RBTA in a mixed reef?

[goody]

I've seen a lot of Rose Anemones for sale lately. I've always wanted to have one in my tank and now that I've been in the hobby for a little past a year and my water parameters are stable, I'm thinking of adding one.

My dilemma is I'm concerned about it moving around in the tank and stinging my SPS. I know they mainly move because they are not happy, but still wondering how risky this is to add one. Is its sting so powerful that one pass will take out an sps coral? What about placing it near sofites/lps. Will it still sting and kill these?

Would love to hear your experiences with anemones and LPS/SPS in your tank. Or ideas on how to add it to the tank and minimize the chances of it moving around a lot.

 

[Phyxius]

I have one in my 210gmixed reef that I split kind of in half. The right side is all SPS dominated and it fades over to the left with all LPS and softies. Our RBTA was placed to the far left at the start with the LPS and softies and moved around a little. One day it popped out at the top of the tank on the same side and has stayed put since. They will move till they are happy and there really isn't a lot you can do about it in the meantime unfortunately. I have a bunch of frogspawn, hammers and torches that it popped out in the middle of to start with and they actually bothered it more than the other way around which was against what I was always told.

Here is when it first popped out in the middle of it all and then moved again to its current spot its stayed put in..

 

[goody]

Was your anemone damaged at all from the frogspawn, hammer, and torch?

I also have a hammer and torch and my tank is much smaller than yours.

I guess I could always move a lot of my sps since they aren't glued down, but I don't know if that would do any good. How will it do around xenia? I could put it near my xenia and rics and see how it does.

 

[Phyxius]

None of the corals were damaged at all as I watched it pretty closely. The minute they touched each other they retracted pretty quickly. They came back out pretty and after awhile it was the anemone that kept away from the others. It eventually backed under the rock in the picture and the re-appeared the next day at the very top away from everything else. Its stayed there and grown immensely ever since

I also can move some of my SPS if need be but others have encrusted the rocks so they cant be. I also quit having Xenia a few yrs ago after we had it grow out of control and took awhile to clear it out so I cant say on that.

Its all a risk you are going to take with something that can just get up and move when it feels like it. I also had another one in a 90 that stayed put in one spot also for a good 4-5 mths. Unfortunately it released from its rock the night of the upgrade and into a unprotected MJ modded pump I was using and didn't put a guard on yet. I lost that one and it was a nice one...

 

[rmlevasseur]

In my experience the rbtas that are slightly bleached are more likely to cruise around, whereas the blood-red ones seem to stay put more.

 

[burning2nd]

altho i do not have a RTBA...my GTA is in a mixed reef...

i have several sps, and lps thur out the tank... i havent had chemical war fare yet.. (and im very close im sure) but the GTA is about 4-5" away from my hammer coarl.....

the hammer is spreading.. and its only bin a year... so im not sure whats gonna happen.. but so far so good... also i do not feed my nem.. more then 4-5 time a year.... its pretty much bin the same size for the last year.
(nemo's not) the hammer has doubled in size... spawning about 5 new heads.


I keep a close eye on this as... i fear that soon the war will exsplode... as really all of my corals is geting bigger.

i have serveral small tanks and larger lagoon setup for emergence's

so far so good... 3.5 years old

 

[faust]

i spent a week moving my corals out of my nems way

 

[CA Reefer]

I have 4 RBTA's in my 55G Mixed Reef. The RBTA's share a home with softies, hammers, frogspawns and some SPS.

Mine ONLY ever move to split and even at that it's only 4-6". In most cases you can anticipate the possible places that a BTA will be happy. Moderate flow, relatively high in the tank, and spot that they can bury their foot in a rock to protect it.

Unfortunately you are taking a chance when you add one to any reef, that it may go a wandering. You can move some of your corals out of the way for a couple of days to a week until it settles in. Good Luck!

 

[jjohnson3]

Ive got a suggestion for you. Premix some saltwater in a bucket. 15 gallons would be preferred. Grab another clean bucket that holds at lease 10 gallons. Take water out of your tank until you reach the 5-10 gallon mark. This water is going in the clean bucket. Put some form of flow in the bucket along with a heater. Take all corals of of the tank and put them in the bucket. Do a 50%waterchange on the bucket with corals. Now replace the tankwater with new saltwater. Put the bucket with the corals in a very bright room. Leave the corals out of your tank until the RBTA secures its foot against a rock. Once it stops moving, wait 2-3 days just to be safe. Place corals back in your display tank. A quarantine tank works the same as the bucket method. I am planning a BTA purchase in about 5 months for my 38. This is the very proceedure I will use just so I can be sure I will not lose any corals.

 

[Mya]

Thats only ... partially correct... I feel.

Anemones like to move. They do find spots and anchor up... but you never know when something will make it say... Time to move and off they go. You can't just glue them down like a frag and say grow. Those lil guys... if something tells them to beat feet... off they go...
It might be a week ... It might be a month... It might be 3 yrs... but at some point or another its going to roam.