Nem Eating Nem Discussion

[CodyRVA]

I've had a RBTA for about 9 months now, most of that time the nem has been "bleached." The bleaching occurred over the span of about 6 weeks; at first the nem had a bright rose color, bubbled tips, very healthy overall. Eventually losing its color, the nem turned white/clear at the mouth/base and the tentacles turned neon pink. It also lost the bubbled tips, and at one point the tentacles weren't even sticky. I figured it would have died by now, but it continues to live on in the same condition.

I've tried dosing iodine, dosing zooxanthellae, and spot feeding small amounts of food like LRS Reef Frenzy on a daily basis with no luck. A single clown currently hosts the nem, and while the nem does respond to feeding, it has shown almost no improvement. I've let the nem do it's thing for about the past 6 months, hoping that with patience it would come around...

After scouring the web for treating a "bleached" RBTA I found a few threads that discussed feeding part of one nem to another as a means of treatment for the suffering nem. I'm curious if anyone has actually ever tried this and if so, does is work? Supposedly this method is meant to replace the lost zooxanthellae in the wounded nem, which makes me wonder if you could feed other soft corals to a nem and accomplish the same end. Thoughts?

 

[CoralsAddiction]

In short, you repopulate zoox by taking a tantacle from a healthy anemone donor. Once repopulation begins, the bleached nem starts recovering it's natural color (not donor anemone color).

 

[CodyRVA]

In short, you repopulate zoox by taking a tantacle from a healthy anemone donor. Once repopulation begins, the bleached nem starts recovering it's natural color (not donor anemone color).

Correct, my question is has anyone actually done this with successful results.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Correct, my question is has anyone actually done this with successful results.

It's been done. I sent you a link from another forum.

 

[CodyRVA]

Will update with results