Bleached BTA

Keebob · Sep 30, 2015

Hello, I'm a newbie when it comes to anemones. I made the mistake of buying a bleached BTA, and I immediately did my best to research how best to care for it. I've had it for about 4 days now, and it will not take food. I've tried to give it some brine shrimp and some raw table shrimp cut to about the size of a pea. My water parameters are all good, no nitrites/nitrates/ammonia. There's a purple pseudochromis, some star polyps, colt coral, an emerald crab, and 3 snails in the tank along with the anemone.

For the most part, the anemone looks ok. (You know, minus the bleached part)

However, a couple times I've come home and it looks basically dead.

Any advice on how to get it back to healthy? Thanks

pickupman66 · Sep 30, 2015

well, first, Dont try to force feed it. Second, what kind of lights do you have it under? if it is opening like the first photo, you will just need to give it time, good water and plenty of light. Dont move it. dont mess with it. if it wants more light, or flow, it WILL move. i like Mysis to feed mine which I rarely do. they seem to be just fine and growing well in my tank.

Keebob · Sep 30, 2015

pickupman66 said:
well, first, Dont try to force feed it. Second, what kind of lights do you have it under? if it is opening like the first photo, you will just need to give it time, good water and plenty of light. Dont move it. dont mess with it. if it wants more light, or flow, it WILL move. i like Mysis to feed mine which I rarely do. they seem to be just fine and growing well in my tank.

I drop the piece of food into the tentacles and the anemone doesn't react much, just drops it and then I remove it. Lol. It's under a 36W 10K Daylight and a 36W Actinic. And it opens like the first photo majority of the time, but then I'll come home and it looks like the 2nd photo for a while. And it moved a lot the first day I got it, but by the 2nd day it's basically stayed where it is in those photos so I assume it likes it there.

twilliard · Sep 30, 2015

Broken images ?

Keebob · Sep 30, 2015

(1st picture)

(2nd picture)

twilliard · Sep 30, 2015

Oh my
Yes I agree do not move it or change anything.
Now what I would question is the lighting.
Anemones are actually not "easy" to keep. Once they are established then they live for ever

Might question how it was acclimated. Both water and light.

Keebob · Sep 30, 2015

twilliard said:
Oh my
Yes I agree do not move it or change anything.
Now what I would question is the lighting.
Anemones are actually not "easy" to keep. Once they are established then they live for ever

Might question how it was acclimated. Both water and light.

I floated the bag for about 20 mins for temp, then added a small amount of water every 10 mins for another 40 mins. I had just the actinic on during this, let it sit for a couple hours then turned on the 10k as well.

pickupman66 · Sep 30, 2015

In my opinion, those lights are not strong enough for that anemone. But keep your parameters stable and keep an eye on it and it might end up being OK. I would not try and feed it but maybe once a week until you can tell if it's tentacles are sticky

James7733 · Oct 4, 2015

What size tank in the anemone in? You need very strong lighting such as led or metal halide. I have three types. The two mentioned and a 206 watt T-5. My halide at 150 watt is on the low end though. I have a 55 gallon tank! Also I bought a sick blue tip sebae anemone that had no stickyness and would not eat. Since I new all water parameters were good after a few days I target fed it microvert liquid coral and anemone food. Today weeks later its eating shrimp and is doing great. If I did not have the strong lighting that it requires a long with good water quality from a RO/DI unit it would not have made it. What is your water source?

Titanwerx · Oct 7, 2015

Just out of curiosity, where do you keep your Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium at? Also how mature is the tank?

mbelanger · Oct 7, 2015

I'm fighting a similar battle for the second time with the same anemone..
I have a rainbow bta (going on 1.5 year since I bought it) that started out awesome and started to turn white w just the tips of bubbles staying bright pink, and slightly shrunk in size. First time it did it I started feeding it more. I just used krill. I fed it once or two a day for a few weeks and it eventually grew it's color back. So it stayed good for a while and then recently it reverted back to the same white with pink tips.. So I'm back to feeding 1-2 times a day. It's a pain in the a** but gotta do what you gotta do I guess.
Someone told me that the color in then comes from a symbiotic algae that lives in the anemone which helps it with photosynthesis and sometime they dump the algae or lose or whatever and so it's important to feed it a lot as it will not get as much energy from light ..