RFA won't eat

[Floundering_Around]

I have a RFA that must have gotten irritated when I was transporting my tank to school after summer break; as such, it moved away from my other four and lodged itself in the back on my LR. It's in a "shady" area and it's difficult to get tongs/a baster back there to feed it. This move happened August 2018; since then it has slowly stopped eating, it's tentacles getting shorter, and has stopped reacting to food or not reacting faster enough to compete with greedy clowns and hermits. It's not as bad @BulkRate's situation as it can get up to the size of a quarter or half dollar when inflated.

 

I already tried gently agitating the foot so that it would hopefully dislodge and move, no luck. Of course, it's attached to the largest piece of LR in my tank so I can't maneuver it easily. Best I could do is flip the rock on its side so that the nem is facing the light directly and not in the shade. 

Any suggestions? Should I soak the food in something to entice it to eat?

 

link to @BulkRate's thread from 2014 and what they did for their nem

 

[Chris's Fishes]

In my limited experience with anemones, they know much better than we do.

 

I received a beaten-up BTA in the mail, and added it to a tank that wasn't ready for it. It dropped off the rock it was attached to, and floated around the tank for like three weeks. I kept on moving it to spots that I thought would be great for it - I made little coves out of rocks, and spent most of my free time just worrying about it. In the end, what it needed was for me to leave it alone and let it mope around for a while. I improved my water quality and kept my hands out of the tank, and it attached pretty soon. It hasn't moved since - and while it's not thriving yet, it's doing much better.

 

That's a long way of saying that I wouldn't be trying to move it or force-feed it. If it's in a shaded area, it has a reason for wanting to be there - even if it's just trying to hide from what pissed it off in the first place. If it's not eating, then I wouldn't force that, either. Someone else will probably know what exact advice to give to help it recover, but I wouldn't be forcing anything - I imagine them to be like 15 year-olds. The harder you push, the more they push back.

[Floundering_Around]

I'm just worried cause it's been almost six months since it moved and hasn't eaten

[BulkRate]

IME, RFA's are quite possibly the dumbest quasi-sessile photosynthetic organisms in the hobby - juuuuuust able to move towards what they want/away from what they don't - yet routinely mix the two up.  I've had this happen three times now over the years - each time the rehab method has been to get it back into light (and prevent it from scooting completely back out of it) AND daily target feeding with the pumps/powerheads off for long enough for it to eat the food dropped onto its oral disk.  Takes at least 2 weeks for them to bounce back, more the further gone they are when you start.  And yes, the particularly stubborn ones usually can't be caught/coaxed out until starvation's gotten advanced and they've faded down to ghost-pale. 😕

 

So yes, if you can shift the large rock in any way so that it gets some light, do so.

 

Any nutritionally dense small particle food will do for the feeding.  My go-to for the past year has been the sinking PE mysis pellets (1mm size) https://www.amazon.com/Piscine-Energetics-1MM-Mysis-Pellets/dp/B01M5D5QJJ - all of my rock flower anemones go for them (they spit out pretty much every other pellet I've tried) & it doesn't leave a lot of leftovers to foul the tank afterwards.

 

Good luck! 

[WV Reefer]

44 minutes ago, Floundering_Around said:

I'm just worried cause it's been almost six months since it moved and hasn't eaten

If it’s been that long why not go ahead and flip the rock on it’s side..... see if it moves. 

[Floundering_Around]

2 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

If it’s been that long why not go ahead and flip the rock on it’s side..... see if it moves. 

I'll try that. I'll feel a little guilty cause my new TSB has made the rock his home

 

4 minutes ago, BulkRate said:

IME, RFA's are quite possibly the dumbest quasi-sessile photosynthetic organisms in the hobby - juuuuuust able to move towards what they want/away from what they don't - yet routinely mix the two up.  I've had this happen three times now over the years - each time the rehab method has been to get it back into light (and prevent it from scooting completely back out of it) AND daily target feeding with the pumps/powerheads off for long enough for it to eat the food dropped onto its oral disk.  Takes at least 2 weeks for them to bounce back, more the further gone they are when you start.  And yes, the particularly stubborn ones usually can't be caught/coaxed out until starvation's gotten advanced and they've faded down to ghost-pale. 😕

 

Any nutritionally dense small particle food will do.  My go-to for the past year has been the sinking PE mysis pellets (1mm size) https://www.amazon.com/Piscine-Energetics-1MM-Mysis-Pellets/dp/B01M5D5QJJ - all of my rock flower anemones go for them (they spit out pretty much every other pellet I've tried) & it doesn't leave a lot of leftovers to foul the tank afterwards.

 

Good luck! 

Do you think it will accept powdered foods like reefroids if I make it into more of a paste? I'll have to distract all my crabs with some sinking pellets. Mine isn't ghostly pale but it definitely has shrunk in size and cannibalized its own tentacles to the point it can't grab food. 

[BulkRate]

I'd stick with the pellets - it's no biggie to drop a couple for diversionary purposes (especially if you know they'll be eaten).  Also in my case a 9 gallon tank can get fouled pretty easily and even a little ReefRoids used daily can leave a lot of gunk in the water. 

 

But all that said I don't think it'd hurt to try at least once or twice just to see, though.  Let us know if you get a noticeable feeding response when you dust some of the ReefRoids slurry onto the patient 'nem you're trying to treat.  Could be I'm totally off-base and that's a better convalescence food entirely.

[mcarroll]

Can you post what this new tanks test results have been like?  Especially for nitrates and phosphates?

[Floundering_Around]

First time directly feeding the nem since moving the rock so it was getting direct light. Tentacles have gotten longer after having self-cannibalized them. Got an instant feeding response, still slow to move the food to its mouth though. Needs to be quicker in order to eat before the crabs and fish notice it has food but otherwise, an improvement! 🙂

@mcarroll I don't think it's water parameters that caused the issue of it moving. I'm in college and move my tank with me during breaks that are longer than a week (summer and winter). The nem in question got pinched against the bucket during transit and decided that was the last straw. All my other nems and corals were/are fine.

I'll update water parameters tomorrow (I haven't tested in a long time 🙃 but that's implied in my username). Just did some heavy feeding so my numbers will probably be really skewed and the tank is in need of a water change anyways.

[BulkRate]

Great news!

 

So what did you choose to feed with?  ReefRoids, pellets or something else?

[Floundering_Around]

Got back from spring break yesterday. The tank has been running for a week with no feeding and an automated light by itself (no ATO or auto feeder, just covered the access hole with a plastic bag and taped it down to limit evaporation and stop fish from jumping. Nearly had a heart attack cause the nem in question had walked a little farther up the rock and I didn't immediately see it as my tank walls were covered in coralline. It's tentacles have gotten even plumper and I'll try feeding it tonight.

 

@BulkRate last time I fed it softened pellets; the tank occasionally got broadcast fed so it might have snatched some of that up.

[Floundering_Around]

Had an immediate feeding response to mysis and pellets!

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Glad to hear he’s hungry!