Help-RBTA's out of control!

[Jobiwan]

Hi folks, I'm wondering if anyone can give me some suggestions on how to control giant aptasia, aka Rose Bubble Tip Anemones. If you have a tank that is easily accessable, they are a wonderful asset because if they are easy to reach it is quite easy to deal with their wandering ways. I'm setting up a fairly large sps tank, I won't be able to reach hardly any of the rock without going swimming, in my experience RBTA's can and do damage a lot of sps, especially when they rampantly multiply, by both stinging corals and/or engulfing them. That being said, I hate the idea of not having my maroons with a couple of RBTA's in my new system, any ideas on how to keep the RBTA's isolated in one area of the tank? Any suggestions on RBTA birth control would also be appreciated, please see the attached photos and you will appreciate my problem, they have taken over 3 of my 5 holding tanks, I've got over 25 of the little devils...

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Attack of the Clones, Awesome problem!
Sell them off and use the cash to help fund your new waaaaay cool tank.

 

[Katchupoy]

I agree.. sell them off... Also, most of the times, they split when they are stressed. And one way of stressing them is doing a big water change. Sudden change in the water chemistry.

But this is an awesome problem.

I suggest that you buy another tank dedicated for your SPS. If your RBTA keep splitting then you wont have issues justifying the new tank.

Good luck....

BTW I have 15 of them on a 40g breeder.

 

[Katchupoy]

BTW what is your lighting?

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Cesar, your tank is looking great! The corals I got from you last winter are doing very well!!

(again, sorry for the hijack)

 

[Katchupoy]

Mike,

Thats great news... Yes my tank is hanging in there... But I still need a lot of work because my SPS is still not coloring up. We will get there one of these days.

 

[brady816]

i just wanted to say wow great pics....

 

[Reeferdude]

I agree with everyone. Awesome problem to have. Beautiful colors too...

 

[Sherman]

Yep, nice problem to have, if you're willing to manage it. Your anemones have great color, and around here sell for probably $50-100/each with so much color. Even if your LFS will only give you 1/2 price for them, you have a constant source of hobby income, $25-50 at a time. As prolific as these are, I'd put some serious thought into farming them, in a dedicated tank. Anthony Calfo has put together TONS of information about this, and it could very well be worth your time (and literally money) to look into the options.

 

[Jobiwan]

Beautiful tank and photos Cesar, you obviously know what you are doing. I appreciate all the input from you all.

I'll set up a dedicated tank for the little buggers once I get my new system up and stable I'll move a bunch of stuff in it, I need to make some room, all the stuff from my 180 was spread around my other tanks, I'd prefer to trade the RBTA's once I get them corralled. They seem to thrive in any light, one tank has 2 x 65w pc's, one has a 14k 400w mh, and one has a 10k 250w mogul. I do fairly large water changes monthly (25 - 30%), maybe that is triggering the splits...

Any of you good folks have any ideas how to keep them confined to one area of the tank?

 

[Reeferdude]

Maybe water flow in one direction, specifically for them, keeping them leaning toward a particular direction or corner/side?

 

[Damsel13]

Obviously too much soup for those anemonies.

 

[Katchupoy]

That explains why the anemonies are standing tall on one of the pics. This probably the one with PC lighting on it. When you have it coralled in one tank... then just keep doing 30% water change... hahahaha BTA factory. Just feed them well and give them good light... you wont get wrong...

 

[Jobiwan]

Strangly enough, the ones standing tall are lit by the 400 MH. The ones with the perc in it are pc lit, they tend to have more pronounced bubble tips. I can't figure these guys out. I never feed them intentionally, they live mainly on flake food and the occasional frozen that drifts their way...

I will have a lot of current in the new system, three Hammerheads and an Iwaki 70, Maybe I can figure out something there...

 

[Skimmy]

you just need an anemone tank to move them all to
im sure you never thought of that...

 

[MAGDRL Mom]

I think you should just give up on all the RBTA's and send them all to me. It will be a chore, but I can probably figure something to do with them!

 

[Jobiwan]

I can't dig them out of the live rock they are in now, but when I have more room I'll eventually get them all in their own tank, I wonder how much I'll have to pay people to take these noxious pests off my hands....

 

[Jobiwan]

I guess there's always Joe's Juice ;-))

 

[Elmo18]

Hi Joe.

Did the original one come from me awhile back?

Best,
Ilham

 

[joker577]

I noticed before that you had less wattage on your tanks and used PC lighting...I have PC's now on my 29 gallon biocube...it's 108 watts and the anemone sits up about 13 inches from the top of the tank....my nitrates are 20 so in your experience would you say its bleaching is being caused moreso by the nitrates than the lighting?