View Full Version : Need Help with RBTA
leocom2000
09-02-2010, 12:40 PM
Hi,
A week and a half ago, I bought a small RBTA. At the LFS, they were in the separate propagation/grow-out tank. The guy at the LFS said that the Anemones were not ready to go yet, but he would let me have one. The one I got was attached to the glass. I was so exited that I did not look close at it and grabbed it.
At home, I floated the bag in the sump for about 30 min and then drip acclimated it for another 3 hours. I noticed that its mouth was off centered and close to the edge. The mouth was slightly open. In the tank, it would not attach to anything for about the first 30 min. I had to turn the power heads off until it was stuck to the rock.
It stayed on the rock during the day and moved at night. It was open most of the time and ballooned up when it wanted to move. Unfortunately, it did not react to any contact or food. I let it be and monitored it to make sure it does not end up in a powerhead.
A couple days ago, it found a crevice in a rock and have been staying there until now. Yesterday night I tried feeding it and it reacted to food, but did not seem to consume it. It would loose the food. I could not see the mouth, it was somewhere hidden in the crevice.
I am concerned the Anemone might not get enough light to where it is now. Even though it seems to be improving, it does not eat. Do you have any suggestions? :help2:
Thank you.
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I'd give it more time. From the description of where the mouth is located, it sounds to me like it may have been cut recently and is still healing. It doesn't look bleached from your pix, so I wouldn't push the issue too much with feeding at this point and simply allow it to continue healing.
I agree, it looks ok to me and I would also just give it time and let it heal and grow. If it wants more light it will move on its own in order to do so, so I wouldn't worry about that.
Amphiprion
09-02-2010, 1:54 PM
Agreed. Don't try to relocate the anemone or do much of anything right now. Allow it to settle and heal a bit more. Patience is a virtue in the meantime.
leocom2000
09-02-2010, 2:16 PM
How long do you think it will take to heal? It looks like it is streaching out to get more light.
Pics later in the day:
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Amphiprion
09-02-2010, 3:38 PM
Looks fairly typical of a split, manually or not. What kind of lighting do you have?
leocom2000
09-02-2010, 3:55 PM
It is in the 30 Gal long tank with T5 39W x 4. Two Giesmann Aquablue+ and two Giesmann Actinic+.
Amphiprion
09-02-2010, 10:28 PM
Okay, lighting is alright, though I normally recommend either a daylight lamp or another higher PAR blue lamp in place of one of those actinics. What you have is still sufficient, however. Well, as everyone said before, sit tight, observe, and be patient--it should reward you.
leocom2000
09-02-2010, 11:38 PM
Thank you everyone. I will post when something is changed.
leocom2000
09-04-2010, 1:58 PM
I managed to take a couple pics closer to were the mouth is. Let me know what you think...
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Looks ok to me.. recent split that is healing (you can tell by the tiny new tentacles starting to grow at the rim/mouth area). It will take about a month to fully heal but it still looks healthy to me so just give it time. :)
leocom2000
09-05-2010, 5:23 PM
I looked at my Anemone at night with a flash light and found it deflated with his guts out. They were definitely his gust and not poop. It stayed like that for a while. In the morning it looked fine again. That was weired. I saw a mushroom ones do that for maybe 15 min. What does it mean? Do they just air the guts ones in a while? I did a 4Gal out of 30 water change yesterday. Could that trigger it? There is so much I am learning about the aquarium critters life cycle and behavior that I have not discovered on the net yet.
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leocom2000
09-08-2010, 4:26 PM
I followed the good advice given me here and left the RBTA alone. It was sitting in its rock for almost three days. Then, it felt adventurous and started moving. It moved all the way to the top on the back glass between the coralia and the overflow at night. I caught it floating towards a powerhead this morning, that was close. It settled close to the old place and opened up. I examined it and found a white ball hanging from the mouth (?). I thought maybe it was hungry and tried feeding it a chunk of prawn shrimp. I was lucky, it ate it. That was the first time I was successful at feeding it.
And the current pic:
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leocom2000
09-09-2010, 6:06 PM
Yet another update:
Rosie moved back to the crevice it was on 09/05/10. It looks good so far (knocking on wood).
I see some views of the thread, so I will keep posting. Hopefully, it is useful for some of you.
I was looking at some literature on-line and could not find much on Anemones. Thing that I found were just basic stuff. Is there a book on Anemones that would have detailed info on them? This site is very useful, but most of the post here are about problems and not solutions (I am talking about Anemone section). Any suggestion or advice is welcome.
Thank you.
leocom2000
09-23-2010, 12:48 PM
I thought it was time for another update.
RBTA is doing fine. It is eating small pieces of prawn and sitting in one spot. Here is the pic from today:
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nice, glad to hear all is fine
Amphiprion
10-11-2010, 8:15 PM
Not sure how I missed this update, but very glad to hear that things recovered just fine :). I had suspected it would.
Wow.. I also totally missed the updates on this thread. Glad to hear it has recovered. Now that I see this thread I wanted to respond to this.
I looked at my Anemone at night with a flash light and found it deflated with his guts out. They were definitely his gust and not poop. It stayed like that for a while. In the morning it looked fine again. That was weired. I saw a mushroom ones do that for maybe 15 min. What does it mean? Do they just air the guts ones in a while? I did a 4Gal out of 30 water change yesterday. Could that trigger it? There is so much I am learning about the aquarium critters life cycle and behavior that I have not discovered on the net yet. ]
I never really thought about it much before, but you mentioning this, especially about mushrooms, brought back some memories from my first days of reefing. I used to have green hairy mushrooms that would spit its guts out after a water change. I am wondering now if it had to do with water quality issues (lack of understanding at that point by me) because I was using RO water from grocery store dispensers at that time.
So, that said, question I have for you is what is your water source and salt type?
leocom2000
10-12-2010, 10:06 AM
lol you found my thread!
I use RO/DI and measure the hardness with the TDS-3 meter. It has always showed 0 TDS. My salt is Reef Crystals. I mix it in a 5Gal jug and aerate with an air stone for at least 24 hours. Sometimes days. I also use refractometer to measure the salinity and match it to the tank. It stays at about 1.025. Top-offs RO/DI. I also heat the replacement water to match the tank water when the temp difference is more than 4 deg C.
Well, that airing the guts out has not happened since the last time I saw it. maybe it was still adjusting.
leocom2000
10-12-2010, 10:10 AM
I don't understand one thing: how these amphiypods can crawl all over anemone and not get eaten?
leocom2000
10-12-2010, 10:20 AM
I have another question. When the anemone is inflated sometimes I see white strings inside the tentacles. They don't move or anything and don't seem to damage the tissue. Now that I looked closer at other corals i found the same thing. They are not inside all of the tentacles and all are of different shape. I will try to take a picture when it opens.
leocom2000
10-12-2010, 12:49 PM
These are the best I could do now.
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leocom2000
10-16-2010, 1:09 AM
Either no one knows answers to my questions, or I am just being ignored. :werd::coffee2:
I think its just natural for them , its when they release there waste Maybe
:shocked: Hypnosmiley
leocom2000
10-16-2010, 1:54 PM
eeee... I don't think so...., but I hope it is true. here is maybe a better pic:
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Well I never seen that on my anemone and if i did see it dont think i would worry to much about it , your anemone looks great nice color and full looking just give it time to fully recover should be fine
GL M8
leocom2000
11-01-2010, 2:00 PM
RBTA is moving to the top of the rock. It happened after I moved some SPS frags there. I don't know why it is doing it. There is too much flow there for it.
Evil little thing!!!
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leocom2000
12-07-2010, 3:20 PM
After a water change, my anemone started moving again. It settled on the glass near a powerhead a little higher than it was before. Clowns usually hang out in the area at night. So a day after, they dove in. The big female is nurturing it right now and does not let the smaller one come too close.
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Robert04
12-12-2010, 9:51 AM
I've had this happen before to my Anemone and they healed up fine.. I think it's some kind of bruising or something, Perhaps it came in contact with something that stung it or it just got torn up on the rock.(One case the limb actually fell off and the arm grew back. kind of weird)
leocom2000
01-13-2011, 12:52 PM
RBTA looks like crap. I suspect the clown is too rough with it.:huh:
leocom2000
01-15-2011, 1:31 PM
Can a clown cause this kind of damage??
Amphiprion
01-15-2011, 9:39 PM
Yes they can and it does look like some physical damage to me. Similar damage also occurs from stings, though.
leocom2000
02-02-2011, 5:27 PM
I don't know what it was, but it seems to be recovering now.
Trochus and Stomatella snails like to hang out next to it for some reason.
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Arakkis
08-16-2011, 4:06 PM
he's healing still the brighter the pink is the more stressed out he is. I just split mine last week ater stressing him out.
could be clown but i'm leaning on propeller damage or a close encounter with a coral with stronger stingers.
and if you can help it.. stop moving him around and keep the clown away till he's better