loop. The good news is that I got two out of the deal. Try letting it sit in a collander until it heals. It may actually live. Captive raised RBTAs are very tough.

 

[1GoldClown]

You have an anenome-monster in your tank !!!!!!