LTA Shrinking

Greenman

Greenman

Reefing newb
I have an LTA that when i got him was the size of a dinner plate. He's not about the size of a tennis ball. He hasnt lost any color and my params are fine, nitrates, ammonia, nitrites are 0<. I have not spot fed him at all though, Should I start buying a shrmp once a week and spot feeding him that?
 
If you don't feed them and someone use too, they do shrink. I've also noticed that more intense light may also make them shrink. If you have a picture for curiosity sake it may help. My experience is with bubble tips, so it could be different.
 
I'm at work right now but i'll see what i can get for you. When I got him he was white, and the color has never changed. On my 55 gal i have 6 T5 HO bulbs on it (280watts) or something close to it. So im not sure if my light would be to much for him but he's still sticky to the touch and not moving around, attached pretty well where he's at.
 
I don't see any sign of splitting but that'd be nice. I've never heard of LTA's splitting in a home tank though. Bubbles yes but never LTA's (i could be wrong lol)
 
If it is actually white it isn't healthy. Is it deflating a lot? Give us more information on its behavior ( stretching for light, shying away from light, bigger or smaller with day lights on/off, actinics on/off, pooping a lot). If it is bleached than I would definitely supplement it with some feedings. Small feedings (not big chunks) a couple times a week if it will take it. LTA's are not known to split so we can rule that out. I would like to see a pic of it as well so we can see what you are dealing with.
 
https://www.livingreefs.com/threads/moving-tank.49264/#post-655904 I have a picture in this thread and you can see the anemone in the bottom corner. I know bleached isnt healthy and I was hoping my lights would take care of that. I didnt realize i needed to feed it though. During the day it's open, doesnt look like its stretching for light and he's not moving, im assuming he's happy where he is. At night closed up most of the time, sometimes only open about 25% of what he is during the day. I keep all my lights on, 3 actinic and 3 12000k whites. I do keep my blue LED's on all night for moonlight but i can shut those off. exscue the cloudy look and the kenya's closed up. this is almost 15 minutes after refilling the tank after moving so everything is still agitated
 
If that pic is a true representation you have some work to do. Do you have more sand in your tank now than you did when the pic was taken? LTA's like deeper sandbeds to feel more comfortable. Mine would always drill through and attach to the glass bottom.

Since it is bleached it can use a little help trying to recover. It takes patience, stable parameters, flow, lighting and time to bring one back. Small feedings help the process in my experience but if you feed to big it can cause more harm than good. It takes a lot of energy for the anemone to digest big chunks so stay small with the pieces.
 
I've sence added 2 more bags of sand so im working with a 3inch +- sand bed now. I can start giving it small peices of raw shrimp as well. I do feed my fish a blended mix of fish, squid, clams and nori and my clowns feed it small portions every now and then but i'll do some direct feeding. Should I have any flow directly on him? Do you think my lighting is adaquit with 6 T5 HO bulbs?
 
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Your lighting is fine. One other thing, don't just feed it one thing, vary its diet as you would a fish. My ritteris love shrimp, squid and silverside pieces. Make sure it has good flow, they can't move and if it's in a dead zone, it's drowning in its own waste products. I wouldn't say super strong flow, but keeping it moving around him is a good thing.
 
I agree that your lighting is fine. As well as mixing up your feeding to give it variety. They like their tentacles to flow and not be blown around to hard. This really helps to export the waste and bring oxygenated water to the anemone. As I said this won't be an overnight task but I have been successful bringing them back numerous times. Good luck!
ReeferRob has Ritteri anemones which really like strong flow but your LTA won't tolerate that as much, IME.
 

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