RBTA color

[shifty51008]

I was just wondering how I can get my RBTA's to get the nice dark red color, ever sence I got mine from DD over a year ago they have never gotten the dark red color like I have seen in some others.

ammonia, nitrite, po4 - 0
nitrate 5-10ppm
cal, 440
alk, 10dkh
mag, 1350

I feed them maybe once a week with scallops plus what ever they catch when feeding the fish.

it did split about 6 months ago.

they look healthy all except they look bleached compaired to some others I have seen.

I run 2 - 250 watt reeflux 12k bulbs and 2 110 watt super atanic for lights and all bulbs are 5 months old

TIA

 

[dc]

Maybe they never will. There are so many variations of colors. Mine are kind of brown and one has pink tips. The person who gave them to me said he bought them as RBTA, but cleary they are not.

Feeding more might help.

 

[shifty51008]

thanks for the heads up, I guess I never really thought about the diffrent variations of colors. to me it just looked like a bleached RBTA that has never gained or lost color lol

I will try to up the feeding to twice a week and see if that help any.

 

[rbirling]

FWIW, liveaquaria.com says this:

In order for the Rose Bubble Tip Anemone to keep its bright coloration and bulb tips, it needs strong illumination supplied by metal halides, or intense florescent lighting of at least 6 watts per gallon.​

A lot of good info here, too:

http://www.karensroseanemones.net/

I might try feeding more colorful foods to see if that could help?

 

[Straight_Chaos]

I had a few RBTA in a Biocube and they bleached out and adjusted to the light. Was it darker when you bought it? Did yours expel any zooxanthellae? If it did then it does not receive enough light to support so much zoox. Otherwise it is just a color morph. Much like a Rose bubble tip. Mine are more burgundy than anything

 

[shifty51008]

FWIW, liveaquaria.com says this:

In order for the Rose Bubble Tip Anemone to keep its bright coloration and bulb tips, it needs strong illumination supplied by metal halides, or intense florescent lighting of at least 6 watts per gallon.​

A lot of good info here, too:

http://www.karensroseanemones.net/

I might try feeding more colorful foods to see if that could help?

well just in my MH's I have 6.6 watts per gal. so I am sure it is plenty.

I will read the article later, Thanks though.

 

[shifty51008]

I had a few RBTA in a Biocube and they bleached out and adjusted to the light. Was it darker when you bought it? Did yours expel any zooxanthellae? If it did then it does not receive enough light to support so much zoox. Otherwise it is just a color morph. Much like a Rose bubble tip. Mine are more burgundy than anything

I will look to see if I have an older pic of when I got it, I know when I got it, that it did have some green mixed in with it which is now gone. I don't think it has lost much color though except for the green.

 

[shifty51008]

here it is when I got it before

 

[Straight_Chaos]

Maybe was dye a little befor you got it? Its hard to tell. How long do you run the MH daily?
The tips of tentacles do look a bit darker than the oral disks. how are they from the light?

 

[sparky45]

It does look bleached. You have 720 Watts of light on your 75? If so that's like 9.6 ways per gal

 

[shifty51008]

Yeah, if you include the actinics then i have that much.

I would say it is about 8" under the surface of the tank and the lights are 10 above the tank.

 

[Straight_Chaos]

IDK what to tell you bro! they look a bit bleached but you have plenty of light. FEED THEM SHRIMP. like table shrimp, gulf shrimp etc. I fed my bleached nems will still in the Biocube with inadequate lighting and the tips became very colorful and they regained some color. Try that as I am puzzled. I would say maybe trace elements like iodine but you have a healthy reef so I'm lost. Hopefully someone will help you out. TY

 

[shifty51008]

Thanks for the help, I think as of now I am gonna try to feed a little more and see if that helps. I will switch off and on between shrimp, scallops, and maybe silversides (not sure I wanna try the silversides though the way people are talking).

 

[seamonkey84]

very bright light will make them lighter colored, even if they are truely healthy and not bleached. I've seen that in several nems and lots of corals, where one clone/frag is in a dimmer area and the colors are more intense than the ones under full lights. I even have a plate coral that is half shaded by Xenia colony above it, the half out in the light is a very light but almost neon green, where the part shaded is a deep green.

 

[shifty51008]

Wow i never thought about having to much light, i always figured my lights would never come close to being as bright as the sun. I will deff. keep that in mind. Thanks