BTA question????

[Mickadee]

I have had a BTA in my tank for about a year now it was in my 50 under pc lights and doing very well with daily feedings and had really good color. I moved that tank into the 100 and added MH back the first part of March so its been going on 4 months now. the last few weeks my BTA that has been in the sme spot and really happy and growing and pigging out on what I target feed him and the clown brings to him. anyway the base of the tenticals are a brown color like they always have been but the ends of the tenticals are turning bright white., he isnt in direct MH lighting but reaches into it daily. could this be a natural reaction to the MH or some sort of bleaching?
he still opens fully and eats anything that is offered to him and its sort of a marbling from the dark color to the brighter white.. any ideas on what might be going on????
here is a pic of him just after I put him in the tank. he moved just under the ledge of the rock and opens around it but you can see the color that he had. I dont have a newer pic though. my camera sucks the good one is on a trip. he has also about double his size since being under the MH lights.

thanks
Mike


btw casey if you read i am still trying to get to the pics I took they are in a cheap cameras program and I cant figure out how to transfer them to another area to be able to post them but still woprking on it.

[RayPollett]

Since I've never moved a BTA from PCs to MH; I can not give you a firm answer.

If it is just the tips I would not worry at this time, especially if he is eating and growing. It may still be adapting to the differences in the new tank.

Ray

[StellaMN]

Last fall, I upgraded my lights from PC to MH. I followed Eric Borneman's advice with regards to upgrading lights.

Without getting too technical, apparently a sudden increase in photosynthesis (which happens with a lighting upgrade) can actually poison the coral, or in this case anemone. You need to bump up to the full photosythetic period. Eric recommends starting off with approximately 20-30 minute interval of light followed by 1 hour of dark to allow the photosynthetic process to cool down. Each week you increase the light period by 20-30 minutes but do not decrease the 1 hour of darkness. It can take several months to get up to a full day of lighting. I followed this process when I upgraded my lighting and didn't have a single coral or BTA suffer from "sunburn" (or bleaching).

I can't tell you if you your anenome will die or survive. It's just a waiting game at this point. I'll keep my fingers crossed

Jodi

[Jeremy1973]

I just upgraded from PC to MH and my BTA has been doing fine. To adjust the corals I only had the MH on for 2 hours a day for 3 days, 3 hours a day for 3 days, 4 hours a day for 3 days, and now I am getting ready to adjust it to 5 hours a day. So far, everyone in the tank has been doing wonderfully! Well, almost everyone...*thinks of his lost anenome*

[RayPollett]

Good points. Since I've never upgraded I had not thought of that.

Ray

[Mickadee]

will he was acclimated to the new light over a 1 month period it wasnt all at once there was super light. and for a while he did fine and had really nice color to it and then slowly the tips started turning white over about the last week or so but the MH has been on the tank since March so I dont think its a light acclimation thing but maybe I am not real sure.
Mike

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by Mickadee
and for a while he did fine and had really nice color to it and then slowly the tips started turning white over about the last week or so but the MH has been on the tank since March so I dont think its a light acclimation thing

Most likely this is what is happening, although it may be totally unrelated and just some change in the zoox. populations in this specimen. The bleaching that occurs in some autotrophic organisms is the result of superoxygenation (high production of oxygen and oxygen free radicals) in some Cnidarians with sudden changes in the intensity of light. For this particular specimen, it is prolly a little too late to really do anything, but it may benefit from some shading with a piece of fiberglass screen for part of each day. These anemone are capable of pulling back under the rock, and if they are not happy with the site, will move to a location where they will get less light. I agree with the statement that "if it is growing and feeding, do nothing", but you may want to cut the photoperiod down to around 6 hrs of MH and go up from there, especially if you see other specimens that are exhibiting unusual pigmentation changes or unusual behavior.

Sorry I couldn't be more specific, hth.

[Mickadee]

just the anemone is doing this. and he is mostly under a rock and reaches around the rock and opens from there and when he retracts its on the under side of the rock. if that makes any sense LOL

I guess the best thing is to keep him feed and watch for any detioration that might happen hopefully not though.\
Mike

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by Mickadee
just the anemone is doing this. and he is mostly under a rock and reaches around the rock and opens from there and when he retracts its on the under side of the rock.

normal activity, it wil pull under the rock when it has had enough. As long as it has a shaded area to pull into, I would not get concerned about any phototoxic reactions at this time.