Straying RBTA

[cityofangels]

I have a RBTA and it has been with me for 3mths. Lately, it has begun to stray around the tank, hence creating havoc.

I have read about the lighting, feeding & water flow requirements of anemones. My blue FL lights are on for 10 hours daily and my MH lights 4-5 hours daily. I feed it regularly (once in 2-3 days) with a variety of white bait, mysid shrimps and market prawn.

The position in which it stayed for about 2.5mths has medium water flow.

My water parameters:

Ammonia 0 ppm

Nitrite 0ppm

Nitrate 10-15ppm

SG 1.023-1.024

Any reason why it is straying now? As far as I know, none of the other fishes in my tank are disturbing or pecking at it. My Golden Maroon is the only fish that even goes near it. I'm quite relectant to part with my RBTA as it's been the only anemone which my Golden Maroon will happily host in.

Hope you guys can help! Many thanks in advance!

[dreamzcape]

wow nice picture IMO! well, personally i think it's just in their nature to stray...that's why there are nightmare stories where even though the anemone stay in one place for damn long but next thing you know they wander into powerheads.

If i'm not wrog BTA's just have a natural tendency to wander around. Hope it helped sis

[cityofangels]

Really? Even if they have the "perfect" conditions, they will still stray?

[dreamzcape]

yep...it's just their exploratory nature i guess. Like a little kid, you can provide the perfect home but sometimes backside itchy like to wander around. My own BTA,it managed to anchor itself on one 'holey' rock by itself so the foot is safe so maybe less security issues. Now it's the king of the whole rock so if i feel like i should move it to a better position i move the whole rock. Done so a few times but it still has stayed put

[yellowfin tuna]

mine stayed with me for almost coming one mth... same position as the first time i placed it....

its base is alittle exposed but it doesnt seem to mind,,, as the rest of the fishes doesnt seem to bite it...

maybe the anemone feels insercure because base got bitten by some fish .. etc.. so started to move???

i feed my anemone everyday,,, only on days when it seem to contract til very small... maybe expelling all the water out.. i will feed the following day........

juz hope mind doesnt end moving around after a few more mths....

any idea what type of fish or shrimps... crab etc.... will attack an anemone like nibbling on its base...???

i have always see anemone crab... it is that the crab will also host the anemone together with the clownfish...

[Melvyn Tan]

Hmmm...i guess thats why they say anemone(s) have foot (feet) thats why they move.

[cityofangels]

Oh no.... There really isn't anything I can do?

[dreamzcape]

Oh ok i can't remember where i read this from but this person suggested to have a special place in the tank, like a seperate scaping. Coz apparently as long as they think they are on the highest point on the rock, they shouldn't move. But i'm sure it's subject to how the current is directed also.

Also try to make sure the anemone doesn't touch any other rock.

[Limeblue]

I'm not sure whether my method is 'safe' or not *grin* but I have 3 BTA in my tank and everytime one of them stray, i'll remove them and put it back into its place. I also harass them into going to its original place when I notice them wandering (of course when it's very near to the original place lah). So far they never disturb my coral and most of the time they stay put.

[Maverick77]

I remember the thread started by this reefer called sclw... He mentioned BTAs hate sand so he "suggested" (my interpretation) putting the anemone on a seperate rock surround by sand...

I tried... So far so good... 1 mth kena restricted to the same spot... Only thing is I dunno if I'll stress it or not... Read the other anemone thread lor... Thats the suggestion there...

[cityofangels]

Thanks everybody for their comments/advise!

dreamzscape: Your suggestion would require me at redo the whole landscape of my tank. I plan to do that, however, now is not the right time for me.

limeblue: What do you mean by harass them back to its original place? Everytime I come back from work & I see the anemone stray, I'll try to remove it (carefully, of course) and place it back in its original rock but it still continues to stray.

Maverick77: I actually came back from work one day to find the RBTA on the sand, near my zoos! I think my RBTA is really weird..

[May&Bruce]

we have the same problem. If ours was any closer to the light it would be stuck to it. Seriously though, it seems that once in a while they like to just move around. We have now tried putting it on a rock surrounded by sand and away from the tank walls. Will see if that stops them.

[andylee]

When i first got my BTA, it's really irritating cos it moves around everyday!!

Everyday when i get home i'll move it back to the original place. Next morning wake up it'll be at a different place again..

So what i do? shift it back to original place again.

This takes place everyday for close to 1 month, until i buay tahan, just let it move around. Until one day, it finally settles on one of my rock for 1 week consecutive and damn difficult to detach it from the rock anymore. So i just move the whole rock to the original position lor.

Now it stays there happily for 3months plus already.. no idea why now likes tat place..

[Flame-Tail]

I believe you've seen how I placed my BTA. I put the bugger on a separate rock away from all the other scaping and it has been there for months.

[May&Bruce]

I actually came back from work one day to find the RBTA on the sand, near my zoos!  I think my RBTA is really weird.. 

Cityof angels, I agree - they are weird, but we still persist with them - why do we?

After two unsuccesful attempts to keep them in a 3 foot tank I swore 'never again' but I succumbed to the temptation. At least this time I have him in a nano tank where the only damage he could do is to two yuma's that I inherited for free on some LR. Wouldn't have him in my 5 foot tank if he is likely to go on the rampage

[cityofangels]

May&Bruce: As mentioned before, I found the RBTA on the sand, next to my zoos one day! I don't think it'll be too perturbed be on the sand.

andylee: I wouldn't mind letting it wander around my tank. However, I have alot of corals (e.g. prata, cynarina, zoos etc.) that may be affected by its wandering around. As it is, I found it attached onto half of my red zoos one day! Luckily, that half has begun to open up already.

Flame-Tail: Yeah.. That seems like a good idea but at the moment, shifting the rocks is going to be difficult for me, when I have so much corals in the tank.

[May&Bruce]

should try marine epoxy.................just kidding

[patrick123]

RBTA is beautiful, but unless you keep them in a specie specific tank, it can be a time bomb waiting to explode. When it start to roam around the rock, it will be like a bulldozer, flattening out everything and leave nothing behind. That's why a lot of senior reefer started the tank with anemone and clown fishes, but a year later, the anemonies are no longer in the tank.

[andylee]

I guess u might like to try QT the anemone and get it attached to a rock first. Then place the whole rock at the position where u find it stray most often to.

[cityofangels]

You know what?? This morning, just when I was about to leave the house, I found that my RBTA escaped from its Quarantine compartment! Ok, it really isn't a QT. It's just one of those small round baskets which I attached to the side of the tank, therefore, it doesn't have a lid. But I made sure that the basket wasn't fully submerged so that it wouldn't crawl out of the basket.

I was rushing this morning to go to work, therefore, I didn't have the time to look around in my tank for the escapee!

[Circus Tank]

You know what?? This morning, just when I was about to leave the house, I found that my RBTA escaped from its Quarantine compartment! Ok, it really isn't a QT. It's just one of those small round baskets which I attached to the side of the tank, therefore, it doesn't have a lid. But I made sure that the basket wasn't fully submerged so that it wouldn't crawl out of the basket.

I was rushing this morning to go to work, therefore, I didn't have the time to look around in my tank for the escapee!

Dear fellow Eastern reefer ma'am,

I've tried isolating my BTA the same way before... but i realised that it wasn't doing too well in such conditions. My guess is that it was not too happy about the temperature near the surface where the lightings were.. & that anemones need current (for water replacement & waste renewal)...

I realised that different species of anemones probably have different preferences.. sabae seem to like to plant their feet firmly to a piece of rock, but both my BTA have prefered to anchor their feet through some sort of hole in the rock, such that they take on an hourglass kind of shape, with the ring of rock around the thinner part of the hourglass.

I've read that some auquarists actually cut out pvc pipes into rings & fix them to their scaping (by marine epoxy or otherwise) just to satisfy this need of the BTA.

However, all these possible efforts to prevent the BTA's moving about are probably just minimizing the chances of them moving, & not totally eliminating the possibility.

Although we get upset when the anemone moves to places in our aquaria which we do not want it to be, but let's think about it...

only a live anemone would "walk" around..

[cityofangels]

Dear fellow Eastern reefer ma'am

My goodness! Why the formalities! The title, 'Mdm', sound so old!

Maybe you're right about the temperature. But I still don't know how the anemone escaped and where it went to! Got to go back home and look for it in my tank.

[May&Bruce]

Cityofangels...how about 'm'lady.......'

Anyway, wow, a disappearing anemone...that's scary if he hides then dies and pollutes your tank. I have now moved mine onto a rock surrounded by sand, and so far he has not moved at all (mind you it's only been 2 days n nights.....

[cityofangels]

I have sad news to share with everybody....

I'd like to mourn the passing of my RBTA...

When I came home from work today, I found it on top of my sponge in the SUMP! It must have gone through my overflow system, right down to my sump.

It will be greatly missed..

[Circus Tank]

let us all observe 1 minute of silence for ma'am's anemone... i believe mourning like this is familiar to many here since our beginning of the hobby..

well, even through the mourning, remember to prevent further gloom.. guess at least 30% water change wld be in place.. & maybe the addition of carbon, right?