Replacing ZOOXANTHELLAE or.....

grouper

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I have several RBTA and one looks crazy. It just moved to the center of my tank from the bottom where there was not any good light. The tenticlas are red/pink in color but the rest of it looks clear. Can zooxanthellae be replaced? Since he moved to the center of the tank, it starting to look a little better but the color remains the same.

:eek:
 
Yes, Zooxanthellae will regrow in that area if: 1) there is still zooxanthellae in the tenticals and 2) if it get proper light.
 
Brandon, Is it possible for a coral/nem to loose enough of the zooanthellea to never regain enough the color? I have some corals that are very alive (polyps and all), but stark white.
 
Xyzpdq0121;250718 wrote: Yes, Zooxanthellae will regrow in that area if: 1) there is still zooxanthellae in the tenticals and 2) if it get proper light.



The tenticals do have color. Since it;s in the center of the tank, it get enoigh light. however, one of the other nems is over shadowing it now. It there a suppliment the will help replace the zooanthellae?
 
corvettecris;250720 wrote: Brandon, Is it possible for a coral/nem to loose enough of the zooanthellea to never regain enough the color? I have some corals that are very alive (polyps and all), but stark white.

Yes it is possible. If it looses too much the coral/nem might starve to death. If it looses all, convencial wisdow would say that you can not grow more when you do not have it there in the first place. I personally have never seen a shroom/nem/zoa that is totally bleached out come back. I have two zoas that I just found in the very back of my tank, along with a shroom, that are totally white. I am thinking about getting back there and seeing if I can rescue them. I will be interested in seeing if they can come back, but I doubt it. My advice for your polyps is to move them back into the light SLOWLY. You do not want to shock them even more. You might also see if you can spot feed them till they get some color back, if they are going to get it back.

grouper;250729 wrote: The tenticals do have color. Since it;s in the center of the tank, it get enoigh light. however, one of the other nems is over shadowing it now. It there a suppliment the will help replace the zooanthellae?

No, there is no suppliment that I know of that will specifically aid in the growth of Zoox. Light is what they eat and nothing else really. Now, you can feed the nem to make sure that he has energy to get through this tough time. But good light is what he needs.
 
Xyzpdq0121;250733 wrote: Yes it is possible. If it looses too much the coral/nem might starve to death. If it looses all, convencial wisdow would say that you can not grow more when you do not have it there in the first place. I personally have never seen a shroom/nem/zoa that is totally bleached out come back. I have two zoas that I just found in the very back of my tank, along with a shroom, that are totally white. I am thinking about getting back there and seeing if I can rescue them. I will be interested in seeing if they can come back, but I doubt it. My advice for your polyps is to move them back into the light SLOWLY. You do not want to shock them even more. You might also see if you can spot feed them till they get some color back, if they are going to get it back.


I was meaning SPS specifically. It is sitting in high light, but at one time was bleached for one reason or another. I have tried low light and high, with no change. They are now sitting in high light, and have good polyp extension,, but no growth or color regain.
 
Xyzpdq0121;250733 wrote: No, there is no suppliment that I know of that will specifically aid in the growth of Zoox. Light is what they eat and nothing else really.

Zooxanthellae is an algae that will be more prominent in the presence of nutrients, namely nitrogen and phosphorus. This is what gives many corals a brown look in a tank with too many nutrients, essentially the zooxanthellae become too succesfull. Zooxanthellae actually provide the host organism with the energy from photosynthesis not themselves, and the host organism provides the zoox the necessary nitrogen and phosphorus for the zooxanthellae to survive. During any bleaching event, lower light levels will aid in the zoox recovery as well as feeding small planktonic foods such as phytoplankton or oyster eggs.
 
Iodine, alkalinity, biomineral content... are as important to Anemones as they are to stony, soft corals and other Cnidarians. Again, "Reef" circumstances are required to keep a BTA.

Both foods derived from photosynthesis and augmented physical feeding with meaty foods are necessary for this species. If your animal is or becomes bleached to a degree, ancillary feeding will become even more important. I suggest meaty foods, no bigger than the anemones mouth 2 – 3 times a week, less if the food items are large. The best are fish based (Silversides of appropriate size are excellent, as are various kinds of shrimps, defrosted/frozen cube-foods, planktonic organisms that can be gently directly baster-placed...), and always of marine origin. Tongs can be used to place food items directly onto the open anemone's tentacles.

Some folks endorse the occasional to regular use/soaking of such foods in a vitamin and HUFA prep. like Selcon. This is not a bad idea.

And a note re post feeding behavior. It is not unusual for a just-fed, digesting BTA to "hunker down", shrink in size, pull it's tentacular disk inward and stay this way sometimes for a few days... Do be on the lookout for egested waste packets... and remove these with a net or siphon.



Disease:

The vast majority (90 some percent) of anemone losses period are iatrogenic... caused by aquarists. In order of likely preponderance these are due to improper placement... Being put in with other too-noxious well-established Cnidarians ("corals", other anemones...), in inappropriate physical settings (too small, new/unstable, too little light), damaged specimens (too bleached, torn, starved...), poor maintenance (not using pre-mixed, adjusted water... powerhead disasters...), damage from other livestock (beaten by large hosting Clowns, eaten by predators, poked by Urchins...) and starvation (wrong foods, too large or small)... and NOT pathogenic disease.

Some symptoms of poor health in anemones include an open, droopy mouth, staying closed all the time, and turning to goo. Bleaching... turning more to completely white is a sign of diminishing health... the loss of endo-symbiotic algae that produce food and oxygen, aiding in the reduction of waste and CO2... Many factors can bring about this condition; heat-stress, poor lighting or photo-shock... The cause here could appear to be "nothing", but I would "step up" the feeding of the one specimen... try three times a week... for a while... And re-direct some/more circulation (likely via a powerhead, submersible pump) toward its general direction.

If your anemone, BTA or otherwise exhibits signs of poor health, what can you do? Remedy the root cause/s of the trouble... Provide better circumstances, remove obnoxious influences/animals, feed it better... Very possibly move it to another system, or return it or give it to someone who knows how, cares enough, has the proper set-up to care for it. Doing "nothing" is not an option... Often these animals outright dissolve... fouling the system, possibly taking most of your other livestock with them...

Avoidance of health issues is of course the better route to go... (rather than the too-late lack of health business emphasize in human health care in the West), with good initial-health acquisition of specimens, long/slow drip acclimation to appropriate quarters, maintenance and placement with suitable tankmate species
 
I have a GBTA that is bright white except for the very ends of its tenticles which are tinged with florescent green.

My question is, if it never regains its color, will it die and nuke the tank? My clowns are hosting a beautiful, large wonderfully colored RBTA on the other side of the tank that has never shown a sign of losing any color and I'd hate for something to happen to it.

I'm guessing the environment is fine since the RBTA has thrived for several months and perhaps the GBTA will eventually recover.

I'll leave the white one alone if it's not going to hurt anything, but I'm wondering if it just needs to go away....... :'-(
 
I doubt if he dies he will "nuke" your tank... But there is a pretty good chance that the GBTA will not make it. To give him the best chance, try directly feeding him about twice to three times a week.
 
They do deteriorate very quickly when they die. It's almost like they go from living to stinky poop in minutes after death. So they can cause a lil ammonia spike but its not that serious, its like overfeeding the tank. There is no detectable "nuke" involved though which is typically associated with toxic chemicals.
 
You can always try injecting the nem with zooxanthellae... kidding.
 
Xyzpdq0121;252107 wrote: I doubt if he dies he will "nuke" your tank... But there is a pretty good chance that the GBTA will not make it. To give him the best chance, try directly feeding him about twice to three times a week.

Thanks!

Tried that, but when food on a skewer or from a baster gets near him, he closes up tightly. If I force the food in, it just drops out. After he's stressed by that, he'll crawl back into the rocks and I won't see him again for a couple days.

So I've just left him alone ... hoping for the best.

This is a very strange nem.
 
If he is not taking food, then that is a pretty bad sign for a nem. At that point usually the only hope that I know for him is a very nutrient rich environment. Problem is, you can not have a nutrient rich (NO3 < 50) environment in your main tank without effecting your other stuff.
 
I recently found a mushroom colony that had been hidden from light for at least 2 months. They were basically translucent and stark white. I put them in the frag tank and after a month one of them is starting to regain some color...
 
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