I'm having a bleaching issue with my RBTA that I bought sometime in January this year. Initially it was great for 2+ months, retaining its original colouration of deep red till early March. This is the colour that it was:
However, as I had a mild aiptasia breakout, I bought 3 peppermint shrimp and added them to the tank. After the shrimp cleared out the aiptasia, they turned on my anemone and started bullying it instead. They stole food from it, and even when there was no food they wouldn't stop picking on it. It came to a point where the anemone was constantly shrivelled up and even took a hike around the tank, though it eventually went back to its original spot. Here is how it looked just after I removed the shrimp from the tank (still red but shrivelled up and very unhappy):
I have since trapped out and sold the shrimp, but since then, the anemone has lost its colour and bleached out. It now looks like this:
Is my anemone now bleached because of lack of light? Or some other reason? For reference, it is currently placed at the top of the rockwork, 10-15cm below the surface and the light I'm using is the Beamswork 6x 3W led set (2 blue and 4 white). It is positioned almost directly under the 2 blue lights, but due to the led spread it is receiving white light as well.
If it is lack of light, how come it spent 2+ months fine with the deep red colour and only start bleaching after the shrimp bullied it? Some people have suggested too much light...but again, how come it was fine with the lighting previously and only changed when the shrimp bullied it?
I feed it 1-2 times weekly with mysis or chopped up mussel and it always accepts the food (except for the brief period it was shrivelled up due to shrimp bullying). Just fed it today in fact.
Do I need to feed it more or increase/decrease my lighting in order to restore it to its former deep red colour?
However, as I had a mild aiptasia breakout, I bought 3 peppermint shrimp and added them to the tank. After the shrimp cleared out the aiptasia, they turned on my anemone and started bullying it instead. They stole food from it, and even when there was no food they wouldn't stop picking on it. It came to a point where the anemone was constantly shrivelled up and even took a hike around the tank, though it eventually went back to its original spot. Here is how it looked just after I removed the shrimp from the tank (still red but shrivelled up and very unhappy):
I have since trapped out and sold the shrimp, but since then, the anemone has lost its colour and bleached out. It now looks like this:
Is my anemone now bleached because of lack of light? Or some other reason? For reference, it is currently placed at the top of the rockwork, 10-15cm below the surface and the light I'm using is the Beamswork 6x 3W led set (2 blue and 4 white). It is positioned almost directly under the 2 blue lights, but due to the led spread it is receiving white light as well.
If it is lack of light, how come it spent 2+ months fine with the deep red colour and only start bleaching after the shrimp bullied it? Some people have suggested too much light...but again, how come it was fine with the lighting previously and only changed when the shrimp bullied it?
I feed it 1-2 times weekly with mysis or chopped up mussel and it always accepts the food (except for the brief period it was shrivelled up due to shrimp bullying). Just fed it today in fact.
Do I need to feed it more or increase/decrease my lighting in order to restore it to its former deep red colour?
