RBTA trouble

[aquadonkey]

Hi there - my RBTA is not doing well today - any suggestions?
It normally stays put and looks great, but today it decided to move and is now in a dark corner (couple inches below over-flow box) on the back pane of the tank.
It was looking a bit grumpy earlier, so I did a 10% WC which seemed to make it more grumpy.

Temp: 78.3
SG: 1.026 (a little high for me - usually keep it at 1.025)
will get back with nitrates calcium and kh in a bit.....

I should also mention that my bulbs need changing - was actually researching that already today and yesterday. The bulbs are about 10 months old.

 

[superkat]

they definitely like light and not a lot of direct flow...and will move to get away from flow. What have you been feeding it? Anything hosting in it?

 

[aquadonkey]

It ate a fairly large chunk of shrimp two or three days ago and has a pair of occ. clowns hosting.

 

[Newreeflady]

I don't know for sure if it is a factor, but I usually like to maintain 80 F in my tank. Bulb changes will also be important. Nitrates will be the other big question.

 

[superkat]

that sounds good, Lizz. My RBTA's are in the 120g. Temp is 78.1 consistently. Dropped a little the last couple nights to 75.3 but they are still doing fine. I'm wondering if maybe the clowns were irritating it....but they are known to move and find a spot that they like. What concerns me is that it moved AWAY from the light.

 

[aquadonkey]

Okay - nitrate test complete
I'm actually showing no nitrates at all.....
I have a salifert kit. Last time I did this test I came up with trates at about .5ppm, but when I took it to CF and had my water tested, they used a different kit and came up with trates being 10ppm - so I'm not sure if I can trust it....

 

[Conesus_Kid]

How long has this anemone been in the aquarium?

 

[block head]

i'm guessing rbta is going to drop a duce. maybe split. i'd leave it alone.

 

[Newreeflady]

That's a good point, it could be getting ready to split...

Also, if the test kit is expired just toss it. I went through this whole runaround with expired kits. They really do expire.

Good luck, I hope it's a split!

 

[aquadonkey]

Scott - it's been in my aquarium for about 6 months.

As for a split....... this nem just split (my first!) two(ish?) months ago. I just sold the clone last week.

Angela - I double checked my test kit - doesn't expire for almost another year.

Since my first post, the nem has turned around and started coming back in the direction of the light. I'm guessing it will travel further up in the morning - then I think that's a pretty good indicator that it wants more light!

Since there was such a recent split, I'm thinking a split (even though super cool) would not be such great news right now.

 

[Conesus_Kid]

Sounds like it's moving back to its original position. I've found that they'll more or less stay in one spot as long as conditions remain relatively constant.

Also, I would avoid feeding large food items to the anemone. Things like mysis and cyclopeeze are more easily digested.

Keep us posted!

 

[aquadonkey]

Thanks for the feeding tip Scott. It gets a couple pieces of mysis about 2x a week - but I for some reason thought that wasn't enough (just a bit of a snack maybe )
I guess I had read somewhere that they need bigger meals which is why I gave it the shrimp (size of a pencil eraser). This is actually only the second time it's gotten a big meal, which I was feeling a little guilty about - now I know it was perhaps a good thing I slacked a bit on the feeding....

 

[tmz]

The nitrate levels even if they are 10ppm or higher wont bother it, ime. Hope it's just splitting ; I can't find a clue in the posts for stress except perhaps the large food intake .

 

[aquadonkey]

Well - thanks for the replies guys. It's so nice for noobs like me to have a place to go with these questions. She's back to normal now, so hopefully it will stay that way!
I got home from work earlier today just in time to see her trying to jump from the back pane to the overflow box - at which point I put on a glove, picked her up and placed her back on her regular spot (the highest rock in the tank). Then I ran out and got two new bulbs. The fixture is 4x24 (T5), so I changed half now, and will change the others in a week or two. She's hasn't started moving again and that was around 7 hours ago - hopefully she's done being fussed!