SeaFurn's 100 Days of Nanos Contest Tank: 40 Baby RFAs

[kimberbee]

Can you link the light you're using?

[SeaFurn]

4 hours ago, kimberbee said:

Can you link the light you're using?

Here you go:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B010H5CJBA/ref=ya_aw_oh_bia_dp?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Mariaface]

My RFA decided to walk yesterday, so I'm crossing my fingers that I don't come home to a mess today. Just in time for my usual weekly check-in, too!

[seabass]

I just browsed your thread.  I like this tank.  Sorry about the RFAs.  I've kept them for more than 11 years.  I very rarely feed mine, and then it's just a couple of flakes of food.  I really feel that over feeding and/or feeding too large (or undigestible) food can lead to more problems than under feeding.  Possibly due to it rotting in their gut.  I've gone over a year without target feeding mine.

 

Also, I've normally kept them in low flow tanks.  I'm not sure if flow is an issue or not but I thought I'd mention it.  I'd probably try turning down the flow, at least until they get settled in more.  Once they are acclimated to your tank, I think you'll find them very hardy.

 

Also, I'm not sure how relevant this is, but they don't need pristine water conditions.  A little nitrate and phosphate won't hurt them.  Sometimes I think they like a little nutrients in the water.  I'll follow along and see if anything else strikes me.  If you can, get a picture of a dying RFA, that might tell us something too.  But hopefully, you won't have any more that die.  Good luck!

[GregEmmitte]

42 minutes ago, seabass said:

 

Also, I'm not sure how relevant this is, but they don't need pristine water conditions.  A little nitrate and phosphate won't hurt them.  Sometimes I think they like a little nutrients in the water.  I'll follow along and see if anything else strikes me.  If you can, get a picture of a dying RFA, that might tell us something too.  But hopefully, you won't have any more that die.  Good luck!

I think there's still way more to learn about tolerances and nitrate and phosphates.

[StinkyBunny]

Here's my take on your RFA issue when you first got them. The 2 you lost could have been newly imported specimens, anemones don't ship well in the best of times, RFAs ship better than most though. How they're cared for at the collection stations can vary wildly. The temps at the collecting station play a major role in this, the higher they are the worse they ship. I won't import an anemone in the summer if I can help it. As for feeding, as someone else mentioned, smaller food particles work best, this holds true for all coelenterates from corals up to metre wide ritteri anemones and Carpet anemones.

[Weetabix7]

7 minutes ago, StinkyBunny said:

Here's my take on your RFA issue when you first got them. The 2 you lost could have been newly imported specimens, anemones don't ship well in the best of times, RFAs ship better than most though. How they're cared for at the collection stations can vary wildly. The temps at the collecting station play a major role in this, the higher they are the worse they ship. I won't import an anemone in the summer if I can help it. As for feeding, as someone else mentioned, smaller food particles work best, this holds true for all coelenterates from corals up to metre wide ritteri anemones and Carpet anemones.

 

Pretty sure he got his RFA's from Vivid tho, and I believe they raise their own. 

That's good info on the small particles being better to feed them. 

I've been annoyed that I was out of Mysis to feed mine and thought the frozen Cyclopods I had on hand would be too small, but from what you're saying that's actually perfect to feed.

[SeaFurn]

Thanks for looking things over @seabass . I really appreciate it. 

I feel 2 of the losses were from stress during shipping. They didn't last longer than 2 days. The 3 other losses are the ones I'm struggling with. The one that I most recently posted about didn't make it. It had shrunk down and at the end it looked like it was churning out its insides. The crab stayed near it but didn't bother it the whole time - I'm assuming it was waiting and planning for it to be its next meal. This was how it looked on Tuesday evening. It didn't make it through the night.

 

Then another one - that didn't eat last weekend and started moving during the week. It was on the back side of a rock most of the week so I couldn't see it but when it came into view on Friday it looked like this. Its tentacles and side were turning brown. By the Saturday morning it was brown jelly. So frustrating.

 

Knowing how much to feed and how often have definitely been questions. I've got lots of different advice on this. I've been feeding mysis or finely chopped up Reef Frenzy - and only a small amount once per week. The remaining RFAs have always showed a good feeding response. Seems like the first sign of a problem is they don't take any food and then they start moving. A week later they are gone.

 

They definitely seem to not like too much flow. I'm only using the stock pump and point the flow at the back wall. I put my Jaebo sw-2 in for a day early on thinking I needed more but they stayed closed the entire day so I pulled it out. After that they opened back up. 

 

I'm not really trying to keep my water is so "clean". I think it's just 

because I'm not really feeding the tank much. Beside feeding the RFAs, I'm feeding a little zooplankton and a pellet or two for the crabs every few days. Do I need to feed the tank just to get it a little "dirty"? 

The frequent water testing has just been to make sure that's not the problem. The test kits are new (haven't expired) and they are the same ones I'm using wth my reef bowl.

These are my other parameters:

Alk = 8

CA  = 430

MG = 1300 

 

The advice VIP has given is

to turn down my lights. They said my water seems fine for what I'm testing for. I had been running my lights on Current's pre-programmed coral acclimation setting (M2). That's basically 60% intensity for 8-9 hours. So now I've turned them down to 50%. 

A little confused on how you could keep RFA's AND coral if you've got to run lights like this at 50%.

Willing to try anything at this point though. 

They also suggested a triton test if the losses continue to see what's in my water. I just question this when it's the same water I'm using in the reef bowl where the coral is healthy and growing - even some SPS.

 

The remaining 5 look good and healthy (knock on wood). Here are 4 of them this morning stretching to the light coming in from the window. 

 

Again, thanks for looking things over and your advice! 

[SeaFurn]

1 hour ago, StinkyBunny said:

Here's my take on your RFA issue when you first got them. The 2 you lost could have been newly imported specimens, anemones don't ship well in the best of times, RFAs ship better than most though. How they're cared for at the collection stations can vary wildly. The temps at the collecting station play a major role in this, the higher they are the worse they ship. I won't import an anemone in the summer if I can help it. As for feeding, as someone else mentioned, smaller food particles work best, this holds true for all coelenterates from corals up to metre wide ritteri anemones and Carpet anemones.

I definitely think the first 2 were from shipping...maybe even the third. I had heard that I was getting close the end of the season when I was ordering them but I'm not sure if mine were newly collected or tank raised.

I do know the first 3 looked slightly different than ones that remain. They were smaller and the tentacles looked a little different. 

 

I will definitely keep the food size on the small side.

 

Thank you for your insider expertise! 

[SeaFurn]

1 hour ago, GregEmmitte said:

I think there's still way more to learn about tolerances and nitrate and phosphates.

I have a lot more to learn general! 

To be honest I haven't checked phosphates yet. I was more concerned with the other parameters given it's a newly established tank and the associated losses I am having. Plus, I wasn't having a problem with algae and wasn't feeding the tank much so didn't consider that one a priority. 

I'll check I so I know where it's at.

[seabass]

I wouldn't try to make to water dirty by overfeeding.  It'll lead to excess organics along with the nutrients and will cause cyano, algae, or other problems.  I just wouldn't try to keep nitrate and phosphate at zero.  These are important nutrients, but too much will cause problems too.

 

I'd probably recommend feeding less than you do, and less frequently.  They are nothing like fish when it comes to feeding.

 

I doubt that your light is too bright for them, although they can put up with some pretty low light situations too.  If your light is suitable for coral, it's probably suitable for RFSs too.

 

I also doubt that your crabs are causing any problems, but can't help but wonder if something is damaging them.  Any possibility that you have a hitchhiker crab or some undesirable in your tank?

[StinkyBunny]

I only feed the anemones once every 5 days, seems to work well for me. You have to realize that corals and anemones make the majority of their foods from photosynthesis and they can absorb amino acids out of the water column. I think you did right dropping the light down, I drop mine to 50% for new arrivals, then ramp them up over the next 2 weeks.

 

You're quite welcome for the info. I've been doing this since 1986 when all we could do was hope we were heading in the right direction, most of the time we weren't heading right. With the internet, now we've unlocked so many things. There's a guy 30 miles south of me that has had ritteris split in his system about 10 times over the last 5 years.

[SeaFurn]

Posting FTS #7 to my thread. 

 

 

 

Here are the remaining 5 RFA's. Documenting how they look which 

I think they all look pretty healthy. 

Thanks to everyone who've replied with tips and suggestions. I really appreciate it. 

 

[SeaFurn]

[SeaFurn]

@seabass thanks for your advice on the contest thread about adding fish.  I like the fact that having them may be beneficial to the RFA's from a feeding standpoint. So I think I'll plan to add one the weekend after the 4th of July. 

[Lula_Mae]

I'm sorry it's been so bumpy but the RFA's you've got are really looking nice.  Fingers crossed they continue to do well, and looking forward to seeing the fish!

[Mariaface]

For what it's worth, my RFA (green skirt, white mottled/speckled center) seemed not to like the intensity of the first preset for the lights. Its skirt began to lighten and go translucent, and then it started to walk. Mouth was open wide, too. Right now it's hanging out at the side of the tank, between the rock and wall. Pretty well hidden from the light, actually. The mouth is normal, the porcelain crab is still harassing it and the sexy shrimp have joined in... It looks pretty happy where it settled  

[SeaFurn]

3 hours ago, Mariaface said:

For what it's worth, my RFA (green skirt, white mottled/speckled center) seemed not to like the intensity of the first preset for the lights. Its skirt began to lighten and go translucent, and then it started to walk. Mouth was open wide, too. Right now it's hanging out at the side of the tank, between the rock and wall. Pretty well hidden from the light, actually. The mouth is normal, the porcelain crab is still harassing it and the sexy shrimp have joined in... It looks pretty happy where it settled  

No that's good to know. I'm glad it may have found a spot it likes. Hopefully the crab and shrimp don't harass it too much! 

Another one of mine has been moving but just on the rock it's on and it still looks ok...but I'm on pins and needles when I see one move. 

[seabass]

I like how the tentacles on the green one are expanded.  I would normally attributed that to good health.

 

The tentacles on the one below are less so.  I'm not sure if that means anything or not.

[BulkRate]

No biology-backing to this statement, but I suspect that the tentacles are treated much like fat stores... IME when they start to shrink to nubs the anemone is starving.  Target feed a little bit of small-particle food every day for a week (with all flow/filtration pumps off for like 15 minutes) and see if it starts to improve.  You may have to blow the food gently into its tentacles with a pipette or directly deposit it on the oral disc to get it to take it.  Do not try to place the food directly into the anemone's mouth... it's very easy to tear the internal tissues and then you'll have made the issue much worse.

 

In my opinion your "sad pic" isn't too bad yet and should be easily correctable.  Google "ailing rock flower anemone" (or search for  it here on NR) for a saga of what happened to one of mine a couple years ago and the road to recovery.  It's still alive and well to this day!  

 

 

[kimberbee]

23 hours ago, BulkRate said:

Target feed a little bit of small-particle food every day for a week

Recommendations for what foods? We talking reef roids or...?

[seabass]

For me, I just use a couple of flakes of fish food.  They are easily to target feed (with a eye dropper or plastic pipette with the skinny end cut off) and they are easily digestible.  No reason to get too fancy or introduce messy foods.  Like BulkRate stated, place the food on the tentacles and let it feed itself.

[BulkRate]

In my case, cyclopeeze and either Nutramar or DrG's decasulated brine shrimp eggs was the go-to food.  But anything you can mince or grind up would probably work fine.  I had very mixed results with ground-up pellet foods, though - not sure if reef-roids would be accepted.

 

Try it on one of your healthy specimens and if it actively feeds you should be good to go with the one in need.

[SeaFurn]

HELP!!!

So here's the latest. I'm just so upset I don't know what to do. 

The green RFA on the round rock pictured above (pic taken on Saturday - open and healthy) has been moving around that rock all week and now looks like this. The lower half of it (tentacles) just seems to be rotting sway. Same pattern as the last two. This one probably only has one day left.

For context relative to the others around it. 

 

The crabs have not been around it all week. There have been no feedings. Parameters have been stable. Lights have been running at 50%.

Salinity stays at 1.025 before top offs - even the long one from bedtime to morning when water is at its lowest.

Could there be some

kind of pest or bacterial infection in the tank?

What should I do? 

Take the crabs back to the LFS?

Major water change? How many gallons?

It's maddening that it's happening one at a time. 

 

[SeaFurn]

On 6/27/2017 at 4:24 PM, seabass said:

The tentacles on the one below are less so.  I'm not sure if that means anything or not.

Here's a pic of this one from a few min ago as the lights are coming on.