RBTA help please

[firsttimereefer]

About three months ago I purchased a rbta that was about 7 inches across when open. Everything looked really good for about a month and then I had a seem break in my tank I moved all livestock to my dads tank until I purchased another tank. When I set the new tank up and moved everything back the rbta had turned brown and the tentacles are now really short and not sticky at all. It will eat if I hold a little bit of food to its mouth. The mouth is always closed but it does deflate and empty out about once or twice a week.
Any suggestion on what I should do or why the tentacles are so short and the color is turned brown

 

[TDesaulniers]

About three months ago I purchased a rbta that was about 7 inches across when open. Everything looked really good for about a month and then I had a seem break in my tank I moved all livestock to my dads tank until I purchased another tank. When I set the new tank up and moved everything back the rbta had turned brown and the tentacles are now really short and not sticky at all. It will eat if I hold a little bit of food to its mouth. The mouth is always closed but it does deflate and empty out about once or twice a week.
Any suggestion on what I should do or why the tentacles are so short and the color is turned brown

Well right off the bat I can tell you the moves alone is causing it a lot of stress. I have had similar instances in the past with my E. Quadricolor where they shrink in size, lose color (zooxanthellae algae) and tentacle size. Now, you said you moved it back into a tank you just set up or did you move the BTA back into a tank you upgraded into?

 

[firsttimereefer]

I guess i would say I upgraded. When my old tank failed I bought another and used new dry sand and my live rock and all equipment from the old tank I knew the tank would probably cycle so I let it set for one week untill I was sure that all water parameters were stable I then moved all livestock to the new tank and the nem hasn't been the same since
I should also add that I just upgraded to two 250 Watt hqi's from t5

 

[TDesaulniers]

I doubt the lighting had much to do with it because a healthy anemone would move further down until it found indirect light it preferred. This sounds like a water chemistry issue at hand and even though you added some of your previous liverock to the new tank, your tank probably still went through a cycle which means your anemone was exposed to traces of ammonia in your tank. Start doing water changes and run fresh carbon. Also, if you don't have them, buy some test kits and start testing your water. Sometimes getting back to the basics allows you to easily trace what is wrong.

 

[firsttimereefer]

I do test probably not as frequently as I should but I did wait until the ammonia spike was over in the new tank
And I know that rbta prefer a salinity of 1.026 but I have always kept mine around 1.020 could this be causing the problem

 

[TDesaulniers]

Why would you keep it at 1.020 if you know it should be kept higher? You should raise the salinity gradually until it hits 1.026. Don't raise it all at once because that can cause even more stress on the animals in the tank.

 

[firsttimereefer]

I started raising the salinity and to answer your question I kept my salinity low because the tank the nem came out of was the same and like I said before it looked really good until the tank failure so what can I do to get the tentacles to grow back out

 

[bradleym]

I started raising the salinity and to answer your question I kept my salinity low because the tank the nem came out of was the same and like I said before it looked really good until the tank failure so what can I do to get the tentacles to grow back out

3 things are almost a cure-all for BTAs.

1. Good, clean, stable water parameters.
2. Good, strong, 10,000K lighting.
3. Regular feeding every 2-3 days with small pieces of meaty foods.

If your anemone was white or clear, I would strike #2 as it would be too much light, but since it's brown it should have plenty of zooxanthellae for processing light.

The reason it's tentacles are short and lacking color is because, at some point, it didn't get enough of #2 or #3 and it started absorbing itself as a food source. This can also happen if it was hiding under a rock or something for a few weeks. With good light and good food it will regrow them.

 

[firsttimereefer]

Thank you for the good advice I will try the above recommendations and see what happens

 

[Supernova26]

Is probably still stressed from the move. Give it some time. Also pretty soon it may start to go for a walkabout in the new tank. If you have any powerheads cover them with some mesh.

 

[firsttimereefer]

Thanks for the help guys really appreciate it been keeping a tank for a wile and thought that I was ready for an anemone but I still think if the tank wouldn't have broke it would still be doing good and I covered my power heads after reading this. Anymore helpful tricks would be great I hope I can bring this back because I really like it

 

[PAStreetGlide]

Very helpful posts! Thanks