My New (Bleached) Ritteri Anemone

[Purpletang92]

I'm sure someone more experienced can better chime in and maybe correct me, but I would expect it to be constantly hunting for "more light" as it doesn't have zooxanthellae at the moment, so no matter how much light it's getting the anemone will think it's lacking in the photosynthetic food department.

But, fwiw, it's under a hydra 26 at about 40% at the moment.

It shouldn’t be constantly moving , it moved up towards the water line because the lack of light. Flow also plays a big factor but this type of anemone is light hungry especially being bleached. If light was sufficient enough it would not be moving “higher” in the tank. I have one also, mine was much more bleached than yours. I keep my mag under T5, a blanket type of lighting and it even developed bubbles at the tips like in the wild, the most mine will move is a few inches left or right but it stays put. My mag is still a little bleached but it has gained a lot of color back it has been about 7 months now since I first acquired it , it is a green and purple magnifica.

 

[shred5]

Magnificas require lots of light..

It is common for them to head to the top as close as they can get. They will move onto the glass pretty often or perch at the highest spot.

 

[TonysReef]

So I increased the light intensity and it hasn't moved from this spot in about a week. Gets hit pretty well with the return flow and I just ordered another pump to sit across the tank that should make it even more happy.

But it remains bleached. I feed it small pieces at least once a day and the anemone is sticky and happy to accept all the time.

So, should I up the size or frequency of feedings?

I'm also thinking it might be time to try a zooxanthellae transplant. I would love to find a healthy ritteri for it, but so far I've not have any luck. I can easily cut a tentacle or two off of my black widow BTA, any chance of that being successful?

 

[shred5]

Feeding wont help it with bringing the color back but it does help with energy..
Feeding more wont hurt it, what ever it does not eat it will eject later..
Honestly it may not be 100 percent bleached and will eventually come back but it is really hard to tell from a picture.
If not 100 percent bleached it will come back...
Is that brown spot/bump in the middle its mouth? That could be zooxanthellae. I have brought back other bleached anemones and around the mouth is usually where I see zooxanthellae coming back first.
It still looks healthy to me...
The only thing is unless you turned it off it is not getting enough current.. Mags love lots of light and lots of flow.


Edit:
I looked at the other pictures of it and the mouth does seem to be brown so it should have some zooxanthellae..

Maybe OrionN or D-Nak can confirm what I am seeing..

Also I can take along time(months for it to get better...

You seem to be doing ok so far.

 

[TonysReef]

Is that brown spot/bump in the middle its mouth? That could be zooxanthellae. I have brought back other bleached anemones and around the mouth is usually where I see zooxanthellae coming back first.
It still looks healthy to me...
The only thing is unless you turned it off it is not getting enough current.. Mags love lots of light and lots of flow.

Yes it is and does seem to be noticeably darker than the rest of it:

And as far as flow, it has positioned itself so that the return flow is hitting just to the side of it, so the lack of flow is by choice.

I did order an icecap 1k gyre pump to sit on the opposite end of the tank (3') and point directly towards it, so that should help some more with flow.

 

[mimiboy]

Nice Ritteri, good acquisition. Carpet & Ritteris are my favorites, good luck with it. How big is your tank because one of my old customers had one & it grew to almost 3 foot diameter, HUGE!!!

it's amazing that a Ritteri can grow to 3foot in aquarium. and wanna know what size the Ritteri is when your customer first got it and how long it took to grow so big ？

 

[OrionN]

It is hard to tell if the Zooxanthellae are coming back. The yellow tips are not it. You see the zooxanthellae as “dirty” stains on the clear/clean tentacles. There then spreads as the anemone recover. Other than bleach he is healthy. Good luck with him. Magnifica don’t eat too much, not like the carpets, so be careful not to overfeed him.

 

[D-Nak]

The darker mouth could be a sign that the zoox population is coming back. I picked up a completely bleached mag a couple of weeks ago and it has no zoox -- it's completely white aside from the yellow tips, which concerns me. Looking at yours gives me a sense of hope. I've tried a zoox transplant from my gigantea. but I don't see any results yet.

 

[TonysReef]

I'm thinking it's time to throw in the towel (so to speak).

The anemone remains healthy and happy and hungry and sticky, but still no signs of coloring up at all, although it's only been five weeks.

On top of that, it's still the only anemone the clowns will go into, so my hope is that by removing it they'll start to use the carpets, which would be nice since there are loads of options to spread out in the haddonis as opposed to everyone trying to share the one ritteri. And my dream for this tank was always clowns in carpets. The ritteri was an impulse buy from the start.

Is anyone interested? One seems to have just sold on eBay for 250, which is crazy. Ideally I would sell it locally, but can consider shipping and a good price for someone experienced that's really interested.

Also, on a side note; why are Ritteri/Magnifica so often bleached as compared to other anemones? I know it can happen to all species, but it seems far more common proportionately for these guys.