questions about my rbta

Bensadork · Jul 8, 2015

So i made the plunge and got my first anenome on July 4. I bought a beautiful rbta in hopes that my clownfish will soon take a liking to it. I was at home on my lunch break yesterday and decided I was going to feed it. I took a small freeze dried shrimp maybe 1/2 an inch long and stuck it onto the end of a piece of straightened out coat hanger and put the shrimp right in the middle of it. Everything seems to be going ok since then. I have read mixed reports about rbta's from all over the internet saying they should be fed anywhere from every 2 days to monthly to "i never feed my rbta". This, of course, can make things tricky when deciding the best approach to my system. I do understand that every system is completely different and will behave and react very differently across the board. I took a video of my new rbta yesterday about 10 minutes after it opened back up after i fed it the shrimp. I just want to make sure everything looks healthy and normal. And I was also wondering how long everyone has gone before the anenome started to host their clownfish. Mine do seem slightly interested but not enough to dive in. I have also read that this could take anywhere from immediately to several months and possibly never. I have all the patience in the world as long as everytihng is happy and healthy which it seems to be so far. I have also been dosing a bit of reef fusion 1 and reef fusion 2 every couple of days since i got the RBTA. Thanks for letting me be so long-winded! Here is the video I took 10 minutes after feeding my rbta yesterday.

acolotto · Jul 8, 2015

Feeding a nem depends on the type of lighting you have? If strong enough then no need for food, if in the lighting is weak then supplemental feedings are good. Looks healthy and nicely colored based on video. Also with getting clowns to host like you said its anybodys guess, but there are tricks. One I have heard of working is taping a picture of a similar clown hosting a nem on your glass. Sounds funny but have seen plenty of people that says this works.

Bensadork · Jul 8, 2015

I don't feel like my lighting is "weak" but compared to some of the higher end set ups i have seen on this site, it is definitely lacking comparably. The tank is a 46g bowfront and the only lighting I am using currently is a Current USA Marine Orbit LED fixture. I have been wondering if I should get some kind of flourescent fixture to supplement, but I have found no reason yet to take that step. Especially since we all know how expensive good light fixtures are. I would prefer to stick with LED completely just for energy consumption issues but I will cross that bridge when I get there. I have a couple of small zoa frags in there that you can see on the video on the right side of the screen. I also picked up a nice little green star polyp frag when I got my anemone. It's placed about mid-way to lower in the tank and it seems to be doing very well. The polyps are almost all fully extending during the day. They are all retracting in the evenings but I do not see any reason to be concerned with that as this seems to be usual activity with some corals. I'm really suprised that the RBTA decided to stay put after only a few hours and even then it only moved about 1 inch from where I initially placed it in the tank. I was afraid it was going to climb all the way up my rock work and affect my zoas but it stuck its foot upside down on the bottom of the rock in the front so hopefully it stays happy right there. It's in the ideal spot I would want it in my tank. Right up front and center so it can be seen and also right where my clowns have stayed since I got them. This morning when I was getting ready for work I noticed that it had closed up just slightly and the tentacles where a lot fatter than yesterday. I assumed this was because it was not trying as hard to get nutrients from the water and not extending its tentacles so far because of the shrimp i fed it yesterday. It could also be because the lights in my tank don't come on until right after I have already left. When i came home for lunch today it was all spread back out to about the diameter of my palm. I am super excited, and I have always dreamed of having a saltwater tank with corals and especially an anenome. Now, if I could only get those clownfish more interested in it I would be ecstatic.

Bensadork · Jul 9, 2015

So I came home from work yesterday and my anemone looked completely shriveled up and dead. I immediately panicked and started googling what could be causing this. It was still in the same place but it had shriveled down to less than 1/4 of its original size and all the tentacles were just dangling like a bunch of tiny wet noodles. I did a little reading and found out that this could be a very normal thing since I had just fed it a piece of jumbo krill the day before. I am assuming this is just a part of the digesting process or waste expulsion or something. I took a picture of it just to show what a difference a couple of hours made. Anyway, I kept a close eye on it all evening and eventually it started to come back out and regain its size and shape. When I woke up this morning all seems pretty much back to normal. It hasn't yet quite opened up all the way like it was when I fed it, but only the blue lights were on so I am hoping when I come home on my lunch break today that it will be back to its fully expanded self. Talk about nerve-racking! I thought i was gonna have a dead rbta and a huge tank crash on my hands.

Trex · Jul 9, 2015

Yep, pretty normal for a new anemone and one that was recently fed.

Those LEDs aren't the best, and I would consider some type of upgrade.

What are the current water parameters of your tank, with numbers please. Include the SG/salinity.

kcondon · Jul 9, 2015

I have a RBTA and it took close to 8 months before the clown fish finally decided they liked it. Even at that I had to force the issue a bit. Depending on the type of clown and if they are captive bred or wild caught will ultimately determine the time table.

My local fish store recommended removing the rock and placing in a vase or small bucket with tank water. Drop your clown fish in and slowly remove water until the clowns start to rub against the anemone. This worked like a charm 8 months of putting pictures on the side of the tank, trying to entice clowns with food, pretty much everything you can imagine all for the bucket recommendation to take about 20 minutes. It looks like you have a pretty big rock there which may make it tricky.

Bensadork · Jul 9, 2015

yeah that rock is supporting the entire left side of my aquascape so moving it might not be the best of ideas unless I have ran out of all other options lol. Even then, i would probably not try to move that rock and just accept the fact that my clowns will never be hosted by the rbta. I have only had the nem for a few days so I still have plenty of figuring out to do about this new creature I have. My clowns get so close to it every day that I feel at some time they will eventually get in there and call it home. They are tank bred and tank raised Darwin clownfish so they will probably be a little reluctant to jump into it because they have never seen one. The tank they were in at the time of purchase there was only a crushed coral substrate with one piece of live rock in it with no other fish in it besides a couple of small gobies on the bottom. They are also both still juveniles so hopefully as they get older and the orange becomes less apparant on their face they will start to pay more attention to the nem. Not only that, but the only other fish in my tank right now is a lawnmower blenny and an orange spotted shrimp goby. They have no aggression and nothing shows aggression towards them so I can imagine they don't have any reason to hide out in the nem for protection like they would in the wild. Hopefully those natural instincts will kick in soon!