Help! RBTA sick

[NewbieSeth]

Hi all! I am new here and thought I'd ask for some help as I've used threads from this site several times over the past few months. I set up my tank about 5 months ago and everything was running great. Cycle took about 4 days and everything read 0. I used established live rock and sand so the cycle was very quick. I added a few fish and decided it was time to expand things a little. Stupidly, I bought a rose bubble tip anemone long before I should have. He is about 3 inch across and was beautifully colored with perfect bubble tips. Problem is, the young tank slowly caught up with him. I have an AI prime for lighting and kept it pretty low not knowing where it should be at the time. Anyway I slowly noticed the rbta getting lighter in color and periodically I notice it deflating and inflating several times a day, and during the time it often spews out a large amount of long stringy brown stuff. I have (through my research) discovered that this is its xoozanthalea (sp). Here's my question, its been about 3 weeks since i've noticed that he is headed downhill and fast, yet he is still holding on. Does anyone have any tips on how to help him recover? I have upped my lights a little and I have not noticed him expelling anymore xoos, yet his mouth is still sometimes open and sometimes closed. He will often retract back into the hole he is in for several hours only to emerge and bubble up very nicely. Is there anything I can do to help him come back to life? All params are stable now, no ammonia, nitrite, and less than 10 nitrate. Temp remains stable at 79 degrees and salinity is 1.025. I have about 4 fish and 3 corals and all are happy and healthy. He still has very light pink in the tips. I feed him about a dime sized piece of table shrimp every 3 days or so and he eats within a min, but his tentacles are not sticky. I have to put the piece right over his mouth until his tentacles retract enough to cover and hold onto the food.

TLDR: RBTA is sick and mostly bleached yet still holding on for several weeks. Any advice on bringing him back from the brink of death?

 

[CodyRVA]

What exactly are your parameters? I've had the same issue for a long time with mine, was rosy red, nice bubbles, and deteriorated over time. It's kind of healthy now, but still neon pink vs rose colored. I've heard they can stay this way for months and then randomly change. I would continue to feed very small amounts every few days. I was also told dosing iodine can help, but i've seen little result from doing so. Does it move around a lot or has it settled down? I think they vary, i've seen some in high flow and very happy, mine however hates flow and prefers very little.

Also, to my knowledge the brown stuff is waste, not zooxanthellae, but I could be wrong. Mine also lost the stickiness to their tentacles for a while, but it came back within a few days of being this way.

 

[NewbieSeth]

Ammonia and nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 10 or less PH 8.3 Temp 78.6-79.4 Salinity 1.025. Nitrate, heat and salinity all fluctuated slightly when i first got him but are all now constant. He was on top of the rock where I put him for about a week and then moved around to the side of the same rock that had a hole going through it and has stayed there ever since. He sits off to the side of the tank in indirect light and receives enough flow to move his tentacles but not a ton. I will look into iodine dosing. Thanks

 

[Reefahholic]

It's normal for some BTA's to inflate and deflate. If we could see a few pictures, we can help you more. I would start with a decent sized water change. Increase the lighting and don't try to feed him while this is going on. If he's not tolerating the increased lighting, then go back down.

 

[NewbieSeth]

From what I have read it is normal for them to inflate and deflate from time to time. What I read though is that it is not normal for them to do this several times a day. Also sometimes his mouth is open and sometimes closed tightly. When he deflates sometimes lately his mouth is not only open but is GAPING and almost looks like he is turning himself inside out. From my research (which I should have done more of before purchasing) this is a very bad sign. I will include a pic of the day I bought him, a few days ago (even though it's very tough to see cause of the lighting color, but it does give an idea of just how poor he looks and how just the tips of his tentacles are light pink, although his base is still fully colored) and a pic of my light setting from my AI Prime. I started last week to ramp them up by 5% a week as to not shock him or my corals.

 

[Reefahholic]

First pic looks great. I'm assuming the 2nd pic is current?

 

[NewbieSeth]

Yes. The lights have been adjusted since he started to decline so it appears much bluer now.

 

[CodyRVA]

Gaping mouth is indeed a bad sign. Make sure to spot feed small, small, small! amounts of food every few days. Test your ALK, thats a huge factor with BTA's. It's bad if it's off, but its even worse if it's not consistently off. Parameter swings, especially in regards to ALK have a much harsher affect on corals and inverts than low or high, stable, conditions.

 

[Reefahholic]

If his mouth is still gaping, it's possible he's got an infection. FYI, I would never feed any anemone with a gaping mouth. Best of luck.

 

[sc50964]

There are a few inconsistencies. If the Nem is losing its color or bleached, that typically means the light is too strong and the remedy is to decrease the light. Yeah you said that he is doing better with increasing lighting. That's odd. Another inconsistency is how well he eats your table shrimp when he exhibits gapping mouth. If the Nem is truly sick and exhibiting gapping mouth, it is usually in no mood to eat and certainly not going to be able to eat fast like yours. Please upload some pictures of it eating and of it with its mouth gapping.

 

[zoomonster]

BTA's will inflate/deflate, get elongated tentacles or be bubbly, move around etc when they feel like it and that's all normal. Not to diminish anything but BTA's are easy. In my experience they are very tolerant of reasonable water quality and feeding or not. For at least RBTA's what they are not tolerant of is poor lighting. RBTA's do best under MH lighting but they also do well under good LED lighting. I have grown them for years under a variety of MH/T5/VHO and at least Kessils for LED. Potential disease aside I suspect yours is not getting enough light. With this tank when I switched from MH/T5 to kessils they all picked up and moved a little higher up in the tank to get closer to the lights. That improved as I increased intensity over time. As far as feeding RBTA's they don't need to be fed. The benefit of feeding is increased growth and splitting though. I don't know that much about the AI Prime but I have seen them in stores and they seem pretty weak but no clue what intensity or color they were running at. I would recommend running a set/recommended color mix and raise the intensity (slowly) if your not already maxed.

 

[Reefahholic]

I can make my BTA's run and hide if I leave my 8x80w ATI T5's on too long. I've seen them do well under just about any lighting. Obviously if the light is too weak you'll run into issues. However, I've found over the years that most people have issues due to water chemistry and tank maturity.

 

[NewbieSeth]

Wow everyone! You guys rock! Thanks for all the responses. So I have turned the rock and moved it as close to the center as possible with him facing directly towards the light. Since doing so he has deflated less and his mouth has stayed closed more often. If he opens his mouth again I will get a pic and I will take a few pics of feeding today and post them. Reading all of this makes me really think that he just wasn't getting enough light. I didn't want to move him because I thought if he needed more he would move and I was told not to mess with him and let him be where he wants. Maybe mine just isn't the brightest (no pun intended) and needed a little assistance. lol

 

[NewbieSeth]

Update: It's been almost 2 months and he's still kickin. Hasn't really regained much color, but he is exhibiting what I would call more normal behavior. Rather than just slumping down and sucking into the rock, now he closes tightly around his tentacles. I'll include a pic. Feed him a tiny bit of mysis maybe once or twice a week and he readily takes it. Any advice that might help him recover more?

 

[saltyphish]

Update: It's been almost 2 months and he's still kickin. Hasn't really regained much color, but he is exhibiting what I would call more normal behavior. Rather than just slumping down and sucking into the rock, now he closes tightly around his tentacles. I'll include a pic. Feed him a tiny bit of mysis maybe once or twice a week and he readily takes it. Any advice that might help him recover more?

Time. They heal so very slowly.

 

[Courtney Miller]

Im new to this and can't figure out how to post my own thread and I need some help fast! Our rbta is so stressed and looks terrible! Ive attached two images of how she looks right now. What should we do?!!

 

[Dancingmad]

NewbieSeth - Just dealt with a bleaching, and all regained their color. I consider this exceptionally lucky - Happy to tell you what I did, but it'd just be anecdotal advice. I increased feeding (I don't feed my nems with exception to a few cases - this is one of them). Don't attempt feeding with a gaped mouth, or busy mouth (expelling waste). I reduced the overall intensity, and duration of my "white" lights. In general my nems get pretty grouchy when they get too much white light. They still crave/need that white light though. Wish you the best of luck in gettin' 'em right.

Courtney - Please provide water parameters, tank history, and nem history. Best of luck to you as well!

 

[NewbieSeth]

How long have you had the nem? And was this after having it for a log while it almost immediately after adding to the tank? If you just added it there is a chance it was light shocked (provided water params are good). Mine got better then shrunk way down but is full colored again. I'm not sure how he's gonna do but hoping to start gaining size again. What I did was moved him around till he was in decent light but not direct as to not light shock him and just tried to keep water stable. When his mouth stayed closed for a few days I used a very small piece of table shrimp and put it on him. At first had to hold it there till he was able to swallow. Eventually he would catch it and pull it right in. Let me know Water parameters and how long you've had it