Anemone (possibly a BTA? Questions)

[JNalley]

Hey everyone, so, I recently (about 2 weeks ago) was at my LFS and was looking at their Anemone's for sale. There was (what I thought/think) a BTA there, but it was all white, it still glows under UV, but I thought it was pretty unique looking and picked it up for my tank. Upon reading some things (just general research because it likes to move around the tank a lot), a lot of people are saying that it should definitely not be white. I can't get a picture of it right now because it's closed up, but found this image on google images and it looks exactly like mine does...

First question is, is this a BTA? or another type of Anemone?
Next question is, if it is a BTA, does this mean it's bleached? Should I be hand feeding it until it gets color back?

Any help is appreciated

 

[blaxsun]

It looks like a BTA, but I don't think it's bleached - I think that's its natural color. The color and behavior sounds more like a condi anemone (Caribbean), but my condi are all white with purple or blue tips.

Kind of a neat find (hopefully it's heathy).

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Looks like a Green BTA that is slightly bleached.

With it being slgihtly bleached, the trick is to just provide a little nutrients in the water and to keep the tank stable. The color will come back without feeding. You can feed the nem little bits of mysis or similar, but no need to go all out and feed daily or anything. They will do just fine once the zooxanthellae and the zoochlorellae recover from either poor water quaility/not enough light in its previous environment.

 

[MurphyTheClownfish]

The same thing happened with me, it's not bleached, just kind of white color. MIne looks almost the same and I've had it for about 2 months now.

 

[JNalley]

Looks like a Green BTA that is slightly bleached.

With it being slgihtly bleached, the trick is to just provide a little nutrients in the water and to keep the tank stable. The color will come back without feeding. You can feed the nem little bits of mysis or similar, but no need to go all out and feed daily or anything. They will do just fine once the zooxanthellae and the zoochlorellae recover from either poor water quaility/not enough light in its previous environment.

I mean, it glows brightly under UV lights and is a cool ghostly green (similar to the original Glow in the Dark toys from the 80's and 90's) But under normal light it definitely looks white with no other traces of colors. No colored tips, nothing.

The same thing happened with me, it's not bleached, just kind of white color. MIne looks almost the same and I've had it for about 2 months now.

Thanks, that's encouraging. I've had it for 2 weeks and it can't seem to find a place it likes well enough to stay put. It's moved places about every 3 days (a couple of times more frequently), sometimes to places that are really hard to get to or even see, so I was hoping I wouldn't have to feed it, otherwise, I'd have to re-do my rockwork.

I suspect it might be flow-related, but even at only 30x turnover in the tank, it just hates being anywhere that's not pressed against a wall in the back.

 

[MurphyTheClownfish]

Thanks, that's encouraging. I've had it for 2 weeks and it can't seem to find a place it likes well enough to stay put. It's moved places about every 3 days (a couple of times more frequently), sometimes to places that are really hard to get to or even see, so I was hoping I wouldn't have to feed it, otherwise, I'd have to re-do my rockwork.

I suspect it might be flow-related, but even at only 30x turnover in the tank, it just hates being anywhere that's not pressed against a wall in the back.

Mine has been slowly settling more and more. For the first week to two weeks he kind of moved everywhere, then kind of found his area, and now his movements have been getting less and less as he settles into his spot. Don't overthink it, just let it do its thing and you'll be good.

 

[dedragon]

Looks like a Green BTA that is slightly bleached.

With it being slgihtly bleached, the trick is to just provide a little nutrients in the water and to keep the tank stable. The color will come back without feeding. You can feed the nem little bits of mysis or similar, but no need to go all out and feed daily or anything. They will do just fine once the zooxanthellae and the zoochlorellae recover from either poor water quaility/not enough light in its previous environment.

This^, it will gain more color back in time prob back to green. Hopefully it doesnt hurt anything on its trip around the tank, can take a bit for it to find a spot, wait til it to settle into a spot before you feed it though

 

[JNalley]

This^, it will gain more color back in time prob back to green. Hopefully it doesnt hurt anything on its trip around the tank, can take a bit for it to find a spot, wait til it to settle into a spot before you feed it though

yeh, the trips around the tank have been... eventful... twice it's been sucked into the foam covering of the powerhead (thankfully no death/damage), and twice it's landed on/touching my rock flower nems. Since the rock flowers seem less picky, I've taken to moving them away from the BTA so that neither stings the other...

 

[Reefing102]

I’ll give the unpopular opinion that to me it looks very bleached as I have never seen a pure white BTA and I’m of the old school thought that a white anemone is a bleached anemone (yes even condys). And I haven’t heard of white zooanthelle. I would imagine it will color up.

That said, I’ve taken a couple of anemones and several corals that looked great under LED and looked bleached under my Halides that then colored up differently/nicely.

 

[dvgyfresh]

I would say it is a BTA, definitely

Looks like a Green BTA that is slightly bleached.

With it being slgihtly bleached, the trick is to just provide a little nutrients in the water and to keep the tank stable. The color will come back without feeding. You can feed the nem little bits of mysis or similar, but no need to go all out and feed daily or anything. They will do just fine once the zooxanthellae and the zoochlorellae recover from either poor water quaility/not enough light in its previous environment.

This guy is the nem whisperer believe it! I have a recovering RBTA that was bleached due to light shock (on top of rocks at 700 par oops) , you can see colors coming back

 

[JNalley]

I would say it is a BTA, definitely

This guy is the nem whisperer believe it! I have a recovering RBTA that was bleached due to light shock (on top of rocks at 700 par oops) , you can see colors coming back

What is the purple coral surrounding it? I want one!

 

[dvgyfresh]

What is the purple coral surrounding it? I want one!

That is Xenia under blues , it’s usually pink and currently everywhere , I need to trim a bunch this weekend lol

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I would say it is a BTA, definitely

This guy is the nem whisperer believe it! I have a recovering RBTA that was bleached due to light shock (on top of rocks at 700 par oops) , you can see colors coming back

I have no idea what you are talking about. I yell at them. Seems to work better, as their ears are very very small.

But in all reality, this takes time. I have had nem,s take a year to get their color all the way back, even in a perfect environment. Patience, stable parameters and more patience with stability is key.

I will say, some GBTA are somewhat translucent, but there should be some striations on the tents and you should see some variance in the colors darker/lighter throughout the nem.

Another thing, never plan for the nem to stay whwre you want. Always plan for the nem to do what it wants, as they will always do what they want.

 

[dvgyfresh]

I have no idea what you are talking about. I yell at them. Seems to work better, as their ears are very very small.

But in all reality, this takes time. I have had nem,s take a year to get their color all the way back, even in a perfect environment. Patience, stable parameters and more patience with stability is key.

I will say, some GBTA are somewhat translucent, but there should be some striations on the tents and you should see some variance in the colors darker/lighter throughout the nem.

Another thing, never plan for the nem to stay whwre you want. Always plan for the nem to do what it wants, as they will always do what they want.

Spoken only facts , I also have a recovering GBTA

 

[Eagle_Steve]

For reference to a healthy GBTA with purple (under LED), in 100% full spectrum plant grow light (it grows corals just fine also). This one was almost clear a year ago when I got it from a tank buyout.

You can see that even color is present under those lights. As @Reefing102 said, LEDs deep blues and UV can trick the eye to enhance the little bit of zoo in the nem.

You can see the striations, the nem is colored up (tannish, but color) and the color varies in depth, so to speak.

Same nem in biocube it outgrew. (sorry crap photo)

 

[JNalley]

So, mine hasn't filled up his tentacles yet, it's just opening up (it naps during the day sometimes) but here's photos I just took, unfortunately I think the zoom made some artifacts, especially in the picture with the blues and UV turned up.

Only white light on my LED:

My normal lighting schedule:

Both photos are relatively crappy, the front glass on the flex is bowed vertically instead of horizontally which makes for really difficult picture taking, lol.

 

[Reefing102]

I would still follow up with bleached but looks like it’ll be a nice green BTA when it’s colored up. Here’s mine from a few weeks ago under 10k Halides with blue LED supplement

It will take some time but I think it’ll look great soon enough!

 

[outhouse]

Whether it is a BTA or not is debatable. It is a BA for sure.

When mine are born or split at the top of the tank they look like that, but none has ever gotten so big and stayed that color.

Yours does not look bad or stressed, how does it look now?

 

[JNalley]

Whether it is a BTA or not is debatable. It is a BA for sure.

When mine are born or split at the top of the tank they look like that, but none has ever gotten so big and stayed that color.

Yours does not look bad or stressed, how does it look now?

It has had a lot of trouble finding a home, it moves on average every 3 days or so in the tank. Not really sure what I can do for it, I'm just trying to let it roam, but it has expelled a bunch of its zooxanthellae and now only about 1/3 of the tentacles glow. I don't really understand it, my Condylactis and Carpet Nems are both doing fine, but this one is a mystery. I haven't been able to get out to the LFS, but I think once things slow down, if he still hasn't found a home and improved in the next week I'm going to take him back so they can re-home it. I hate doing it because it was such a unique find, but if I can't provide a good home for it, it makes more sense to give it a chance to thrive elsewhere than slowly die here...

 

[outhouse]

It has had a lot of trouble finding a home,

It wont hurt to turn your lights down for a few weeks to see if that could be a problem or not.

It would mirror a cloudy few weeks which really hurts nothing.

I would not try feeding until it finds its spot, I hope you get it to find one.

I lost one of those purple or blue tipped white ones a long time ago, it sucks when you cant help your amigo pequeno