Bubble Tip Anenome?

[Clinton]

This little guy was a ride along on some live rock I purchased. I think it's a bubble tip anemone but I'm not sure. He's been all over the tank initially hiding and 3 months later is finally coming more into the open. I've tried dropping thawed pieces of feeder fish and carnivore based cubes, but he has none of it just closing up on me and ignoring the foods.

In any case is this in fact a bubble tip anemone and should I be worried about him? How can I get him to eat and grow?

 

[melypr1985]

Certainly looks like a very bleached BTA. Pretty cool hitchhiker to get. Let's see if @Amoo can lend some insight

 

[Amoo]

That most certainly is a BTA and absolutely one of the most bleached I have literally ever seen. He's snow white. Wonder what color he'll be when we get done I'm going with green

For starters let's get the basics out of the way:

Tank Size
Age
Lights (what kind and what is your lighting intensity and schedule)
Tank Parameters (your most recent is fine)

Once we get some more info we'll figure out what we can do to help the little guy.

 

[Clinton]

That most certainly is a BTA and absolutely one of the most bleached I have literally ever seen. He's snow white. Wonder what color he'll be when we get done I'm going with green

For starters let's get the basics out of the way:

Tank Size
Age
Lights (what kind and what is your lighting intensity and schedule)
Tank Parameters (your most recent is fine)

Once we get some more info we'll figure out what we can do to help the little guy.

He's had a rough go at life seeing as the tank age is 3 months and he was a hitchhiker on a piece of live rock to begin my cycle with ghost feeding and bio spira. The BTA, a scarlet hermit crab and a bumble bee snail all survived a 2 month not very intensive cycle before fish were added. PH at lowest was last read yesterday at 8.1 highest 8.5.
Highest nitrite on July 12th at .25ppm
Nitrate same day 7.5 ppm
And ammonia read at .75ppm
Back from Honeymoon August 1st
Large diatom outbreak and hair algae
0 across the board though.
Bought foxfaced rabbitfish who devoured all the algae. No spikes 0 ammonia nitrite and nitrate since 8/11
Yesterday parameters:
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
Specific gravity: 1.024
Calcium:450 ppm
DT: 150g
Sump:50g
Lights one 72" Orbit light Bar 6700/10k LEDS
The lights are on a 12 hour cycle with a one hour sunrise and sunset blue spectrum. For the rest of the time I run them full blast.

 

[Clinton]

I'm already getting corraline algae and the rest of the inhabitants are all happy. Also the pods I added have been reproducing greatly in the sump and DT

 

[Amoo]

Holy Macoroni what a ride, lol.

I'm having trouble locating your specific lighting fixture, can you help me out with a link?

All I can find is this: http://current-usa.com/loop/orbit-ic-led-aquarium-light/
which doesn't look right to me
or something like this in the 6500K spectrum: https://www.amazon.com/Aquarium-LED...D=31YCIQkqkLL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=detail

 

[Clinton]

Holy Macoroni what a ride, lol.

I'm having trouble locating your specific lighting fixture, can you help me out with a link?

All I can find is this: http://current-usa.com/loop/orbit-ic-led-aquarium-light/
which doesn't look right to me
or something like this in the 6500K spectrum: https://www.amazon.com/Aquarium-LED...D=31YCIQkqkLL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=detail

https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/orbit-marine-72-ic-loop-led-current-usa/

 

[Amoo]

Ok here is what I was looking for:

So Nems can bleach for two reasons:

1. Too much light too fast, zoos go crazy and they end up spitting them all out.
2. Not enough light and they spit out most all of their zoos because they can't maintain them.

I see in your second to last picture, once upon a time he was green and close to the bottom of the tank. I can't tell exactly where he is now, but I think still somewhere similar?

In my opinion he needs two things, stable living conditions, which you're finally giving him and better light. Now luckily your light can barely get there, but you're going to need to have him towards the very top of the tank. I generally try to shoot for around 200ish par at minimum for BTAs.

BUT WAIT

your nem is bleached, this adds a very important variable. You're going to have to adjust him into the light slowly. If it was me I would pick a spot somewhere around what should be the 100-125 PAR range so say like 12 inches below the light, but somewhere that gives him the option of moving closer or further away.

BUT WAIT AGAIN

He's just now coming out for one of the first times and opening nicely. Which is not a bad thing. The first pictures show a perfectly happy Nem that just happens to be bleached. If you measure how far from the light he is you can estimate about how much PAR he is getting. Typically when Nems are unhappy they will move around constantly.

So here's what I would recommend:

1. Measure and see what PAR he's getting. That will help us a lot.

2. I would monitor him for the next 72 hours to see if he moves again, or possibly you can tell us how long he has been in his current location? If it's been over a week then we may consider moving him, if it's only been a day or two, it might be best to leave him where he is for the time being.

Ideally the end goal here is you're going to need to get him higher in the tank into more lighting to get him to color back up. The tricky part comes in whether you have to physically move him or he will move himself.

If you end up having to move him I would probably try here first:

That should put him close to the PAR range we're looking for, give him a place to stick his foot under and attach in that little recess and hopefully extend out beyond that rock. Ideally he'll regulate his light by himself and retract under that ledge when he's had too much light and stick out when he wants more.

 

[Clinton]

You are indeed spot on with his behavior. He was bleached when I got him then started to get a little color then the little twerp went into hiding sometimes upside down under rock ledges completely out of the light. About 2 days ago he came out into the open again but clear at the bottom of the tank. Within the last 24hrs is when he decided to move about half way up my rock work. Last time he was in a position I could feed him he went into hiding for over a week. Now that he's opening up again where I could float food to him via tongs he's had me more concerned because of just how bleached he's become. He's as white as he was after the first week he was in there. He must be a hardy one though, yes I dosed with bio-spira (bacteria), but he's still an invert that survived a new tanks cycle. I'll see if he stays up high and open for now? He's a little over a foot deep

 

[Amoo]

Yes, DO NOT FEED HIM. Like literally make sure you don't. Not until he has stayed in the same place for at least 5-7 days. Read the sticky that just got added in the Nem forum about feeding.

You're going to need to feed him eventually, but you absolutely do not want to do it while he's still trying to find a happy spot. And because he's bleached I would recommend feeding 2x a week but VERY small amount.

But literally the worst thing you could do right now is feed him.

 

[Amoo]

ALSO FWIW Bio-spira is my personal go to for quick cycling tanks I plan on putting Nems in, so in a way you got very lucky or did some amazing research with your choice of cycling bacteria

 

[Clinton]

I was guessing from trial and error and his last hiding escapade that feeding would be a poor decision. For the most part monitor him and hope he keeps opening up and finally stays in the same place for more than a week?

 

[Amoo]

Yes. So literally after all that I'm saying, do nothing

 

[Amoo]

Actually I lied, I personally would consider putting a second powerhead on the other side of the tank 1 PH is very little flow in a 6ft tank unless you've got a silly large return pump

 

[Clinton]

I researched the top products for quick cycling knowing I would be impatient. Added dry rock new water and bio spira first then ghost fed for a couple days before throwing the live rocks in there where this guy came from. Seems like a suspended cyst form of the bacteria needing cultured was the best choice. I also added another bottle 3 days before adding my first fish which I added sooner than anticipated thanks to my invertebrate hitchhikers doing so well from day one. Lol

 

[Clinton]

I definitely want to get a second pump sometime down the road and definitely before I pull gph off of my return pump by adding a UV sterilizer. Right now I feel like I have too much flow throw my sump to be getting any real use out of my fuge. The return pump is just a 1900gph but that one head in there does reach the other side (barely) it's a 2100gph

 

[Clinton]

What I didn't research setting up this tank were anemones seeing as I hadn't planned on having one haha. Hooking up my UV sterilizer, purchasing a second power head, and purchasing a second light bar are the next hurdles I want to leap before adding corals.

 

[Amoo]

I researched the top products for quick cycling knowing I would be impatient. Added dry rock new water and bio spira first then ghost fed for a couple days before throwing the live rocks in there where this guy came from. Seems like a suspended cyst form of the bacteria needing cultured was the best choice. I also added another bottle 3 days before adding my first fish which I added sooner than anticipated thanks to my invertebrate hitchhikers doing so well from day one. Lol

Yeah I see you built your own sump and outside of maybe walling off the section where your return comes in to separate it from where your skimmer is for a little more constant water level it looks good. Could definitely tell from the FTS you did a bit of planning before setup.

Also keep the fact you got a Nem to live through a cycle via bio-spira, it's a secret I keep to myself for the simple fact that newbies really shouldn't have nems, especially ones who are already quick cycling their tanks.

Since you like research though, read through as much info as you can find on that BTA. look for threads where people have had problems and how they were handled in effort to correct them. There's a lot to be learned from others mistakes.

Also in a reef tank unless the water is picking up your rocks and tossing them out on the floor, chances are you don't have too much flow. You can for some things, but tons of turnover is a good thing. Especially in the DT. Ideally if a fish poops, you should be able to watch it float around your tank until it makes it into the overflow

 

[Amoo]

What I didn't research setting up this tank were anemones seeing as I hadn't planned on having one haha. Hooking up my UV sterilizer, purchasing a second power head, and purchasing a second light bar are the next hurdles I want to leap before adding corals.

you mean, purchasing a second power head then a second light bar then a UV sterilizer?

 

[Amoo]

You should start a build thread by the way man. I like your ghetto light hanging system, would be fun to see how you do 2.