Anemone ID and Troubleshooting help

[GCNanoReef]

Hi Team,

I picked up this little guy from my LFS which was billed as a green BTA at the time. However when I got it home I did note that it had purple dots at the end of it's tentacles so wondering if it is maybe a different species?

Since I thought it was a BTA I put him on the live rock and he wandered for less than 24hours before settling on the spot it is now. It's planted its foot up and under a rock overhang so the foot is out of the light and flow but can reach out into it. It spends most of the time in a stretched trumpet shape or with the disk closed up but I did get it to eat a small piece of shrimp about a week ago.

In the last two weeks it has spent most of its time closed up or will have the body/ disk inflated but never the tentacles. It opens up the full disk maybe twice a day for 10 minutes but spends the rest of the day/ night mostly closed up. Mouth is closed most of the time but I have seen it open up now and then.

I'm wondering if it maybe isn't a BTA and I should try to get it to move to substrate as I never saw it check out the sand? It is starting to look a little bleached / washed out as it had it's tentacles fully inflated and was a bit greener when i picked it up.

Tank setup is:

Tank is 63L / 16 Gal Oceanfree
Light is an AI Prime Reef 16HD and I have set it for a 10 hour photo period peaking at about 12-14k
The light is also about 14 days into a 30 day acclimation mode


Nitrate: 0.0 - 2.0 ppm (hard to measure precisely with API Reef Master)
Phos: 0.60 (Measured with Hanna phos checker)
Salinity: 33 ppm
Temp: 24.5 C

I don't usually measure other micros like Kalk or Calcium as I do a 15-20% water change every 10 days or so and the LPS corals I have look healthy and happy.

 

[Not an IT guy]

Nems like dirty water. I think you water is too clean. My nitrates are at 12-15 and my nem has split twice within a 6 month period.

 

[CanuckReefer]

Looks like Sebae to my eyes....and don't 'try ' to get it to do anything....let it find it's space.

 

[Jekyl]

Agreed don't bother it. White light photos are needed for any identification.

 

[MaxTremors]

Nems like dirty water. I think you water is too clean. My nitrates are at 12-15 and my nem has split twice within a 6 month period.

A BTA splitting is not necessarily a sign that they are happy, they will often split when stressed or when water conditions are poor, it’s a way to essentially double its chance of survival. It’s well known that you can ‘shock’ an anemone into splitting (by changing temp, salinity, etc). That said, they don’t only split when they’re unhappy, but IMO, if your nem is splitting more than twice a year, there’s something off. A healthy BTA in good conditions will put its energy into sexually reproducing and prioritize growth over splitting (BTAs in the wild primarily reproduce sexually not through binary fission). I’m not saying your nem is stressed or unhealthy, but just wanted to point out that conditions that will induce splitting are not necessarily ideal.

 

[Not an IT guy]

A BTA splitting is not necessarily a sign that they are happy, they will often split when stressed or when water conditions are poor, it’s a way to essentially double its chance of survival. It’s well known that you can ‘shock’ an anemone into splitting (by changing temp, salinity, etc). That said, they don’t only split when they’re unhappy, but IMO, if your nem is splitting more than twice a year, there’s something off. A healthy BTA in good conditions will put its energy into sexually reproducing and prioritize growth over splitting (BTAs in the wild primarily reproduce sexually not through binary fission). I’m not saying your nem is stressed or unhealthy, but just wanted to point out that conditions that will induce splitting are not necessarily ideal.

I lied. Twice in the last 1 year. Just checked when I bought it.