Teeny Tiny Rose Bubble Tip -- Troubleshooting

spfulfill

New member
I put a RBTA in my 34gal Solana w/MH pendant 5 months ago, and I can't seem to make it happy. I'd almost say its shrinking and slightly bleaching. It's never looked like it's dying, it's just not happy. I had a RBTA in my 24gal nano, fed it krill occassionally, and it split 5 times within a couple months and was always happy looking. I thought I'd do the same thing with this one that was small when I got it, but it has never expanded it's tentacles. It has not moved since I put it in the aquarium, smack dab in the center of the tank. Here's some things I've tried:

1) Lighting -- obviously I have plenty with the MH, and definitely more than when I had some in my 24gal Nano. The spot that I put possibly was shaded by the nozzle on my return, so I finally moved that so there was no shade 2 weeks ago. This hasn't made difference.

2) Flow -- I have a Koralia 2 and Vortech MP10 which will give me plenty of flow, and again certainly more than my Nano. The RBTA seemed to be in the only "dead spot" in the aquarium as it was a little below and behind the Koralia and out of reach of the Vortech. I finally moved the Koralia from the back, to the side of the glass to get the anemone more flow. The RBTA almost seems worse so I'm thinking about moving it back.

3) Feeding -- I throw some Rod's Coral Food in there maybe once a week or so for all the corals, and have tried to give the anemone a piece of a silverside and occassionally some pellets. It seems to take the food, but may end up spitting it out if it is too big. I've caught my hermit crab trying to steal food from it once in a while, but don't think that's had any long-term negative effects on it. I had the best luck with Krill with my old tank, but haven't given it any of that.

So, a bit of a long post, but anyone have any ideas? Everything else in the tank seems to be doing very well including much more finicky things. I'd like to hear if others have had similar issues and if there's something that solved it.
 
This is what I would do I would just leave it alone for a little while and try feeding some mysis shrimp silver sides are nasty and no good in my opinion.Also I would whach to see if any thing is bothing it.
 
Try doing a large water change. That normally corrects issues and bounces them back.

Do you dose anything like Strontium at all?
Temp?
Alk?
pH?
Nitrate?
Age of bulbs and photoperiod?
 
I dose kalk, but that's about it. I'll have to do some water testing, but is there anything in particular that anemones are really sensitive to that corals are not?
 
clowns101 when you say you only feed yours mysis, how do you keep the mysis from blowing all through the tank, do you give it to the nem when the it is still partially frozen? cause when i feed my fish mysis it doesn't seem like the nem catches any of it.

thx
 
If the anemone is not very sticky it will not bring in food.Right?So this is what I do.I shut off all my pumps and melt down the mysis in a cup and be sure that there is no food that is still frozen.Once that is done I will then take a Turkey Baster and VERY slowly I mean VERY VERY VERY slowly push the food out onto the anemones tentecals.I will then leave the pumps off for about 30 to 45 min.I do this in hope that the anemone will try and move the food to the mouth and will start tp gain strenth!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15747128#post15747128 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Coral Hind
Try doing a large water change. That normally corrects issues and bounces them back.

Do you dose anything like Strontium at all?
Temp?
Alk?
pH?
Nitrate?
Age of bulbs and photoperiod?

My alkalinity is very low and needs to be corrected. I'm not sure if that's the issue or not. Everything else seems to be fine.
 
If your alk is "very low" then your pH may be low or at least swinging very low at night. How about the other info I asked for? The more you give us the more we can help.
 
Alk was 5.3 dkh
Ph with lights on tested at 8.2
Nitrate 0 per red sea test kit

Temp runs from 81 degrees at the end of the night period and 84 degrees. My lights are on for 8 hours/day.

When I say "teeny tiny", I mean it -- It's about the diameter of a nickle and has been for quite some time.
 
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