BTA Changed colors

Tanked_Life · May 26, 2016

Hey everyone! I received a rather large 8" diameter Rainbow BTA in a trade about 5 months back. The BTA when received was literally every color of the rainbow and it was under hydras.
Now it is in my tank and after 4 months of being under the MARS AQUA lights, this baby is a rich royal purple color! Do nems change color pigments to accommodate for the light?? to be honest Id take this Insane purple color over the rainbow any day. PS I have it next to a RBTA and the RBTA is still a deep red not purple. Thoughts?

Tahoe61 · May 26, 2016

Yes, it's largely dependent on lighting.

Tanked_Life · May 26, 2016

cool only asking because ive never seen a purple variant before.

Tahoe61 · May 26, 2016

My new BTA is under Hydra 52, I certainly hope mine acquires a rainbow coloration.

Tanked_Life · May 26, 2016

oh absolutely it will, my buddy started with one and it cloned into 7 all larger than 8" and have crazy colors under them

domination2580 · May 26, 2016

This is under sb reef lights. The coloration is amazing.

Tanked_Life · May 26, 2016

that is nice! the entire nem is beautiful

domination2580 · May 26, 2016

Tanked_Life said:
that is nice! the entire nem is beautiful

Thanks
I hope yours is or becomes amazingly colorful as well! If you need any help just ask.

Tanked_Life · May 26, 2016

thank you! it looks great now Ill send a picture when I get back home

domination2580 · May 26, 2016

Awesome! I'm thinking about doing a little report kind of thing on btas bit i want to make site is well written.

Tanked_Life · May 26, 2016

yeah that will be great for us all. What exactly are you reporting the lighting vs nem coloration?

domination2580 · May 26, 2016

Well from a tech point of view, anemones have zooxanthellae. When it has all of its zooxanthellae it keeps the anemone healthy by absorbing the light. With this in mind say you have a poor colored nem, it just doesnt have the zooxanthellae in place to absorb the light and so you have a less healthy nem. Which i would go in and say since it isnt able to absorb the light as easily or sometimes at all, i believe you should feed it more so it geta ita health and energy since the zooxanthellae isnt there to give it its energy. zooxanthellae will grow back but to do so the nem has to be healthy for it to get back into place with the zooxanthellae. With that said a healthy nem will show more colors and look a lot better then a sick nem without the zooxanthellae because the lights energy cant get turned into energy for the nem to shine and show its true colors. As far as different lighting causing different colors, that is a topic im not to fond on but would have to say it depends on a lot of things including par and wavelengths of the light that it is absorbing.
BUT it also depends on a tank to tank basis. Everyone has different tanks so pars differ, wavelength of the lights differ . So the best thing to do is watch and see what it wants or what it looks like is happening. Will it eat mysis and silversides or just one or the other, does he stay in one spot or is he constantly moving? Like i said its a tank to tank basis. I have noticed though they like their foot to be safe because any tear or rip in it can cause some serious issues and most of the time does not heal which could cause infections.

Tanked_Life · May 26, 2016

that is a great research paper. I know what zooxanthellae are and my nem is very healthy. The reason I brought up the color in response to light is because it would be very interesting if you can compile research as to why a GBTA predominately stays green in most lights yet there is zero differences genetically of GBTA from a RBTA. In my case, the nem is perfectly healthy and has all of its zooxanthellae yet the zooxanthellae changed its pigmentation from rainbow to purple. Same deep rich colors yet now it only shows one of the previous colors that it had before. This would make a great study! I want to know if the zooxanthellae are similar to the leaves on trees in regards to which light it refracts and which spectrum of light it absorbs.

domination2580 · May 26, 2016

Tanked_Life said:
that is a great research paper. I know what zooxanthellae are and my nem is very healthy. The reason I brought up the color in response to light is because it would be very interesting if you can compile research as to why a GBTA predominately stays green in most lights yet there is zero differences genetically of GBTA from a RBTA. In my case, the nem is perfectly healthy and has all of its zooxanthellae yet the zooxanthellae changed its pigmentation from rainbow to purple. Same deep rich colors yet now it only shows one of the previous colors that it had before. This would make a great study! I want to know if the zooxanthellae are similar to the leaves on trees in regards to which light it refracts and which spectrum of light it absorbs.

I'm not positive but if it has to much zooxanthellae the pigmentation i think would go down in color in theory resulting in one color. Or duller colors.

domination2580 · May 26, 2016

Tanked_Life said:
that is a great research paper. I know what zooxanthellae are and my nem is very healthy. The reason I brought up the color in response to light is because it would be very interesting if you can compile research as to why a GBTA predominately stays green in most lights yet there is zero differences genetically of GBTA from a RBTA. In my case, the nem is perfectly healthy and has all of its zooxanthellae yet the zooxanthellae changed its pigmentation from rainbow to purple. Same deep rich colors yet now it only shows one of the previous colors that it had before. This would make a great study! I want to know if the zooxanthellae are similar to the leaves on trees in regards to which light it refracts and which spectrum of light it absorbs.

There are some species that actually have two different algaes. Zooxanthellae and zoochlorellae. The difference is the coloration of the algae. Zooxanthellae is more of a brown color, zoochlorellae is more of a green color. Different lighting wavelengths help different algaes. So in theory if you have say like a 420 and 460 to compare in wavelengths the certain algae that uses that wavelength is going to be dominant and so more pigmentations of that specific algae.

Tanked_Life · May 26, 2016

Very interesting. Start a thread and tag me so we can compile data

domination2580 · May 26, 2016

Tanked_Life said:
Very interesting. Start a thread and tag me so we can compile data

Ill work on my report this weekend, ill start the thread and tag you. Then we can compile info on top of asking everyones experience

domination2580 · May 28, 2016

Tanked_Life said:
Very interesting. Start a thread and tag me so we can compile data

Hey, the report will be a little later on. I decided to call a couple of professors in Marine biology at different university's and colleges to compile some more info. I have a lost of quotations I'm going to ask each and compile it together in the report. Just have to call and set up a time to chat with them.

Tanked_Life · May 29, 2016

Sounds great I will actually do some research and take down some info and pm your way in Tuesday

domination2580 · Jul 24, 2016

Tanked_Life said:
Sounds great I will actually do some research and take down some info and pm your way in Tuesday

Hey, sorry i haven't been able to get this going. Ive been hectic doing things. Mainly with what i thought were dinos in my tank. Thanks to twilliard on here we put it under a scope and is actually diatoms. So I've been busy. I do stop plan on doing the nem report. Please just bear with me.