Rainbow bubble tip anemone’s colour change

[stuart forrester]

Has anyone had any experience with RBTA changing colour? They all start off the traditional dark reddish-orange as per the first photo when I introduce them to the tank. Then over the course of a couple of months they change to an almost neon orange - see subsequent photos. I don’t mind the colour change, they appear to be healthy and I target feed once a week. They’re under a Radion G6 Pro modified AB+ schedule with 90% peak intensity. The tank is an anemome-only set up with no corals. I carry out weekly 10% water changes and tank parameters are as follows: Alk 8.2, Calc 430, Magn 1380, nitrates 5, Phosphates 0.02, salinity 35. Should I be worried or is this just something they will do in response to tank parameters?

 

[Formulator]

Looks very healthy. Colors in zooxanthellae symbionts like corals and anemones often change in response to water parameters and unless it is visually unappealing to you I wouldn’t worry too much. What are your nitrates and phosphates at?

Edit: saw you already posted your parameters. I wouldn’t be concerned at all. Your phosphate is extremely low, which is great for colors and often results in the lighter neons you mentioned.

 

[stuart forrester]

Looks very healthy. Colors in zooxanthellae symbionts like corals and anemones often change in response to water parameters and unless it is visually unappealing to you I wouldn’t worry too much. What are your nitrates and phosphates at?

Edit: saw you already posted your parameters. I wouldn’t be concerned at all. Your phosphate is extremely low, which is great for colors and often results in the lighter neons you mentioned.

In fairness I’m not duly over concerned with the aesthetics of the colour change, just trying to figure out the reasons.
Although I’ve kept reef tanks for many years this is the first time I’ve kept anemones and just want to make sure I’m not making any obvious mistakes.
I run quite a large refugium and have always struggled to keep higher levels of phosphate.

 

[Formulator]

In fairness I’m not duly over concerned with the aesthetics of the colour change, just trying to figure out the reasons.
Although I’ve kept reef tanks for many years this is the first time I’ve kept anemones and just want to make sure I’m not making any obvious mistakes.
I run quite a large refugium and have always struggled to keep higher levels of phosphate.

My anemones have always changed colors slightly after introducing them to my tank. The best health indicator for nems is their tentacle extension. They will let you know if they aren’t happy and it won’t typically be a color change. They will shrivel up and sometimes extrude their stomachs inside out when they are really ticked off. Yours looks inflated and really healthy to me.

 

[stuart forrester]

My anemones have always changed colors slightly after introducing them to my tank. The best health indicator for nems is their tentacle extension. They will let you know if they aren’t happy and it won’t typically be a color change. They will shrivel up and sometimes extrude their stomachs inside out when they are really ticked off. Yours looks inflated and really healthy to me.

Thank you for the reply’s and reassurance.
I’ll leave alone for now and continue to monitor.

 

[C_AWOL]

I suspect your anemone could be bleaching due to the lights possibly being too intense and/or nutrients being too low to sustain the right amount of zooxanthellae at your 90% intensity.

Using this particular variety of rose as an example which bleached at one point (would look like a cool neon pink under blues). I've had this variety (and many of its splits) for 10 years under various lighting and maintaining ~100-200 par (checked with apogee 510) with ~10-25ppm nitrate and .05-.1ppm phosphate generally keeps the zooxanthellae stable.
For what its worth, that generally has been ~30-80% intensity for all the fixtures I use with these tanks not exceeding 24" in height so hearing 90% on a g6 is alarming to me without noticing other tank details.

Heres an example of non bleaching color shifts with csb and lemon drops that I've also had for 10 years (original under g1 reefbreeders photon and latter under kessil ap9x and 360we in the pictures provided)
Notice the lack of transparency in the tentacles?

 

[Formulator]

Looks like @C_AWOL has quite a bit more experience than I do with nems, so perhaps lighting is suboptimal. I still don’t know that its an issue outside of aesthetics. I guess I’ve had slightly bleached RBTAs for many years, but they stayed healthy aside from appearance being a bit lighter in color. I always figured if they didn’t like the light they would move to another spot in the tank.

 

[stuart forrester]

I suspect your anemone could be bleaching due to the lights possibly being too intense and/or nutrients being too low to sustain the right amount of zooxanthellae at your 90% intensity.

Using this particular variety of rose as an example which bleached at one point (would look like a cool neon pink under blues). I've had this variety (and many of its splits) for 10 years under various lighting and maintaining ~100-200 par (checked with apogee 510) with ~10-25ppm nitrate and .05-.1ppm phosphate generally keeps the zooxanthellae stable.
For what its worth, that generally has been ~30-80% intensity for all the fixtures I use with these tanks not exceeding 24" in height so hearing 90% on a g6 is alarming to me without noticing other tank details.

Heres an example of non bleaching color shifts with csb and lemon drops that I've also had for 10 years (original under g1 reefbreeders photon and latter under kessil ap9x and 360we in the pictures provided)
Notice the lack of transparency in the tentacles?

I suspect your anemone could be bleaching due to the lights possibly being too intense and/or nutrients being too low to sustain the right amount of zooxanthellae at your 90% intensity.

Using this particular variety of rose as an example which bleached at one point (would look like a cool neon pink under blues). I've had this variety (and many of its splits) for 10 years under various lighting and maintaining ~100-200 par (checked with apogee 510) with ~10-25ppm nitrate and .05-.1ppm phosphate generally keeps the zooxanthellae stable.
For what its worth, that generally has been ~30-80% intensity for all the fixtures I use with these tanks not exceeding 24" in height so hearing 90% on a g6 is alarming to me without noticing other tank details.

Heres an example of non bleaching color shifts with csb and lemon drops that I've also had for 10 years (original under g1 reefbreeders photon and latter under kessil ap9x and 360we in the pictures provided)
Notice the lack of transparency in the tentacles?

Thank you for your detailed reply.
I think you’ve confirmed my initial thoughts that my lighting may be too high for the natural nutrient levels in my tank.
Although the colour change is quite pleasing I do worry about the translucency not being a good indicator of general health.
I come from a SPS background where high par and ultra low nutrient levels yield the best results.
Rather than try to manipulate the nutrient levels away from what my system happily sits at I think I should slowly reduce the lighting levels and monitor the results.
Do you think this would be my best way forward?

 

[stuart forrester]

Looks like @C_AWOL has quite a bit more experience than I do with nems, so perhaps lighting is suboptimal. I still don’t know that it’s an issue outside of aesthetics. I guess I’ve had slightly bleached RBTAs for many years, but they stayed healthy aside from appearance being a bit lighter in color. I always figured if they didn’t like the light they would move to another spot in the tank.

The most affected nems do indeed sit quite happily right under the light fixture apparently living their best life! Like yourself I have always thought if they are not happy with the level of light they would move.
I think moving forward I will slowly reduce the light levels and monitor the results.

 

[C_AWOL]

Thank you for your detailed reply.
I think you’ve confirmed my initial thoughts that my lighting may be too high for the natural nutrient levels in my tank.
Although the colour change is quite pleasing I do worry about the translucency not being a good indicator of general health.
I come from a SPS background where high par and ultra low nutrient levels yield the best results.
Rather than try to manipulate the nutrient levels away from what my system happily sits at I think I should slowly reduce the lighting levels and monitor the results.
Do you think this would be my best way forward?

Is the current system housing sps? If so, I think giving the anemone time to hopefully relocate itself is a reasonable choice and if it doesn't (and bleaches more) then consider lowering the intensity to ~60% (may be fine with a smaller adjustment depending on tank size)

If the tank isn't housing sps, I would just feed the fish in the tank more often and let the parameters climb more that way (you can also intentionally feed your anemone very small pieces of food at maximum once a week if desired)

 

[stuart forrester]

Is the current system housing sps? If so, I think giving the anemone time to hopefully relocate itself is a reasonable choice and if it doesn't (and bleaches more) then consider lowering the intensity to ~60% (may be fine with a smaller adjustment depending on tank size)

If the tank isn't housing sps, I would just feed the fish in the tank more often and let the parameters climb more that way (you can also intentionally feed your anemone very small pieces of food at maximum once a week if desired)

No I’ve re started this tank last year and removed all the SPS . This system now is just anemone.
I already target feed once per week and broadcast feed the tank/ fish twice per day.
To start I think my best way forward is to reduce the light intensity to try to get a happy balance with the natural fairly low nutrient levels this tank sits at.