Help! Sick anemone!

[sMiller624]

Hi all! 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?

[Dkuhlmann]

It needs to be put in a mature tank, chances of recovery in a new tank and lights still needing to be acclimated to the tank it's not a stable environment for an anemone. BTA's are pretty hardy but putting one in a young tank with a newbie is a bad mix. Even for experienced reefers it's still a crap shoot.

Give us a list of your parameters as well as a picture of your tank and the anemone. Also what are your lights set at?

[sMiller624]

Yea I made a mistake putting him in so quickly. Newbie mistake. Problem is, now I think he's in such poor shape that removing him will be an instant death sentence, so giving him to someone would prove problematic. I think his only chance of survival is time and diligence (which I am willing to put into saving him and fixing my mistake). 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 include a pic of my light settings. I do a 15 hour cycle with 3 hour ramp up and down with 2 hours of moonlight. I have been ramping each color up about 5% each week over the past week and will continue. I know I made a mistake putting him in my tank but we are past that. Any advice to help bring him back would be appreciated. If I lose him then I will certainly learn from my mistake, but I wouldn't like to let this mistake cost a life. Thanks all

First pic is my light settings, second is my full tank (nem is on the far left standalone rock but is currently tucked back into the hole, 3rd pic is when I first put him in, last pic is a few days ago. He is usually more bubbled than in the last pic and the color makes it really hard to see but it gives an idea of how his tips are light pink and thats about all the color he still has.

[sMiller624]

Oh and current tank inhabitants are... Fish: 2 small percula clowns, 1 firefish, 1 starry blenny. Corals: Small colony of zoas (about 12 polyps) 1 small maze brain frag on far right in sand, and 1 octo frogspawn seen in middle. Octo is a little shrunken in the pic as it was just after ramp down started. Always shrinks down at night and comes out fully the next day. Honestly surprised how big he gets compared to how small he looked when I bought him. Everyone but the nem seem to be doing very well and I would even say thriving.

[Flagg37]

I've got nothing for you, sorry. I hope he gets better though.

[sam.basye]

If you can, turn the rock the bta is on and move it towards the center pointed up so it gets more light. It's probably not getting enough and that's why it's bleaching/expelling it's zoox.

[sMiller624]

Thanks Sam, I will give that a try. I figured I shouldn't move him cause he's been there since a few days after I put him in. Figured if he wasn't getting enough light or flow he would just move, but perhaps he was just too weak to move and I needed to do it for him. And thanks for all the advice guys! It's greatly appreciated.

[champion6sigma]

When my nem was in bad shape I was given advice to feed mysis shrimp every 2 or 3 days. Mine was bleached badly and not extending . He looked worse than yours . My tank is same age. I'm still on first week of feeding. But I was told he should improve over the next few weeks. I have faith that if your water is good. He's in right lighting and u nurse him correctly food wide he will get healthier.

Sent from my BlackBerry PRIV using taptalk

[Dkuhlmann]

I agree you're past should not have done and that's why I asked for your parameters.

15 hr cycle is too long I'd cut it back to 10 at most and need to give it more light but continue as you're doing with raising it. Also feed it only a few Mysis shrimp every 2 or 3 days. If it doesn't want to eat don't force it.

I also agree to keep it facing the lights and I would put it's rock at the top of your rock pile. Speaking of rocks you need to at least double the amount of rock you have to get a good level of bacteria in your tank if you are planning on more inhabitants to better filter your water as well.

Do you have a sump?

Hopefully your BTA makes it, but IMO it's bleaching due to not enough light.

[OrionN]

move the rock that the anemone is on so that it get some light. BTA don't need very high light, so as long as he is exposed to light he will move to where he is comfortable. pH change can affect them a lot. Are you adding Kalk or NaCO3? you need to really add Kalk slow, and NaCO3 some what slow or the spike in pH really cause anemone and other inverts distress. Temp change during the day, if excessive, can also cause problem.
Feed him every other day or so, with mysis or other food, it will really help him recover. Don't feed him anything larger than 1/8 cubic cm, since he seem to be a very small RBTA

[killagoby]

I've got a RBTA under a Hydra 26. He's about 22" away from the light. I run a 12 hour cycle with a 4 hour ramp. I'm at 60% and 18k

It could be the light. It took me a while to dial it in. I'd keep working with that

My RBTA was under 400w MH when I bought it. It was really red. Under LEDs he's more of a pink color now but healthy. When I run all the blue lights you can see its red coloring

Good luck!

[sMiller624]

Wow guys! Thanks for all the responses! I truly appreciate it. Dkuhlmann, I have cut back my cycle and am feeding him very small pieces of table shrimp about every 2-3 days. I never force, I put it directly over his mouth without pushing and if he takes it great. If not I remove the food, or feed it to the fish, and try again another day. I have moved him so that he is facing directly towards the light and as close to the center as possible. Since doing so he has kept his mouth closed way more than he had been and is remaining fully open most of the day. I was told not to move him once he settled in as it would stress him out. If he wasn't happy he would move. Maybe mine isn't the brightest (no pun intended) and needed a little help. lol

As far as rocks, yes I was planning on getting more rocks, my LFS wasn't the most helpful with how much rock I should get, there is about 25lbs and the tank is a 29tall. I was planning on adding more mostly because I need more places to put some corals in the future and I knew it would help with bacteria. What I have been trying to find out is can I put uncurred base rock directly in the tank? Like a small piece at a time over the next several months? I don't really want to do live rock and risk some nasty hitch hikers. Or should I cure it in a separate container for a while before putting it in? Also, no sump. The stand it's on has a small cabinet underneath where I store supplies. No room for a sump. I have been wanting to get one and have been trying to devise a plan to add it to the side of the tank in a separate cabinet and get a HOB overflow. I am planning to buy a house in the next year and at that time I am going to buy a much larger tank with a sump and the whole 9 yards. I live in an apartment so I went with a smaller tank. 4 fish, couple corals, and a CUC was all I had planned on. RBTA was something I had researched for a while and was looking at the wrong places apparently and shouldn't have bought him so soon. I read of a lot of people keeping them under the AI Prime with a lot of success and figured he would be ok. Looking back, he decided to camp way off to the side in the part of the tank that gets the least amount of light. My params shifted slightly when I got him but now everything seems to be much more stable. I think the low light and small param swings is what put him in the shape he is in now. Possibly was sick when I bought him and just looked good at the beginning. I should have asked the store more questions on how long he'd been there and such.

[sMiller624]

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?