Bleeched Anemone!

[Goby Dick]

The way i have to look at it is he's happy were he is attached to the rock fine, and has been feeding ok, so i can only hope he'll pull through.

 

Spot on!

 

I could see a difference within a month but it wasn't completely brown for 3-4 months; lighting will no doubt be a factor.

 

You should probably know that it went brown one tentacle at a time! Just so you don't think its dying as discussed in a post above...

 

Ade.

[cyenna]

if its got any damaged tissue

 

but it is clearly white. If by "damaged" you mean it isn't torn up, then yes, that is true. IME, sebaes are normally an off-white and have a some sort of colored tip (but not always). I'm not saying the picture doesn't look like a sebae as it really does. On the other hand, I can see a LFS mistaking a BTA for sebae but not really the other way around. So I think the only way to know for sure is to have a better photo of the base and the tentacles.

 

Either way, you have a bleached anemone. Feed it, give it light, and watch it grow.

[nostermare]

I know this is extremely random. i am a noobie and i was wondering how to start a topic

[cyenna]

I know this is extremely random. i am a noobie and i was wondering how to start a topic

 

click "new topic" icon at the top right and bottom right

[nostermare]

Thank YOU VERY much

[mark2006]

So I think the only way to know for sure is to have a better photo of the base and the tentacles.

Thanks for the input , has anyone got a real close up shot of a Sabae as i keep trying to get a good close up of my Anemone but with no luck, only have a dated camera

[CGNano]

I don't have a close up picture but I can tell you that it is in the same family as the notoriously hard to care for, Heteractis Magnifica.

 

Your MH should bring it around, but these anemones get huge quite quickly.

[Steve973]

Whoever thinks that sebae anemones are typically white when they are healthy are quite mistaken. They should have a darker (tan) color indicative of symbiotic zooxanthellae. The white specimens that you're seeing are in poor health.

 

Which brings me to another point - it's not very ethical to keep nearly any type of anemone. When people commonly mistake a widespread problem for a sign of a typical healthy specimen, something is very wrong!

[hollister_08]

Whoever thinks that sebae anemones are typically white when they are healthy are quite mistaken. They should have a darker (tan) color indicative of symbiotic zooxanthellae. The white specimens that you're seeing are in poor health.

 

Which brings me to another point - it's not very ethical to keep nearly any type of anemone. When people commonly mistake a widespread problem for a sign of a typical healthy specimen, something is very wrong!

 

Agreed ^

[Ryan_H]

Whoever thinks that sebae anemones are typically white when they are healthy are quite mistaken. They should have a darker (tan) color indicative of symbiotic zooxanthellae. The white specimens that you're seeing are in poor health.

 

Which brings me to another point - it's not very ethical to keep nearly any type of anemone. When people commonly mistake a widespread problem for a sign of a typical healthy specimen, something is very wrong!

 

if you're referring to me i said white BUBBLE tip, which can be a perfectly healthy specimen. i was thinking that the anemone in the picture was a BTA with slightly extended tentacles, as sebaes are considerably more valuable than most bta's and most lfs's wouldn't make that mistake. but after looking at it is does have some sebae characteristics and if it is a sebae then it IS bleached and will need a TON of light and target feeding to heal.

[invertaholic]

i've had a white BTA in on of my reefs(a 125gal with 3x250wt 14k lamps) for allmost 2 years

it started out white and hey..guess what....it's still white! and oh my gosh, could be a coincidince..but it almost looks like the same on in the picture! thats because it is a white BTA in fine health.

 

sorry for the sarcasm, but i'm just try'n to stick up for the one or two guys that keep sayn' its a white BTA.

 

final answer: a white BTA in fine health. good luck.

[TikiJosh]

Mark--

Not sure, based on your pics whether you've got a sebae or BTA. Sounds like other people have got some input on that, but you should consider doing some additional research to ID for yourself. There are a lot of things that we can't see from this side of the computer screen that you can easily check on just by peeking in your aquarium.

 

Regarding your "problems", it sounds to me like your anemone is probably pretty healthy. It looks in the pictures like it's more green than white, which is a good thing. Major problems to look out for, other than the drooping tentacles, or being closed for LONG periods of time include loss of color, lack of response to stimuli (including food), and in some cases, moving around.

 

By closed for a long time, we're talking more than a day or two. Anemones expel all the water within their tissues, and close all the way up and do this once in a while. If you see it, don't be alarmed. Just give it a day or two before you worry. It should be nice and puffy again the following day. Drooping tentacles are sort of in the same category. One or two isn't a big deal. If the whole anemone is droopy, give it a day or two. Also, if you notice these types of things, check your salinity, pH, and other water chem parameters. I find keeping this information in a log book or notebook of some type is very useful. It helps to remind you what behavior is normal, and you can even check how often some of these events have occurred in the past, and how long they lasted. This can be very useful information in the future.

 

Regarding the moving around, one of the things to watch out for is not necessarily moving around, but doing so in a constant, and rather restless way. Usually, when these things go walking, they'll find a new spot to settle within a few hours. It may move again within a few days to sort of "fine-tune" its location, but you probably shouldn't see much more movement out of it, unless you make some substantial changes to your set up, like increasing or decreasing lighting, altering water flow, that kind of things. Anemones are kind of particular, and will move around until they find a spot that they like. It is best if you do not attempt to move the anemone to a spot that you believe is "more suitable" within the tank. Often, the anemone won't like the place that you put it, and it'll just start moving again. It's best just to leave them alone. Anemones don't do really well with a lot of handling. Also, as I mentioned, if the anemone seems to be doing good, don't make alterations to your lighting or water flow. That can upset whatever delicate balance of conditions may exist for your anemone in your tank. The motto "if it ain't broke" is especially apt here.

 

Otehr major things to look out for include the inability of the anemone to actually attach to a surface. If the thing is floating around the tank, and not anchored anywhere, this is a VERY bad sign, IME.

 

Also, most anemones are pretty responsive to many stimuli. It should grasp food, and start to close up so that the food is directed to the mouth. After feeding, it might be kind of closed up for the rest of the day. That's nothing to worry about.

It is a good idea to feed a variety of foods, especially stuff that's been enriched (i.e. Selcon). I feed Formula One frozen cubes, cubes of brine shrimp, mysis, and squid. If you're not enriching the mysids and brine shrimp, I'd recommend using the formula one. Let the cube warm up a bit, and then toss it right into the anemone, don't bother to break it up. That just makes a mess.

You can also feed bits of shrimp from the grocery store, but I wouldn't say that there's a huge advantage over that unless you get them for cheap or something. Also, consider removing part of the exoskeleton to expose the meat. That'll be better for your anemone.

 

Also, if you feed regularly, like more than once a week, for example, or two days in a row, you may find it less responsive on the second day of feeding. That's normal. However, if you haven't fed for two weeks or more, and it's not responsive to food, that's not a very good sign.

 

A lack of stickiness, indicative of a loss of the nematocysts (stinging cells) is also usually not a good sign. These cells discharge when they come into contact with just about anything (including food) but normally regenerate pretty quickly. If you find your anemone has lost its stickiness, that's usually a bad sign, too.

 

Now you said your anemone is not only anchored to the rock, but is also feeding okay. These are good things. It sounds to me that your anemone is pretty healthy based on those reports. If the coloring is a little off, that may not be the end of the world. I've seen bleached anemones regain symbiotic algae, but that is sort of the exception rather than the rule. If your anemone is otherwise healthy, which it appears to be, then yours may not be in a problem type situation where you have to fear for its life.

 

I'm not sure if your clowns will host in that particular anemone either. A good resource would be Joyce Wilkerson's book, Clownfishes. It has a list of all clown species, and all known anemone hosts, along with a list of which anemones host which clowns. It is a very useful resource, and I highly recommend it.

 

There are other sources of anemone care, too. I would recommend you check out the Reef Aquarium, vol 2, I think it is. I believe there's a section in there on anemones, ID, and care.

Best of luck!

[Ryan_H]

i've had a white BTA in on of my reefs(a 125gal with 3x250wt 14k lamps) for allmost 2 years

it started out white and hey..guess what....it's still white! and oh my gosh, could be a coincidince..but it almost looks like the same on in the picture! thats because it is a white BTA in fine health.

 

sorry for the sarcasm, but i'm just try'n to stick up for the one or two guys that keep sayn' its a white BTA.

 

final answer: a white BTA in fine health. good luck.

thank you.

 

so final consensus:

 

if it's a bta, it's perfectly healthy.

 

if it is in fact a sebae, it's bleached.

 

but like i said before, selling a sebae as a bta is a pretty costly mistake for an lfs to make, so i'd bet on it being a bta. and white bta's, as well as the other color morphs, aren't too common, so take care of it

[mark2006]

Mark--

Not sure, based on your pics whether you've got a sebae or BTA. Sounds like other people have got some input on that, but you should consider doing some additional research to ID for yourself. There are a lot of things that we can't see from this side of the computer screen that you can easily check on just by peeking in your aquarium.

 

Regarding your "problems", it sounds to me like your anemone is probably pretty healthy. It looks in the pictures like it's more green than white, which is a good thing. Major problems to look out for, other than the drooping tentacles, or being closed for LONG periods of time include loss of color, lack of response to stimuli (including food), and in some cases, moving around.

 

By closed for a long time, we're talking more than a day or two. Anemones expel all the water within their tissues, and close all the way up and do this once in a while. If you see it, don't be alarmed. Just give it a day or two before you worry. It should be nice and puffy again the following day. Drooping tentacles are sort of in the same category. One or two isn't a big deal. If the whole anemone is droopy, give it a day or two. Also, if you notice these types of things, check your salinity, pH, and other water chem parameters. I find keeping this information in a log book or notebook of some type is very useful. It helps to remind you what behavior is normal, and you can even check how often some of these events have occurred in the past, and how long they lasted. This can be very useful information in the future.

 

Regarding the moving around, one of the things to watch out for is not necessarily moving around, but doing so in a constant, and rather restless way. Usually, when these things go walking, they'll find a new spot to settle within a few hours. It may move again within a few days to sort of "fine-tune" its location, but you probably shouldn't see much more movement out of it, unless you make some substantial changes to your set up, like increasing or decreasing lighting, altering water flow, that kind of things. Anemones are kind of particular, and will move around until they find a spot that they like. It is best if you do not attempt to move the anemone to a spot that you believe is "more suitable" within the tank. Often, the anemone won't like the place that you put it, and it'll just start moving again. It's best just to leave them alone. Anemones don't do really well with a lot of handling. Also, as I mentioned, if the anemone seems to be doing good, don't make alterations to your lighting or water flow. That can upset whatever delicate balance of conditions may exist for your anemone in your tank. The motto "if it ain't broke" is especially apt here.

 

Otehr major things to look out for include the inability of the anemone to actually attach to a surface. If the thing is floating around the tank, and not anchored anywhere, this is a VERY bad sign, IME.

 

Also, most anemones are pretty responsive to many stimuli. It should grasp food, and start to close up so that the food is directed to the mouth. After feeding, it might be kind of closed up for the rest of the day. That's nothing to worry about.

It is a good idea to feed a variety of foods, especially stuff that's been enriched (i.e. Selcon). I feed Formula One frozen cubes, cubes of brine shrimp, mysis, and squid. If you're not enriching the mysids and brine shrimp, I'd recommend using the formula one. Let the cube warm up a bit, and then toss it right into the anemone, don't bother to break it up. That just makes a mess.

You can also feed bits of shrimp from the grocery store, but I wouldn't say that there's a huge advantage over that unless you get them for cheap or something. Also, consider removing part of the exoskeleton to expose the meat. That'll be better for your anemone.

 

Also, if you feed regularly, like more than once a week, for example, or two days in a row, you may find it less responsive on the second day of feeding. That's normal. However, if you haven't fed for two weeks or more, and it's not responsive to food, that's not a very good sign.

 

A lack of stickiness, indicative of a loss of the nematocysts (stinging cells) is also usually not a good sign. These cells discharge when they come into contact with just about anything (including food) but normally regenerate pretty quickly. If you find your anemone has lost its stickiness, that's usually a bad sign, too.

 

Now you said your anemone is not only anchored to the rock, but is also feeding okay. These are good things. It sounds to me that your anemone is pretty healthy based on those reports. If the coloring is a little off, that may not be the end of the world. I've seen bleached anemones regain symbiotic algae, but that is sort of the exception rather than the rule. If your anemone is otherwise healthy, which it appears to be, then yours may not be in a problem type situation where you have to fear for its life.

 

I'm not sure if your clowns will host in that particular anemone either. A good resource would be Joyce Wilkerson's book, Clownfishes. It has a list of all clown species, and all known anemone hosts, along with a list of which anemones host which clowns. It is a very useful resource, and I highly recommend it.

 

There are other sources of anemone care, too. I would recommend you check out the Reef Aquarium, vol 2, I think it is. I believe there's a section in there on anemones, ID, and care.

Best of luck!

Thankyou for taking the time to explain a few things to me, very informative, my anemone seems to be doing well as i stated earlier also since putting it in my tank it only moved about 2 " i think so it could ancor its foot under a overhang on my live rock, since then it hasen't moved so everything looks good there. Thanks again friend--Mark

 

P.S.

 

I was mainly worried about him being bleeched and if he'll regain any of his zooantallgae (dam spelling)

 

so i'd bet on it being a bta. and white bta's, as well as the other color morphs, aren't too common, so take care of it

I'll take great care of him, It is a beatiful creature.

[m1enbo1]

if you look through www.wetwebmedia.com you can find lots of useful info there, from bleached anemone to sick fish. you can also email them for questions that you have and you cant find. the answers they give you are very useful. to me, the anemone in the second picture looks like a BTA and not a sebae, BUT! thats just me. i may be wrong which is a good chance