Bleached LTA - thoughts?

BillyKVT · Jul 17, 2020

Hello all,

A friend of mine tore down their tank and gave me a few of their corals and a bleached LTA. The tank was in terrible shape as they had neglected it.

I've quarantined everything for about three weeks before adding to my display tank. DT is a 20 gallon long running 2X AI Primes with mixed corals. Everything is growing.

The anemone was bleached, didn't gain color in the QT as it's under-lit, and am now on day 2 of it being in DT. It's foot latched on to a crevice within ten minutes and seems static.

I've attached a couple of pictures. I see some green spots under the disk. I've been feeding using frozen foods which i break down with tank water and let come to room temp. Its been accepting food and not pooping it out, or throwing it up, or spitting it out, or .. you get the idea.

My plan is to regularly feed it hoping for some zooxanthellae growth. If anyone has been successful, a timeline would be awesome.

If anyone could pitch in their .02 as to a plan of action I'd really appreciate it. Happy reefing

ludnix · Jul 17, 2020

It absolutely can color back up, it doesn't seem nearly as bleached as it could be and it would still have good odds IMO. I definitely think your on the right path and will just need to give it some time. I would just offer a word of caution to not feed too often, every other day to twice a week is plenty.

LesPoissons · Jul 18, 2020

Could be a ton worse- keep up the good work, I’m sure it will recover for you!!

ludnix · Jul 18, 2020

Just a little extra advice too, I would move any nearby corals to be much further away. These anemones are much larger than bubble tips and others and you need a lot of space for them.

Here was mine a few weeks into the tank, definitely some light bleaching as they usually are when you get them from the LFS:

This is 7 months later, I eventually had to remove the anemone much to the clowns' disappointment. I don't have a photo but at the time of removal it had completely taken up the left corner of the tank in this view.

BillyKVT · Jul 19, 2020

ludnix said:
Just a little extra advice too, I would move any nearby corals to be much further away. These anemones are much larger than bubble tips and others and you need a lot of space for them.

Here was mine a few weeks into the tank, definitely some light bleaching as they usually are when you get them from the LFS:

This is 7 months later, I eventually had to remove the anemone much to the clowns' disappointment. I don't have a photo but at the time of removal it had completely taken up the left corner of the tank in this view.

Oh my god! That sucker grew fast! (no pun intended). Thanks for the advice! I'm actually starting a 60 gallon build hoping to have it done by the new year. Hopefully it doesn't outgrow the tiny 20 it's in right now, but given what I just saw, I may have to speed up the build. Thanks so much for all of your advice!

chizerbunoi · Jul 21, 2020

What does it look like with daylights on? If just the top tentacle is white then it is not bleached. Those are multicoloured LTA or ultra as the distributor calls them.

BillyKVT · Jul 22, 2020

chizerbunoi said:
What does it look like with daylights on? If just the top tentacle is white then it is not bleached. Those are multicoloured LTA or ultra as the distributor calls them.

I can see through the anemone. The tips of the tentacles are in fact white, however, I have noticed the anemone darkening over the past few days. We shall see.