RBTA - need help!

K

kilroy217

Member
So, I'm the guy who got the RBTA in the auction on Friday. I floated the bag for temperature acclimation for about a half hour, and then drip acclimated for about an hour after getting home on Friday night. I put the little guy in the tank, he grabbed onto the rock, and I shut the tank lights and went to bed. Since then, it has not opened up, extended its tentacles, etc. On Sunday, it crawled behind the rock it was sitting on. Now, it seems to be shrivelling up in the same spot, behind/underneath the rock.

What can I do? What did I/am I doing wrong?

Thanks for your help,
Matt
 
Latest data:

NO3 - BDL
PO4 - BDL
Ca - 500
Alk - 10
Sal - 1.026
Temp - 76.6

I've got 216 W of T5 lighting. It came from LongIslandAndy's tank. Not sure what lighting he has.
 
Im assuming you have 4 54w bulbs right? How far away are they from the bulbs? Nothing seems out of line, might be light shock, could it be getting picked on by anything in the tank?
 
Username - I had been watching it relentlessly, and never saw anything picking on it. Yes, I have 4 54W bulbs. The lights are 2-3 inches above the water surface, and the rock I had it on was about as high as I could get it within my current aquascaping - I'd say no more than 4-6" below the surface, and completely exposed to the light. Although, now that it went behind/under the rock it certainly isn't getting that much light.

Beaun - the lights are 2-bulb units, with one reflector for both bulbs. They are the Glo fixtures that are on display at Pets Warehouse. There are mostly soft corals (mushrooms, zoas, palys, etc) with a few LPS (frogspawn, candy canes, etc). None of the LPS are near the spot I placed the anemone. In fact, no corals are near the spot where I placed the anemone. None of the fish have shown signs of aggression as long as I've been watching. But the list includes 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 banggai cardinal, 1 royal gramma, 1 blue hippo tang, 1 flame angel, 1 sixline wrasse, 1 green mandarin, and 1 yellow watchman goby. All of the fish are juvenile in size and demeanor (tank is only about a year old).
 
Its very likely that it came from a lower light spot if you put it that close to the lights, and this may have stressed it. Give it some time and see what happens.
 
RBTA's are very hardy. I have cut them in half and they regenerated perfectly. I have also had a few RBTA's take a week or so to get comfortable. It will move around until it finds it spot. Andy keeps a very healthy tank. Dont let anything pick on it and im sure it will be fine.

Good Luck

JJ
 
Rbta

Rbta

Hi Matt

I'm sorry that I have taken a while to post. I went into work today and have been busy since I came home. The rbta was in my frag tank under 250w 20k bulb. It is a 40 gallon tank. It was located under my in the tank refugium and would come out for several hours a day then recede back under the fuge. I think the time it was in the bag at the meeting with no heat may have stressed it out. If it is not regurgitating it's stomach it will most likely be okay. Let it go where it wants for now. I have attached a pic of where they were

I do have some good news though, I found another rbta clone that must have split from the pair I had behind the fuge. If that one you bought does not make it you are more than welcome to the baby in my frag tank for free. This time we will arrange a meeting point where the anemone will not get stressed.

HTH
Andy
 

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Actually, Andy, it was regurgutating its stomach on Saturday, but seemed to pull it back in by Sunday. Honestly, I'm really not sure what it's doing right now, because it's so buried under the rocks. I thank you for the offer, that is very generous of you.

Thank you all for your help. I will wait and see what happens, and will let you all know.

Matt
 
What a guy that Andy. Matt, my RBTA did the same thing. He is like 12" across now. I am looking forward to him splitting.
 
Ralph,

So far, so good. It is tough to see, because it is behind/under rocks, but it looks like the stomach is back inside. I actually looked at 3 am, and its body was stretched out a bit (although the tentacles are still small). I'm hoping it is just having a bit of a hard time acclimating itself and will return to normal health in a few days/weeks. As I learn more, I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks to everybody for their advice and support!!!
 
Update:

It's looking better. It is tough to see all of the anemone, especially the mouth, because of where it is hiding, but there are no obvious signs of its stomach being turned out. In fact, the tentacles are starting to look a bit larger. Now that it seems to be perking up a bit, can I hope that it will move more into the light (and therefor become more visible)? If not, is there some way to try and move it? Thanks again for all the help and support. As I've always said, this group is a great asset to any local reefkeeper.

Matt
 
Matt,

I do not have one, so take my advice from that point. Have you tried feeding it? I would not try moving it for a few more days. Everytime it moves it expends energy and I would let it recover first.

Eventually it may move once it gets acclimated to the light. You could try redirecting a powerhead towards it to get it to move. By like I said above, moving expends energy and you may want to wait.

Glad it is looking better..
 
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