Rose Bubble Tip Anemone, not so rosy

ritter6788 · Apr 2, 2012

This is my first RBTA I've owned. I'm more of a sps/lps keeper than anemones but I've always wanted one and the RBTA I've seen strike me as some of the nicest to keep. I order this one from Diver's Den a few weeks ago and I've been disappointed with the coloration on it. It's a small one about 2 inches. It hid on the back of a large toadstool in almost total shade for a couple of weeks but it has worked it's way to the front of the tank under the lighting but at the bottom left of a 150w metal halide. The green on the lower part of the tentacles has turned a brighter green especially under the actinics but the red is more of a drab brown. The picture I ordered it from had nice, bright red, rosy tentacles. I also have not seen it bubble up yet but it's not reaching for light either. It eats well but it doesn't "catch" food like other nems I've had but if I place food on it the anemone eats it quickly.

Do anemones color up the same way some corals do or do they have a permanent coloration? Thanks for any info!

cdness · Apr 2, 2012

Nems can change colors. Yours is going to end up walking though. Find it a crevace or hole in a rock and get his foot in there. He will attach and not move. They feel more secure when their foot is protected from predators.

Also do you have clownfish? They do mutually benefit each other through the hosting.

What are you feeding it? Mine would eat pieces of silversides and krill. It also ate the mysis. All frozen of course, no freeze-dried here.

huuta · Apr 2, 2012

i don't know about the color,but some rbta will have the bubble and some will not get the bubble.i have 2 rbta.each in different tank.one bubble while the other didn't even though they both came from the same mommy.

BroncosZOA · Apr 2, 2012

Anemones

Anemones dont chance color, your lighting it what changes their color.

I would contact them cause that looks like a green to me. but again it could be your lighting

ritter6788 · Apr 2, 2012

cdness said:
Nems can change colors. Yours is going to end up walking though. Find it a crevace or hole in a rock and get his foot in there. He will attach and not move. They feel more secure when their foot is protected from predators.

Also do you have clownfish? They do mutually benefit each other through the hosting.

What are you feeding it? Mine would eat pieces of silversides and krill. It also ate the mysis. All frozen of course, no freeze-dried here.

It has been walking a bit. It made several laps around one side of the tank before settling in the front/bottom of the tank. It hasn't moved since finding that spot.

I don't have any clownfish at the moment but I plan on getting a pair. I has holding off since I was planning on adding a pair of Maroon or Tomato Clowns and the nem is so small I wanted it to recover from shipping stress and grow a bit before adding the clowns.

So far I've fed it PE mysis, chopped sliversides and chopped frozen krill about 3 times a week, rotating the 3 foods. It has been eating well.

huuta said:
i don't know about the color,but some rbta will have the bubble and some will not get the bubble.i have 2 rbta.each in different tank.one bubble while the other didn't even though they both came from the same mommy.

I've read that some will bubble and some won't. I'm not as concerned about the bubbles as I as the color. The pic on the site when I bought it showed nice red bubbly tips. This one has a very faint red to it. Mostly brown. The lower part of the tentacles are nice green.

BroncosZOA said:
Anemones dont chance color, your lighting it what changes their color.

I would contact them cause that looks like a green to me. but again it could be your lighting

I guess that was a better way of asking my question. Will the nem change colors after being under my reef lighting for a while? I keep lots of sps and I know some can stress and lose color during shipping or come in wild collected and color up nicer under reef tank conditions. I was wondering if there was hope for this to be a nice bright colored RBTA. I had a nice red color to it on the picture when I bought it but it came in looking drab. I was aware that it had green on it when I ordered it. The green color is showing up better than when I first got it but the red isn't coming through. I'll post the picture from DD of it later when I get to the other computer.

reef_freak · Apr 2, 2012

Keep in mind when adding clowns that some clowns can love an anem to death when they are small and the clowns on the larger side.
Not sure about the color but what kind of lighting spectrum wise, do you have it under?

bairdimusprime · Apr 2, 2012

defniately a rose, i've got a rainbow rbta that matches the colors in your pictures 100% that specific nem has never fully inflated its tentacles they've stayed half mast for over a year now.

ritter6788 · Apr 2, 2012

reef_freak said:
Keep in mind when adding clowns that some clowns can love an anem to death when they are small and the clowns on the larger side.
Not sure about the color but what kind of lighting spectrum wise, do you have it under?

I agree. That's why I was holding off on adding clowns with the small nem until it was larger or I found a very small pair of clowns. The LFS here only seems to carry huge fish. They had Tomato Clowns bigger than I've ever seen the last time I was in there. The clowns were bigger than my nem.

It's under a HQI 150w 14,000k Phoenix bulb and 2 65w PC actinics. It's a good bit of light. I have no trouble growing sps under the light. The tank is only a 20 high with a sandbed of about 2-2 1/2 inches so the nem is about 12-14 inches away from the bulb.

ritter6788 · Apr 2, 2012

bairdimusprime said:
defniately a rose, i've got a rainbow rbta that matches the colors in your pictures 100% that specific nem has never fully inflated its tentacles they've stayed half mast for over a year now.

So does yours have brighter colors than mine? Will the red come out more in the tips? The pictures of the ones I've seen have bright red colors. Even the ones with green on the tentacles have glowing red tips. Mine is just brownish red where the nice bright red I was expecting is. If you look at if from a certain angle it's more red and looking from the top but still lacking in color.

It's not the bubbling of the tips I care about.

revhtree · Apr 2, 2012

It looks healthy though!

ritter6788 · Apr 2, 2012

It does appear healthy to me.

Here's the pic of it on DD,

ritter6788 · Apr 5, 2012

Well this is odd but cool...

I got home night before last and the nem has moved out into the light. I took this pic last night. This pic was taken with my phone and not doctored at all.

Bright, glowing green with pink tips and yellow between the red and green. I think it will even color up more but it's turning into a beauty!

bjledbetter · Apr 5, 2012

Awesome colors

rhibear · Apr 16, 2012

I bought a very similar anemone from Diver's Den in July last year. It was gorgeous the day it arrived and proceeded to fade and turn pink/brown over the following weeks and months. This was in a 40g under a 250w MH & 130w CF. I emailed them about it and was told that it was too much light and that I needed to move my light up.
Not too long afterward I upgraded to a 125g tank with retrofit T5 canopy, 6x 80w plus 2x 12" LED strips to fill in the ends. The move made the now much larger RBTA split in 2 and both have healed nicely but are even more faded than before. Both will bubble occassionally, they eat readily and grow but the colors are sad.

MarvinsReef · Apr 16, 2012

IMHO, they will lose some color as they get big. BTA's are much more colorful when they are smaller or shrunken.

rhibear · Apr 16, 2012

As a matter of comparison, in this picture the clone is about 2-1/2 inches, the same as it was in the original photo. I think in my case it's more than just being deflated or small.

ritter6788 · Apr 16, 2012

Mine is turning more green. It's bubbling up some now and it's mostly all green with pink tips. There's a yellow tint to it between the green and pink when it's not bubbled up. Not much red at all right now.