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RBTA - help needed

Euphyllia

Euphyllia

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I have a few questions about my RBTA's. Here is my most recent tank video so you know what I'm talking about and where everything is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iGK9HeV6L4

Question 1. My 12" RBTA and my 5" RBTA (the ones in the top of the tank) are a pink color. When I brought them into my tank they expelled zooxanthalle and turned pink. They aren't bleaching, but they aren't really gaining color. I head iodine helps produce zooxanthalle so I'm dosing it. I have a little 2" RBTA in the bottom of the tank that is a nice red color and has started to have bubbled tips since I've started dosing iodine. What things (like temp and water qualities) should I keep a close eye on to try and get these back to being red?

Question 2. Every few days I find a tentacle or two on lying on the sand. Is this normal? I head on RC that is is sometimes good...

Question 3. I've had a 9" RBTA for five months now. A few weeks ago it began to open less each day and finally started shrinking up after the lights were on for about 4 hours. It would shrivel up really small and poo lots. It is still happening, and a few days ago it moved to another area in the tank where it is darker. Is this a sign that it will split soon? If not, is there anything that could be bothering it and making it do this?
 
Euphyllia said:
When I brought them into my tank they expelled zooxanthalle and turned pink. They aren't bleaching, but they aren't really gaining color. I head iodine helps produce zooxanthalle so I'm dosing it. I have a little 2" RBTA in the bottom of the tank that is a nice red color and has started to have bubbled tips since I've started dosing iodine. What things (like temp and water qualities) should I keep a close eye on to try and get these back to being red?
Click to expand...

Do you have a link to an article of some sort with regards to the whole Iodine promotes zooxanthellae growth thing? I've personally never heard of this (not to say it's not being done).
IIRC, when something "expels its zooxanthellae," it is bleached. It sounds like upon introduction to your tank they have changed their coloration a bit in order to adapt to the conditions of their new ocean. Do you recall what kind of light they were under while still at the LFS you bought them from? Even with corals, colors change depending on condition to condition, and from tank to tank, period. What may be blue in my tank, may be quite the opposite in someone else's tank.
I almost get the feeling you want your anemones to be a certain way -but you have to realize that anemones, like all other Cnidarians are very dynamic creatures that you can't always fully control. Especially anemones -we want them to be in the front of the tank so we can easily view them, but if they're happy in the back of the tank, leave it there. Just be sure you keep the water quality up, and the temperature steady and consistent. If it expelling a bolus quite often, reconsider what kind of foods you are feeding it. I find when I fed my BTA's silversides, they always expelled a bolus ... I feed them mysid now, and they do not expel anything -but that is my experience. Also, different anemones (and I don't mean between species necessarily, I mean even between specimens of the same species) all have different tendencies when it comes to splitting.
The largest factor I can think of to alter the colors of the BTA's would be to upgrade/change the lighting on the tank -I don't consider the stock PC's on the RSM to be particularly strong. You want them to red and "rosy," however you may need to come to terms with the fact that they may not regain their reddish coloration. Many BTA's (especially the RBTA's) lose their color under less than sufficient light.
Best of luck!:)
 
My anemones become pink during hot summer days. Try not to run lights during the day hours. I usually switch to reversed day/night cycle during first hot days (usually in may).

I never heard of "tentacle or two on lying on the sand". Last time I saw it - it was due to anemone shredding itself in a powerhead. Wink Wink Vince ;-)
 
So they are pink because they are at the surface where the light heat the water up to 81F or so? I turned the temperature down a bit to see if that is the reason they are pink. :)

Also, I'm finding GBTA a lot easier to keep than RBTA. Is this the same for everyone? I'm thinking instead of filling the rest of my tank with RBTA that I could just fill it with GBTA.
 
Mine were all pink for over half a year, then turned nice and deep red. Just time will fix them.

Feed them a bit to keep them happy.

V
 
So what I'm understanding from all this is that it is OK to have an anemone that is pink as long is it isn't bleached/bleaching?

BTW, my 9" RBTA that was having some troubles is still having the same troubles. I've only fed it a tiny bit of mysis 2 times this month and it is still pooping huge amounts of that mucusy brown stuff every day! How does it keep pooing so much if I'm not feeding it? BTW, I feed it whenever I can. It is hard to feed it at the location it is in and it only opens up two or less hours each day.
 
Euphyllia, honestly I barely do any feeding. I think I target fed my anemones (4-5 I had) maybe once or twice in last 2-3 years. I have them some raw shrimp. They are all dark red now and puffy. The major thing here in my opinion is to keep conditions steady. Any water quality/light/temperature fluctuations are bad for them (as for other corals). Keep in mind that corals have very low "organization" which makes them very slow to react to thing.
 
I saw some formula one and formula two at All About Fish when I went to get some more large mysis for my nems. Is there anything healthier/better to feed them than large mysis?
 
I read that in the wild they mainly eat alot of small invertebrates , don't k ow which kind but they eat through out the day because of the large amounts of inverts in the wild. Sorry I mistyped ( freakn iPhone) I feed the anemone an eight of the cube every Thursday. Try the formula one and see if your anemone respond to it. I always say each tank has their own personality, find what your tank likes and stick with it. My anemone moves when it gets hungry like the times I went on vacation, but once he goes back to his usuall spot, then I feed the bastard and were happy again. For a year and 8 months he moved twice and I end up turning over the Rock his on to make sure he gets light. If you have alot of Copepods , it may be feeding on that too. To each his own.
 
here is my RBTA when I first got it from a friend who was tearing down his tank. its right next to the purple long tenticle. looked white background with hot pink tentacles.
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then after having it in my system for a few weeks changed colors completely and now I have 12 of them all over 6". check them out. oh yeah I feed mine frozen krill. I break them into smaller pieces and put it on them. I use the krill to feed my dwarf golden moray, marine bettas and anemones. the krill are about 1" in size. this is them under 20k MH
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this what happened after the new ATI lights. they changed again, but are now back to the red green color.
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