RBTA Help?

[Ohgee]

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

I got a RBTA about a month or so ago and he has been doing very very good until the last couple days. He has buried himself amonst a bunch of rock and all I can see is one or two tips.

I know they require good ligths but for some reason he seems to be hiding from it. I've tested and retested all my readings and they all look good. Nothing has changed as far as parameters in last month.

Ca - 430
KH - 3.2
temp 78degs
everything else zero or near zero readings

any ideas? I'm worried he will starve to death, he hasn't been feed in over a week.

Only idea is he is hiding from my clarke clown. He is a little agressive with it from time to time?

thank in advance
Duane

 

[wrightme43]

My understanding of anemone is that the longterm captive survival rate for wild caught is about 1 of 10. I have a rbta that split once, one clone moved halfway across the tank and the other stayed put. Flow seems to be very important to them. You may try changing the flow pattern in your tank in a effort to get it to move. You may try rotating the rock that it is attached to, maybe getting it to move. Usually what works best for things that can move on thier own, IME, is to leave them alone. HTH Steve

 

[NaH2O]

Duane - there is a chance it may be splitting. How often did you feed it? I'd keep an eye on it, and not panic just yet. How many days has it been in hiding?

 

[Ohgee]

thanks for your quick response

I've actually only had this guy for about a month and I actually got it from Charlie after his split. So I'm not really sure of the age.

As far as how long it's been in hiding, well about 3 days now. The wife was feeding it about 2-3 times a week. Not sure if you read one of my other posts but I'm not argueing with her about it. Just increasing my skimmer size

But I think your right Nikki and Steve, I'll leave it for a while and if by this weekend he hasn't moved I'll move his rock and let him decide

Just don't want to loose this one, I've had 1 before and he decided to find an intake and commit suicide, fix that problem and maybe I'm just acting too soon.

But I'll wait and see what happens

Thanks again
Duane

 

[Ohgee]

Maybe My Luck Is Changing



You wouldn't believe what I saw today. I wrote the poor RBTA off as I hadn't seen him for almost 2 weeks and then he goes and shows his pretty tenticles this afternoon!!!!!!

To make it even better, I offered him a piece of juicy shrimp and he ate it like he was starved to death.

MAYBE MY LUCK IS CHANGING

 

[class clown]

yeah.. I have seen this behavior when they are close to splitting or they just aren't happy with the water conditions or current, or when they are getting "too much light"..

lets hope for the first option.. it doesn't sound like it is the water conditions, but for kicks.. what type of lighting are you using in comparison to the person you bought it from? IF yours are much more intense, there is a possibility it is hiding from sunburn...
Check the current too- maybe too much..


Good luck- these guys are great- I have 5 of them right now.. they keep splitting

 

[Ohgee]

Not exactly sure what Charlie's light is on his smaller tank, but I'm thinking it's close to what I have. I'm only running 2x10k Ushio DE on a 6ft tank about 10 in off the water. So he has some shaded areas on the ends to play in. The flow is actually less than I would like but that might be part of the problem. Maybe he is looking for a lighter flow area.

I'll just keep an eye on him, maybe he'll find a nice place to reside. And maybe I will get lucky and have him split, I know a few people who would like one

Thanks

 

[BCT182]

Well how did things turn out????

 

[Ohgee]

Well he's out and feeding, maybe it's been a while since I've seen him or it's something else but he definately looks smaller to me. Maybe just maybe he did split and there's another one still in hiding.

Not sure what really happened but I'm happy to see him feeding again

Isn't it funny how we assign a sex to something asexual?

 

[Woodstock]

Are you feeding it soley shrimp? I feed mine whole thawed silversides. They get to ingest the entire fish.... the eyes, fins, etc. Try feeding yours silversides (or a pinch of one) to vary it's diet. IMO there are more nutrients in a silverside than in the shrimp. (your wife may stop feeding it though... the silversides have a strong odor )