Clown, meet BTA - BTA, meet Clown

[usmcmarc]

So.I found a new LFS. 15min in the other direction. It's a wholesale place, so the pries are 25-50% less and there is 10x's the selection.

So I went on a little shopping spree.

1 Big Beautiful hunk of Green Star Polyps on a piece of rock with at least 5 or six feather dusters in it.

1 small piece of what I think are Clove Polyps (I will be posting picks for positive ID)

1 lb of LR pieces, all with some kind of coral on them (shrooms, and stuff I will be posting pics of for ID) ...My old LFS never had coral on it's LR.

AND...I started looking at anenomies...

I spoke with the owner.....VERY knowledgeable...... He showed me all the varieties of anenomie that would be best for a Gold Stripe Maroon Clown. I paced back and forth for an hour, trying to pick one out. I wanted a RBTA...but I saw this white one (actually more like florescent lime green) and it kept catching my eye saying "take me". So I took him. The owner said since I took so long to find a friend for my clown, he gave me 50% off the BTA.

Drip acclimated everyone for 2.5 hours. put them in the tank and within an hour the green stars started popping out, a few of the cloves opened.

And low and behold who do I see rolling around in, swimming in and rubbing against the BTA but my clown!!!! HOORAY!!!! It only took an hour for him to host it!

Needless to say, I'm quite smitten with myself right now. Was so worried he would ignore the BTA.

[newfound77951]

He looks like one happy fishie! Good luck with the new additions. It is always so fun to find a new, good LFS!

[ccCapt]

Watch it carefully. White = bleached, plus the size of that maroon in comparison to the size of the anemone. It's stressed already and the clown can get rough with it. Good luck.

[usmcmarc]

Great....I bought a sick anenome. Leave it to me. I soaked some FD brine shrimp in Selcon & Zoe and squirted it at him yesterday. I believe he ate it, closed up around it. Well, now I cant keep the clown out of it. What do I do?

Someone please move to sick forum...

[MT79]

Since this did not start out as a sick fish thread, I think it's OK to stay here.

Unfortunately you've started w/ two strikes against you w/ the anemone(besides the possible clown size issue). One, your tank is not really mature enough for an anemone. Two, the anemone is bleached. Not a good start, but you may be able to pull it off.
Regarding tank maturity. Anemones are delicate animals that need mature tanks w/ very stable water chemistry. Reef aquariums are generally not considered mature enough to house more delicate animals until they have been up and running smoothly for at least 6-8 months, closer to a year is best. As a bonus this time also allows for new hobbyist, not sure if that applies to you or not, to get the hang of maintaining a SW reef tank.
As far as the bleaching goes, do you know what type of lighting the anemone was under at the LFS? What type/wattage is the lighting on your tank? How long do you keep the lights on?
Have you been feeding the BTA? If so what and how often?
These answers will help us guide you forward.

[usmcmarc]

For the maturity of the tank...all I can say is my water params have been rock solid for the last 3 months...I test practically every other day (pH, SG, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, dKH, Ca, Phos). I have had some issues, but the water has always been good as far as I can tell. I do weekly PWC's (20%). My Trumpet Coral, Frogspawn, Zoos, Shrooms and Bubble coral have all grown. As a matter of fact, my Zoos and Trumpet Coral have started growing new buds already. So my water quality cant be all that bad. I am a noob at SW (as if you couldnt tell), but have had FW tanks for 14 years.

I will have the LFS lighting data by end of day Monday. I have:

* 4 power compact fluorescent lamps:
(2) 36W / 10,000 K
(2) 36W / Actinic
* Lunar Blue, (3) Moon Glow LED lights

Actinics come on around 9:00am
Blue Moon LED's off around 9:15am
1st 10000K on around 9:30am
2nd 10000k on around 10:00am

1st 10000K off around 6:00pm
2nd 10000k off around 6:30pm
Blue Moon LED's on around 6:45pm
Actinics off around 7:00pm

Got the BTA early Friday afternoon. 2.5 hour drip acclimation. Placed him in and he seemed to set foot right in the spot I set him. Tips were bubbles and remained that way (as you can see in the picture above). In about an hour the clown started hosting.

Next day at around 3:00pm I checked tank. BTA moved about 2 inches to left and seated its foot into the sand between wall and rock (see picture above for reference). Looked pretty much the same, maybe opened up a bit more.

I was due to feed my corals, so I turned off all my pumps and PH's and mixed up some Phytoplankton, FD Brine Shrimp, Selcon & Zoe. Fed everyone as I usually do, and gave a decent size squirt to BTA. He closed up in an act I assumed was eating. Within 10 min he opened back up and the tips bubbled back out. And clown resumed rubbing around.

I planned on feeding him when I fed my corals, which is about 2-3 times a week. I was going to mainly feed Frozen Silversides, supplemented with FD Brine / Frozen Mysis. All soaked in Selcon & Zoe.

Up until cccapt mentioned it was "bleached" I had no idea it had anything wrong with it. It seemed very happy to me, from what pictures I have seen of them.

All the pics I ever saw of "sick" BTA's were without bubble tips, brown, limp. This guy had full bubble tips, bright color (I didnt know it was bleached), latched right on to the rock and opened right up.

[ccCapt]

You may want to hold off on feeding that bta....especially silversides. It takes lots of energy for an anemone to digest food and you don't want to put any additional stress on it. FWIW, I never fed my anemone or any of my corals. The clowns take it little pieces of food to it when they are eating, so between that and the MH lighting, it gets all it needs without adding anything to the tank.
Also, a bta that is brown and has no bubble tips is actually a very health anemone.

[usmcmarc]

OK....How long should I wait to feed? What kind of signs show it's getting better? What kind of signs show it's getting worse? I will do whatever is necessary to get it better. I checked my parameters again this morning, and they are the same as always...

Temp - 79.5
pH - 8.3
SG - 1.025
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - <10ppm
Alk - 9 dKH / 161.1 ppm
Ca - 450 ppm
Phos - 0
Cu - 0

I have been slowly raising the SG, going to keep it at 1.026.

[Devilishturtles]

I agree with not feeding the anemone for now. Let it heal up on it's own with just the light and the food is is getting from the water column. IMO, it would be okay to feed it smaller pieces of food (shrimp, scallop, whatever you feed) but make it very small. Like the bite size amount you would give the fish.

Like cccapt said, it takes a LOT of energy for anemones to digest food and the biggest mistake a lot of people make is overfeeding it to where it takes all it's energy and focuses it on digesting the food, realizes it can't, then expels the food later and doesn't get any nutrition at all from it. Seems like you are doing everything correctly right now though. The anemone will start to color up to a brown color. It make look very splotchy and bad for a while but that is fine. Give it a chance and it will take back on the brownish/reddish color is should have. The fact that it is footed down already is a good sign, now it just needs time to heal itself.

Best of luck

[Kurt_Nelson]

And don't beat yourself up too bad about it! This whole hobby is a learning experience. I think that's the other reason patience is really important in this hobby - it gives you more time to learn.

I never really knew about anemones bleaching until chatting with one of the owners at my LFS. I asked about this really "pretty" looking white anemone and they told me about anemones being about the stupidest creatures in the sea, and they'll occasionally put themselves in a position where they'll cause themselves to bleach out - and then not move to make themselves better! Interesting conversation and also interesting since they were absolutely not interested in selling it to me, and spent the time to educate me versus trying to make a sale. Needless to say, I've spent a fair amount of money there.

I find it interesting that the LFS gave you a 50% discount on it. Hmm.

[usmcmarc]

Yeah...another one of those "Things that make you go hmmmmm"

[usmcmarc]

Funny thing...Since my clown made his new friend....I see no more fade spots or tears in his fins.

[melosu58]

Hopefully he will be OK. Just follow the others advice.

[usmcmarc]

Couple New Pics...Little better quality

[saltybob]

Nice ones! I cant wait till i get my annnomeee

[MT79]

Originally Posted by Devilishturtles

IMO, it would be okay to feed it smaller pieces of food (shrimp, scallop, whatever you feed) but make it very small

I agree w/ DT. While I don't regularly feed my anemones, when they are bleached they have no energy producing zooxanthellae. Therefore they can not gain much if any nutrients from the lighting. Target feeding bleached anemones, carefully, is the best way IME to reverse the bleaching and get the zoox back (as the zoox comes back, you'll see some coloring start to come back into the anemone). As said though, too much food and/or too often and you can end up causing more stress and doing more harm. Best to stick w/ very small pieces about once a week or so. Monitor the anemone and adjust feedings accordingly-ie. if it starts looking worse, shriveling, retracting more, etc. a day or two after feeding, back off. FWIW my BTA's seemed to react best to krill when they where bleached.

Originally Posted by usmcmarc

For the maturity of the tank...all I can say is my water params have been rock solid for the last 3 months

There are many, many biological/chemical processes going on in a reef aquarium. With only the handful of tests common/available, you get just a brief overview at best of whats going on in the tank. That is why a time table is generally given ie. 8-12 months to measure tank maturity. They have a discussion about this somewhere on talkingreef.com. I listened to it about a year or two ago, but I can't find it back or I would link to it.

When everything settles in, and the BTA is not bleached, I would adjust your lighitng schedule so that all the lights, actinic and 10k, run together for at least 8-9 hours. I'd prefer closer to 10 hours, maybe a little more using PC lighting on tanks w/ high light animals. BTA's will eat up fluorescent lighting and love it.
HTH

[usmcmarc]

OK..it's been 11 days. I have feed the BTA twice in that time...little bits of mysis w/ selcon & zoe.

In this time it has been all closed (cant see any tentacles) at times,

It has been opened all out.

When the lights go out, it looks like it's dead.

The tips have not been bubbled since the first couple days I got it.

I see no color coming back to it.

It looks to pretty much have stayed in the same spot. Maybe moving 1 inch left or right or up.


I guesss what I'm getting at is...how long does it take to start getting better (If it gets better)? How often should I attempt to feed? I'm just like a worried mother..and it sucks!!

[Lance M.]

I would feed it about half a silverside (~1'' to 1.5'' long) twice a week to give it enough time to digest. The color should start coming back within 4-6 weeks and get better as time passes.

How does it react when you feed it? Does it quickly close up and eat the food or is it slow?

Other than the fact that it is bleached, it looks pretty good. It shouldn't be difficult to get healthy again. The weekly 20% pwc helps out a lot.

[usmcmarc]

It's Gone!! I put a tiny piece of silverside in it today and it didnothing....Eventually a fire shrimp came along and took it. It wont eat...What else is there to do?

[ccCapt]

Not much you can do but watch it. If you see it start to disentregate take it out of your tank. I think your tank is just too young and unstable to help revive a sick(bleached) anemone.