Should I Pull and Treat?

[B0red04]

I have a RBTA that i got from a frag swap about 2-3 months ago. Right from the start this guy started looking worse and worse. It has stayed put in one spot for most of that time but now it is starting to move around. but as you can see below it has always looked like that and is obviously not happy. It is in a 150g display tank, under 3 Ai hydra 52's.
Salinty 1.026
ph 8
Kh 8
nitrates 10
P04 0.03
cal 450
mag 1200

Have any suggestions?

 

[bobbravo2]

Does he retract at night? Do you have any pix from earlier to compare to? Doesn't look too bad, but I'm a relative nem noob.

 

[B0red04]

Yes, sometimes it does retract at night. I dont have a picture of it when i first got it, but it looked more like this one.

I should also add, it will not and has not accepted food in about 2 months

 

[bobbravo2]

Hmm.. Can you see it's mouth? It could be fine, given how high up it is... but I'm with you on the fact that it doesn't look happy.

(I'm also bumping this thread for a more seasoned nem expert to chime in ;-) )

 

[Jemhidiah]

Looks starved to me because of the tentacles being so short. What were you feeding it and how often?

 

[ocellaris123]

Yes, no need to treat, BTA's usually don't need treatment when you get them. This anemone is starving.

 

[Jemhidiah]

Generally they dont need fed if healthy and water, flow and light are good. Like I said in another thread it seems like there are alot of posts going up about rbta with similar problems bought within the last 2-6 months

 

[B0red04]

Mouth is tight.

I was feeding PE mysis, atleast once a week, sometime more often at first. but now its tentacle wont stick to anything and if they do, he just lets go of the food.

Flow is about 800gph from the return shooting across the back glass and 2 MP40's

 

[taylor t]

Looks light starved to me. Either intensity or spectrum.

 

[bobbravo2]

Do you have any room to increase light output on your AI's?

 

[B0red04]

Ok, i have 3 Ai hydra 52, 10inch off the water, water depth is 24". The 2 blue channels max out at 70% all other colors max out at 40%. They are on for 13 hours with a 5 hour ramp time and at max intensity for 3 hours.

Should I increase?

All my corals and even a long tentacle anemone at the bottom that are doing great at this intensity.

 

[bobbravo2]

Ok, i have 3 Ai hydra 52, 10inch off the water, water depth is 24". The 2 blue channels max out at 70% all other colors max out at 40%. They are on for 13 hours with a 5 hour ramp time and at max intensity for 3 hours.

Should I increase?

All my corals and even a long tentacle anemone at the bottom that are doing great at this intensity.

Try increasing the overall intensity 5% a week, and see how things respond.

 

[bobbravo2]

This is an interesting read: http://www.karensroseanemones.net/starvinganemone.htm

TLDR - use a plastic tub (like a gladware) to isolate the nem, so that it can feed, up to 1 hour.

 

[B0red04]

Good info indeed! those pictures on her page look exactly like this one has looked for awhile now. I will start putting a cover over it while trying to feed it, in an attempt to force feed it.

 

[bobbravo2]

"Force feeding" sounds so cruel! J/k. it's more of making sure it has time to feed, before other critters steal the food. Even the flow of water can "steal" it if it's badly starving, and it's tentacles aren't sticky (which I think was the case with yours).


I read through a lot of the info, some of it may be dated, for example she said a SeaClone skimmer was doing a "great" job on a 75 gallon. I'm pretty sure a newer skimmer would skim the pants of a SeaClone. (IE- if she added a reef octopus to the same tank with the SeaClone, the RO would pull a ton of gunk, and the SeaClone would mysteriously "stop working"). JM2C