So my tank is only a few months old, and for most of that time I’ve just had some snails and hermit crabs. I recently added a lawnmower blenny and a yellow watchman goby (come out of hiding Toby-Wan Thegoby!) I had a RFA doing well and saw a six-pack for a good price at a vendor from whom I was ordering some frags. I had read RFA’s don’t move much, but I apparently got some overachievers. One of them got on the side glass about three inches up and proceeded to give birth for most of the day Thursday. It looked like something out of a sci-fi horror movie. Grey chunks went everywhere. Yesterday she looked like a quarter of her foot was missing. Today she’s a small pile of grey flesh, presumably dead (assuming that’s her and not a gathering of the chunks from Thursday). First, WTH? That doesn’t sound normal from what I read. Second, should I get what appears to be dead out to keep from spoiling the water? or wait to see if there’s new anemone babies in there?
RFA experience
- Thread starter dubshanester
- Start date
From what you are describing... no, that does not sound like normal RFA behavior or normal reproduction to me.
First thing: remove any loose grey, decaying tissue you can find right now. Siphon it out, net it out, turkey baste it loose, whatever works. I would not leave obviously dead anemone tissue in the tank to see what happens, and I would not worry about "saving babies" at this stage. If there are any viable babies, they will either make it or they will not, but right now the priority is preventing a water quality issue.
I would also run fresh carbon, swap or rinse any filter floss / socks, and make sure you have good surface agitation and aeration. Then test salinity, temperature, and ammonia at a minimum. Alk, nitrate, and phosphate would also be good to know if you can test them. If anything looks off, or if there is a lot of tissue loss, I would be ready to do a decent water change.
Also take a close look at any powerheads, pump intakes, overflow teeth, etc. RFAs can and do move, so ending up on the glass is not automatically weird. But chunks of grey flesh everywhere is not how they "have babies." That sounds a lot more like damage, a decline event, or possibly something got to it after it started failing.
As for tank age... a few months old is still pretty new for RFAs. Some people do get away with it, especially in very stable systems, but in general they are safer once a tank has a bit more maturity and stability behind it. So I would definitely slow down on further additions for now until you figure out what happened here. If the remaining RFAs are still attached, leave them alone unless they are actively melting too. Stability matters more than constantly moving or messing with them, and, in case you haven't heard it before, I must point out an old truism: "Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank."
First thing: remove any loose grey, decaying tissue you can find right now. Siphon it out, net it out, turkey baste it loose, whatever works. I would not leave obviously dead anemone tissue in the tank to see what happens, and I would not worry about "saving babies" at this stage. If there are any viable babies, they will either make it or they will not, but right now the priority is preventing a water quality issue.
I would also run fresh carbon, swap or rinse any filter floss / socks, and make sure you have good surface agitation and aeration. Then test salinity, temperature, and ammonia at a minimum. Alk, nitrate, and phosphate would also be good to know if you can test them. If anything looks off, or if there is a lot of tissue loss, I would be ready to do a decent water change.
Also take a close look at any powerheads, pump intakes, overflow teeth, etc. RFAs can and do move, so ending up on the glass is not automatically weird. But chunks of grey flesh everywhere is not how they "have babies." That sounds a lot more like damage, a decline event, or possibly something got to it after it started failing.
As for tank age... a few months old is still pretty new for RFAs. Some people do get away with it, especially in very stable systems, but in general they are safer once a tank has a bit more maturity and stability behind it. So I would definitely slow down on further additions for now until you figure out what happened here. If the remaining RFAs are still attached, leave them alone unless they are actively melting too. Stability matters more than constantly moving or messing with them, and, in case you haven't heard it before, I must point out an old truism: "Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank."
I got all the grey tissue with no color out late Thursday, but some of it has some color and appears to be living. All parameters are good, but the alkalinity is a little high (almost 11dKH). I did a 30% water change. The other six RFA’s look good, as do all coral. My charcoal is only a week old, but it couldn’t hurt to change it out. Thanks for the response!
Strangely I bought 7 at a great price and lost 1. Never seemed to be happy or even remotely the same as the others. All others moved around a little bit and have now found their place in the tank. One of the survivors has the biggest lips - over a 1” disk at times but seems like that’s its thing. Best to go with how the majority seem to be feeling
