Rude Host! Anemone

kkgaskin90 · Jul 8, 2013

My clowns want SO badly for my anemone to come out and play. It is a BTA and has been hiding in the crevices of the rocks against the back wall. It is starting to come out for longer amounts of time during the day so I'm hopeful! The poor clowns just look at it and touch it with their faces. "Come out and play!"
On another note, It looks pretty bleached :/ I would hate to be causing it any undue stress. It came from an online retailer, so I am unsure of the conditions it came from, but in my tank it's under 36 Watt Actinic Blue Straight Pin (on from 10am-9pm) 36 Watt 10,000K Daylight Straight Pin (on from 12pm-7pm) 0.75 Watt Lunar Blue LED Bar (on from 9pm-12am)... Water tests are great with Alk a little on the high side but that's it. I target feed it when I feed my fish (Every other day, if I can get to it). Any advice?

eliramos · Jul 9, 2013

let it be, lower the time your lights are on by a few hours, dont feed it either. Are you able to see if it is eating all the food? if its that stressed it may not even be eating. possibly ingesting and spitting out later.

Trex · Jul 9, 2013

What size tank? That may not be enough light depending on the size.
What is your salinity/SG?

sherita · Jul 9, 2013

If it is bleached and stressed the last thing it needs right now is clowns aggravating it. And, like another poster said, you might not have enough light for it. Can you snap a pic and post it up. That might help.

kkgaskin90 · Jul 9, 2013

The tank is a 29G Biocube. SG and Salinity 1.024 and 32. I have attached the pictures so you can tell me if it looks very bleached or appears ok or...? The male Clownfish is very much trying to get in it today if I'm not near the tank. The female seems to be letting the back wall top rock be her host.
Sorry for the picture quality-phone cameria is all I've got at the moment!

eliramos · Jul 12, 2013

Love your wrasse just saying

sherita · Jul 12, 2013

It looks fairly bleached to me. How it is doing now?

Singlefin · Jul 12, 2013

I doubt stock Biocube lights are sufficient. I had ecoxotic LEDs in my Biocube and they still weren't enough for my RBTA.

kkgaskin90 · Jul 12, 2013

It looks to be coloring up now. Not a whole lot but the green is at least showing up some-definitely spending more time out than hiding. Suggestions on what lights I should get?

Thanks, eliramos-I like him too! He's a Melanurus Fairy Wrasse

kkgaskin90 · Jul 21, 2013

Just wanted to update: the anemone has gone back to almost fully colored and seems to be very happy. Still going in and out of it's little crevice, but it seems to be spending much more time out. The clowns have also decided this is their favorite spot, and it seems to be working out. Still would love advice on lighting.

kkgaskin90 · Aug 5, 2013

Is there any such thing as supplemental lighting? The anemone has colored back up a bit, but still doesn't seem to be completely happy. When I target feed it many times it catches the food in it's tentacles only to drop it a few moments later. I'm fairly certain it's due to the lighting and I'd like to avoid losing it if at all possible. I have the lights mentioned above with space for more LED's... is it possible to add lighting in that would help the BTA and not have to replace/revamp the entire lighting setup? I'm no DIY'er and certainly don't have unlimited funds for a huge overhaul... any advice???

Trex · Aug 5, 2013

Usually, the phrase "supplemental lighting" refers to additional lighting that helps fill out the specturm and helps with dusk/dawn effect.

Example, over my 65 I have 2*250 Radium MH lamps -- those are the main lighting. To help fill out the way the lights look (( and for to create dusk/dawn )) I use 2*96 power compact lamps -- a 50/50 lamp and a dual actinic lamp.

I have never actually kept a bio-cube, so not familiar with how to add additional lighting.

Have you run a full batch of water parameter tests lately? If so, what were the results. If not, would suggest running them.