Bleached Colorado Sunburst

sassyonmane · Apr 29, 2026

Bought a colorado sunburst nem but it arrived a little bit bleached, saw brown stringy slime comming out of the mouth but seemed to inflate just fine once added in,
Ended up getting it a plant pot to put it in so it wouldint crawl around and it stayed in there and attatched for about 2/3 weeks but i noticed it was doing the brown slime out of the mouth and deflating almost prettymuch every day and then about 3 days ago it almost bleached out fully, so i moved it out of the pot and it instantly started crawling around the rocks, still bleached daily and today its pretty much fully white and has moved itself to a place on my rockwork with pretty much 0 light.
Should I move the nem to low but a bit more light? leave it be because its still pretty firmly attatched?
All other corals are happy and my forest fire nem is happy but my chicago sunburst also looks a little bit off.
Could it be something the pot was leaching? since i did notice the same pot when used for the chicago made it not move around but i also noticed it was unable to attatch at all to the ceramic pot, now its firmly attatched to the rockwork but not bubbling and some of its tentacles are deflated and it looks way more dull in color than before.
Could the two nems be having chemical warfare even though im running carbon? Maybe its the forest fire since its happy?
Should I move the nem and see if it gets better or should I remove the forest fire and see if that helps or seperate all of them?
Will moving the forest fire to the sump help the sunbursts?

tzabor10 · Apr 30, 2026

Was this plant pot cycled? Most of my anemones like craggy rocks to nestle a foot in. New nems also have a tendency to retreat when introduced. Can you provide some pictures and parameters?

D-Nak · Apr 30, 2026

Was the CSB shipped to you? It sounds like it started to bleach prior to you receiving it (the brown stringy slime it's expelling is probably dead zooxanthellae).

Was the pot brand new? They typically don't need to be cured or conditioned prior to use (I've used a lot in my breeding tanks). Was it in a placed where it might've been in contact with chemicals (like maybe in the backyard)?

What type of light are you using? Does the ChSB have normal coloration? Can you explain more about what you mean by it "looks a little bit off"?

Lastly, CSBs and ChSBs typically place nice, but there are times when CSBs just don't get along with other BTAs, and they are usually on the losing end. Do you have another tank so that you can separate the two BTAs?

sassyonmane · Apr 30, 2026

tzabor10 said:
Was this plant pot cycled? Most of my anemones like craggy rocks to nestle a foot in. New nems also have a tendency to retreat when introduced. Can you provide some pictures and parameters?

The pot was not cycled, also I noticed that the nem seems to not like the carib sea rocks but only like marco rock in my tank as it crawled around until it found my one structure made of marco rock

sassyonmane · Apr 30, 2026

D-Nak said:
Was the CSB shipped to you? It sounds like it started to bleach prior to you receiving it (the brown stringy slime it's expelling is probably dead zooxanthellae).

Was the pot brand new? They typically don't need to be cured or conditioned prior to use (I've used a lot in my breeding tanks). Was it in a placed where it might've been in contact with chemicals (like maybe in the backyard)?

What type of light are you using? Does the ChSB have normal coloration? Can you explain more about what you mean by it "looks a little bit off"?

Lastly, CSBs and ChSBs typically place nice, but there are times when CSBs just don't get along with other BTAs, and they are usually on the losing end. Do you have another tank so that you can separate the two BTAs?

I visited the coral farm and it was in perfect condition, it started bleaching during shipping.
The pot was brand new yes, it was in the garden section outdoors of our version of home depot where i got it , Im using aqua illumination lights but I forgot the exact model, the chicago had normal coloration but lost a little bit of color but its alot better than the full bleaching of the colorado, ill get a photo of it soon.
I dont have another viable tank to seperate the two bta's at the moment but could the culprit be the forest fire bta's im growing in my sump?

sassyonmane · Apr 30, 2026

tzabor10 said:
Was this plant pot cycled? Most of my anemones like craggy rocks to nestle a foot in. New nems also have a tendency to retreat when introduced. Can you provide some pictures and parameters?

Will test and provide other parameters soon if needed but nitrate 10ppm and phosphates are high right now at 0.6ppm (hannah checkers)

sassyonmane · Apr 30, 2026

is moving the nem at this point a good idea since its getting little to no light at the moment

tzabor10 · Apr 30, 2026

sassyonmane said:
is moving the nem at this point a good idea since its getting little to no light at the moment

I don’t move my anemone much. Peeling off the foot seems a bit harsh. Try to give it shade.
In the future, don’t put home depot pots in without cleaning them and cycling it.

sassyonmane · May 1, 2026

tzabor10 said:
I don’t move my anemone much. Peeling off the foot seems a bit harsh. Try to give it shade.
In the future, don’t put home depot pots in without cleaning them and cycling it.

So this would probably be a high light issue rather than coral warfare?,
I also noticed that the chicago is also deflated now.

sassyonmane · May 1, 2026

First picture is the chicago, it did that 1 day ago for almost a full day and is back at it again even though it was inflated decently this morning, the colorado has been deflating like that for almost every day and only inflating at night / when the lights are mostly ramped down and staying open all morning until ramp up it seems. Should I do a waterchange and remove my forest fire bta's? how can i tell if theres chemical warfare or if its a different issue

D-Nak · May 1, 2026

I missed this the first time -- I thought you were referring to a forest fire digitata coral, not a type of BTA. I'm not familiar with that strain. Quick research tells me that it's a rainbow BTA. They typically don't place nice with both ChSBs and CSBs. I think it might be chemical warfare, but there's no way to tell for certain. It could be that rainbows house a strain of bacteria or zooxanthellae that's somehow transferred to other BTAs and is not compatible and causes their demise. Who knows.

You're going to get people who will tell you that all BTAs are compatible and that they have no issues mixing them. But, for some reason, be it chemical warfare or something completely different that can't be explained or pinpointed, many other people will tell you that they can't house BTAs together without problems. The best solution is to NOT mix CSBs with any other BTAs. They're completely fine with other anemones. I have my CSBs with magnifica and gigantea (and in the past haddoni) with experiencing any issues.

tzabor10 · May 2, 2026

There is a great anemone discussion group on facebook. I think it is Anemone Keepers. A Reef Creation is part of it. One if the members told me that chemical warfare is BS. I can’t be sure, but stopped carbon with no ill effects. I keep many types of anemone together all seem ok, but also every top retailer keeps different types in different aquariums.
My wife thinks the Home Depot garden pot could have had pesticides on it.
Good luck

sassyonmane · May 2, 2026

should I remove my forest fire bta for now? or is it living in the sump enough seperation?

D-Nak said:
I missed this the first time -- I thought you were referring to a forest fire digitata coral, not a type of BTA. I'm not familiar with that strain. Quick research tells me that it's a rainbow BTA. They typically don't place nice with both ChSBs and CSBs. I think it might be chemical warfare, but there's no way to tell for certain. It could be that rainbows house a strain of bacteria or zooxanthellae that's somehow transferred to other BTAs and is not compatible and causes their demise. Who knows.

You're going to get people who will tell you that all BTAs are compatible and that they have no issues mixing them. But, for some reason, be it chemical warfare or something completely different that can't be explained or pinpointed, many other people will tell you that they can't house BTAs together without problems. The best solution is to NOT mix CSBs with any other BTAs. They're completely fine with other anemones. I have my CSBs with magnifica and gigantea (and in the past haddoni) with experiencing any issues.