Rose Bubble Tip not enjoying life..... Why?

Saylor · May 22, 2019

I have a 20 gallon hexagon shaped tall aquarium. Established with fish and no major problems since June 2, 2018. I give it attention daily, making sure all levels and parameters are great. (Don't have specific numbers with me, can add when I get home tonight). Protein skimmer and small powerhead run non stop and I run carbon through a filter every couple weeks. Live rock, live sand, 2 Perculas, 1 Firefish Goby, CUC.

All is well and happy. Except... I added a Rose Bubble Tip Anemone that I bought from a neighbor (40 year reef enthusiast) about 3 weeks ago (4/30/19). His RBTA has split and split and split and he has sold about 70 splits to others over the years to other neighbors. It was beautiful when I got it. I acclimated it by floating for 30 min and then drip acclimation for a little over 2 hours. Got it in my tank and it seemed to be doing well looking for it's ideals spot. Over the past 3 weeks it not extended it's tentacles very much, still moves around, and now seems bleached and just nubs for tentacles. I upgraded my factory lights with a 165 watt black box. I have raised the height above the tank over and over again and lessened (gradually) the output from running 45% strength blue from 20% and 15% white to 5% thinking that the lights were to bright and that was the problem. Now I'm not sure..... I make sure some thawed mysis and brine shrimp gets to him in the evenings when I feed it to my fish and have recently started chopping up and soaking freeze dried krill to him.

Do you think he's getting too much light? Not enough light? Is light not even the issue, something else? Please help! I feel like I have research the heck out of what to do and still have no idea. LOL Feeling pretty defeated by this guy but I really want him to be happy and healthy.

Day 1

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3 (Yesterday)

Full tank for reference...

James M · May 22, 2019

How old is your tank ? How high are the light off the surface ?
The nem looks slightly bleached and doesn’t look great.

Saylor · May 22, 2019

James M said:
How old is your tank ? How high are the light off the surface ?
The nem looks slightly bleached and doesn’t look great.

Lights have been raised from about 12"above water to about 18" above water. Tank will be a year old in 2 weeks.

Trying to figure out what is causing it to bleach.... Too much light? Or not enough light? I thought it was maybe too intense in the beginning and that's what was making it sort of "hide" but research now has me thinking that the light has been adjusted down too much and that it's bleaching from stress and not enough light. That it was just "hiding" in the beginning trying to acclimate and not necessarily hiding from the light.... I have no idea though....

Paleozoic_reefer · May 22, 2019

I don’t have any experience with black boxes but it looks like the depth of the tank (looks to be pretty deep) and height of the lights from the surface may be your main issue. Do you know what type of lighting schedule, intensity, height it was under previously? Also, how are your water parameters?

James M · May 22, 2019

Saylor said:
Lights have been raised from about 12"above water to about 18" above water. Tank will be a year old in 2 weeks.

Trying to figure out what is causing it to bleach.... Too much light? Or not enough light? I thought it was maybe too intense in the beginning and that's what was making it sort of "hide" but research now has me thinking that the light has been adjusted down too much and that it's bleaching from stress and not enough light. That it was just "hiding" in the beginning trying to acclimate and not necessarily hiding from the light.... I have no idea though....

I would say it’s not getting enough light and bleached due to stressing out. If the nem were to get too much lighting it would have moved on the lower side of the tank. I would bring the light down and find a good schedule for the light

Saylor · May 22, 2019

James M said:
I would say it’s not getting enough light and bleached due to stressing out. If the nem were to get too much lighting it would have moved on the lower side of the tank. I would bring the light down and find a good schedule for the light

That's what I was thinking recently. I'm going to adjust the light it's self back down some and gradually increase the intensity back up. I currently have blues starting at 6:20 am to 7pm and whites adding in at 6:40 am-6pm.

Thanks for the advice!

Saylor · May 22, 2019

Paleozoic_reefer said:
I don’t have any experience with black boxes but it looks like the depth of the tank (looks to be pretty deep) and height of the lights from the surface may be your main issue. Do you know what type of lighting schedule, intensity, height it was under previously? Also, how are your water parameters?

I actually just inquired with the guy I bought it from again and he said to increase the lighting as well. He has the same lights as I do and said his Anemones (the ones this split from) LOVE light. I'm feeling a bit better about knowing what the problem probably is and how to correct. Hopefully it's not too late. Thanks for the response!

Keen4 · Apr 14, 2020

Hes starving. Anemones tentacles turn into nubs and they lose color when they are in starvation. He may need to be fed daily by hand until he can get back to normal. Possibly find out what the feeding schedule was like with the previous owner and find out what food he was feeding it and possibly get on that schedule later when it gets better. I suggest monitoring the feeding and make sure no other critter is taking its food out of its mouth. A lot of times if its hosting a clown fish, the clown will not let it eat. This is from my experience and research. Also let the frozen food defrost before feeding. That seems to help too. Im currently reviving a nem from this exact issue and seeing results. Good Luck!

here's another helpful read I found that helped me out: http://www.corallore.com/anemone-shrinking/

This site gives some good info on why bta's shrink their tentacles too:https://www.ultimatereef.net/threads/worth-a-read.460451/

jreefier · Apr 15, 2020

This anemone doesn't look all that bad to me. I think there is still hope. I agree with others about the need for more light. The factory light you started with was I'm sure not nearly enough, so not sure when you made the switch to the LED. For reference, I use a 300 watt LED black box viparspectra set to 50% power for both white and blue with blue running about 11 hours and white about 9. Crank yours up a little more each day. Direct feeding is not necessary with an anemone but strong lighting is. These guys get nothing but occasional drifts of shrimp from frozen fish food but have not been fed directly for almost 3 years.

Colin_S · Apr 15, 2020

following along, as my RBT split few months ago and is acting in the same way.. intresting to know about the feeding. i will now direct feed more often.. hopefully we can both improve the BTA

Ebisan · Apr 16, 2020

Do you have a par meter? I had 120+ clones from a single bta over 13 years ago. They seemed healthy under 2x 175W MH. When I switched to 2x AI Hydra 52 HDs, my btas started to shrink and die over the next 9 months. I ended up with about 20 clones and a brown death looking tank. At the time I thought I didn’t have enough light. Switched back to the MHs. Got a par meter. The MHs produced around 150 par at the level where the btas were located. The Hydras at my settings were over 350. Anyways it has been over a year of water changes and maintaining a stable tank. Tank is finally showing life again. Recently switched to T5s adjusted (height) to achieve around 150 par. Anemones seem happy and growing.