BTA won't stop bleaching, can't figure out WHY!

Discussion in 'Inverts' started by yheartsp, Nov 28, 2009.

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  1. rodcpierce

    rodcpierce Ritteri Anemone

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    feed it once a week. I would also suggest feeding it half a silverside. They are fish :)
     
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  3. yheartsp

    yheartsp Purple Spiny Lobster

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    Would once a week be enough for a badly bleached nem? i can't find silversides here, but i guess i could feed anchovy? they are very common here , and are called ikan bilis :)
     
  4. pgreef

    pgreef Fire Goby

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    I feed mine a piece of uncooked shrimp the size of fingernail.
     
  5. yheartsp

    yheartsp Purple Spiny Lobster

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    yeah that would be about the size of the anemones mouth ;D
    The poop of my BTA is always whitish in color, probably because the squid and shrimp i feed are whitish? is that normal? because on some website i read some BTA's poop are brownish in color

    also is it plausible that when i first introduce the anemone to my tank, it expelled it's zooxanthellae due to stress and light shock ( as it was under much weaker lighting at the LFS) , so it hid under the rock to hide from the light. But i continued feeding it every one or 2 days so it didnt feel the need to allocate much zooxanthellae inside anymore.

    because if this is the case, i should probably cut down feeding to once a week or so?
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2009
  6. pgreef

    pgreef Fire Goby

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    I feed mine once a week or less.
     
  7. yheartsp

    yheartsp Purple Spiny Lobster

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    was yours bleached like mine? :confused: is my above scenario plausible??
     
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  9. slickcg33

    slickcg33 Astrea Snail

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    Hi there. I'm not a frequent member of this forum, but i am of reef central and reef sanctuary. i been browsing your thread and had to log in to chime in. I have a couple theories. I believe the last thing you stated is most likely the problem. It bleached due to an intense light shock and ran into the rock work with low light. Another theory i have is the anemone seems a bit small for those 2 clowns. Having a stressed anemone beat up by clowns is never a good thing and causes more stress. To add to all that you have been feeding it excessively in my honest opinion. If its expelling white stuff, assuming its not intestines, i believe its expelling UNDIGESTED squid. Which is another bad sign, either you are feeding too much or it has gotten to the point where it is so sick it isnt digesting anymore.

    I would suggest trying to get it to move out of the rock work to receive a bit more light. A way to do that would be to change the flow and put some direct flow on it(not to powerful) and it most likely will get a bit pissed and move. If you can prevent the clowns from being hosted by the anemone untill it gets back in shape that would be a good thing. I would suggest feeding weekly, food soaked in vitamins, and a very little iodine.

    Also it definitely wasn't dyed and it is a bta. I believe there is adequate light for this anemone, but perhaps not in the spot its in. your lights should be fine assuming it finds a better location. i had a bta under 80wts of power compact lights for a year, although not ideal conditions, my point is that the lighting requirements for this species of anemone isn't as demanding as others.
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2009
  10. yheartsp

    yheartsp Purple Spiny Lobster

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    Hi thank you for taking the effort to reply, i appreciate it. I think i should mention that when i first put the nem in, it was on the sand bed which is roughly 30 inches below the light, so the intense light shock would be less likely. Also the bleaching was not immediate, it bleached slowly over the course of 2 months..

    I have also added a new golden BTA to the tank and the maroons are hosting that anemone nomst of the time now. the nerw anemone is very huge so it can easily handle 2 maroons. i hope this lessens the stress on the bleached anemone and it'll reach out for more light. As for the feedings of the BTA, i've never seen it expell anything which is not white. is the poop supposed to be brown? Also i read on karen's rose anemone website that a bleached anemone should be fed everyday to recover. sigh.. so many conflicting ideas i dont know what to do :-/
     
  11. slickcg33

    slickcg33 Astrea Snail

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    Well if the light shock wasnt the initial problem then i cant really pinpoint it, but if you said it has been bleaching SLOWLY then thats prob due to a lack of light mixed with clown stress and maybe some other unknown factors. perhaps some off the food you fed it was tainted. At this point it seems to be a bit of a guessing game. I believe it does need a bit more light and lessened feedings.

    In my experience anemone poop has always been brown with different shades of course. If it looks as white as when you fed it, then its probably undigested food. If its a bit of a dirtier white then it could just be the poo. Ive feed a couple different foods to anemones and sometimes they get picky as weird as that sounds. Perhaps try a silver side, or mysis shrimp +cyclops with a turkey baster soaked in Vita's and trace amount of iodine. Ive had bad experiences feeding every other day with anemones newly introduced to the tank.

    It seems it takes their digestive cycle a couple days just to poop the food out, i cant see sense in giving it more before it can excrete the old stuff. There is debate about this of course just like most other things in the hobby. But the way i view it is, anemone metabolism is very slow. thats why it usually takes them weeks to months before they actually die. IMO feeding to much is something it cant handle and over time the anemone will poop out. I had a bta that i tried to nurse back that was bleached and i saw it regain color, and for no explanation it died 3 weeks later after everything seemed like it was going smoothly. Only Thing i could pinpoint was either too much food or bad food.

    Rather then weekly feedings maybe every 4 days or so to start off with.
    How new is the New anemone and how is it doing? its good that the maroons arent in the sick one 100% of the time

    One more note that i just thought of, Im not 100% sure , but usually the poo is unused parts of whatever it eats. For silver sides thats usually bones ect.. pieces of shrimp and squid shouldnt have much excess and if its excreting alot of it then it probably isnt getting much from the feedings.

    Another thing I'm not sure about but just throwing the idea out there is; even if the anemone doesnt have adequate lighting, if its taking food then i dont think it should be bleaching. Like i said i had a bta in low light with weekly feedings and it never lost its zoa.
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2009
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  12. yheartsp

    yheartsp Purple Spiny Lobster

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    The new anemone is doing good probably coz i drip acclimated it, didn't do that for the rose anemone, probably another reason it bleached . sigh regret it much. I agree that ive been feeding the anemone too much/ too big a piece. i'll feed every 4 days now to see how it goes. I cant find any silversides in my country but i just bought some anchovies to feed my anemones, should be the same?

    How big a piece do you feed your anemones? Well maybe it bleached due to stress by bad acclimation and the maroons and didn't feel the need to let more zooxanthellae reproduce ( i read that the anemone can control how much zooxanthellae it wants inside ) as i was overfeeding it? :confused:

    damn, so many theories!