New Rose Bubble in 20g Zoo tank- pics

[flamehawkfish]

Hey, there.

After seeing a small rose bubble anemone living peacefully with zoos at the LFS, I became hypnotized by the thought of having one in my 20 gallon zoanthid tank. After all, I have a pair of gold-rimmed maroons and their natural host is the rose bubble. I finally buckled when a different fish store offered some nice roses for $70/each.

Take a look at the progression of the anemone. In the store, it was beneath a metal halide dangling 2 feet from the tank. Now, it's close to the light source- 91W of PC. At first, the anemone cowered beneath the rocks blossoming in a cave next to an important powerhead. I promptly turned off the powerhead, waited the anemone out; after it demonstrated its health, I flipped the 1 lb. piece of live rock upon which it became attached. Fortunately, the anemone held its ground, but gradually slithered into a crevace leaving its tentacles exposed to the light.

Day 1: This shot shows the anemone after 12 hours. It crawled beneath a cave, ultimately resting itself next to a powerhead.
http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/21129/p/370762_3808659429513551388_vl.jpg

Day 4: After I flipped the rose bubble's live rock, I exposed it to 36W of actinic blue. It's tentacles look really healthy here:
http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/21129/p/370763_7460654430285872902_vl.jpg

Day 6: The rose bubble is acclimating to the full lighting; it slid its base beneath a rock, but kept its tentacles exposed to the light. Its tentacles have elongated, but I hope that their bubble-tips will return after it gets accustomed to the lighting.
http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/21129/p/370761_2545514099417564234_vl.jpg

[arcab4]

nice! thanks for sharing please keep us or me updated on how the rose gets along with zoos. i'm not 100% sure but i have a rose bta in a rubble tank of zoo polyps. it appears that the zoos around the bta is kinda sparse. it could be due to the bta shading them. not quite sure.

how about a fulltank shot? haha. i love full tank shots of zoo tanks..

[flamehawkfish]

Arcab4,

The zoos and anemone seem to get along so far, but only time will tell what their long-term relationship will be.

My female maroon clown is already nestling into the rose bubble; I was surprised by how sensitive the clownfish was to the anemone's acclimation. As the anemone blooms, the clownfish gently nestles into it. Meanwhile, the smaller male maroon is dancing and flicking, trying to court the female and gain entry into the anemone. Unfortunately, the moment I approach the tank with my camera, the clownfish assume I'm feeding the tank and quickly abandon the anemone.

Here's a somewhat dated photo (2 weeks old) of the entire tank. If you match the colony of zoos above, you can tell where the anemone is now (upper-right side; I also moved some rock & zoos).

http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/21129/p/358611_1783527742647316091_vl.jpg

[liv4speed1]

tank looks beautiful. I'm doing a 10 gallon for zoos soon, and I can only hope that it looks half as good as that. Once the zoos grown in even more, it will look top notch

[cal3v]

Looks a little bleached imo, but it should regain its zooxanthellae with time and good care, as well as the rose color improving.

[holeinone1972]

Originally posted by cal3v
Looks a little bleached imo, but it should regain its zooxanthellae with time and good care, as well as the rose color improving.

Looks a lot bleached to me. Are you feeding it?

If you are that may keep it alive, while it regains it's zooxanthallae.

Cool tank, best of luck.

[flamehawkfish]

Holeinone1972 and Cal,

You're right. The anemone does appear very bleached. What's the recommended line of defense against this? I've has zoanthids that were bleached, and they recovered fine without any specific care.

I figured that the bleaching resulted from light shock. Are there other factors involved? I fed the anemone a couple of silversides, but I don't want to overfeed. What do you guys recommend?

Thanks,

Flamehawk.

p.s. Cal- are you getting your tank set up again. If I remember right, you were graduating high school and heading down to Southern California; no?

[cal3v]

Hi flamehawk, was it like that when you got it? If i was, just try and feed it small pieces of fish or shrimp and it should do better and hopefully regain the zooxanthellae. Oh btw I haven't gone to college yet, I will next year so I still have my 20g nano still up and running.

[kozmo02]

sweet tank, that looks great with so many zoos in there! nice work

:thumbsup:

[flamehawkfish]

Hey, Holeinone1972 and Cal or anybody else,

I fed the rose-bubble anemone a few silversides yesterday. It quickly sucked them in and 30 minutes later restored its tentacles to full extension. Later that evening, I fed it again (a small pinch of silversides) and it gobbled them up, too.

Now, the rose looks pretty healthy (it's tentacles now have their bulbs), but the anemone still appears bleached (but better than before). Should I continue to feed it? Even if the anemone spits out a mucus envelope, it shouldn't create that much pollution (these silversides are pretty small). For now, can I feed it small amounts everyday? After it completely recovers from this bleaching, how often should this anemone be fed (1Xweek, 1Xday)?

I used to be a very impatient aquarist and never succeeded with anemones. I'm committed to making this one work!

Let me know what you think.

Flamehawk

[flamehawkfish]

I'm taking the day off from work (nice!), and I just fed my bubble some more silversides. I noticed that my pearl corals, maroon clowns, cerianthus anemone, and purple pseudo love these silversides, too. I just need to be cautious with water changes and overfeeding. . . but it's really cool to see these predatory coral gobble up tiny previously frozen fish! :bum:

[holeinone1972]

I would only feed it a little every day or so. I would not cram food into it, and then start to starve it later.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Rob

[flamehawkfish]

Here's a photo I took moments ago of the new rose bubble anemone. I'm also realizing that the photos make the anemone look more bleached than it actually is. You'll just have to take my word for it. . . notice the female maroon hovering over the anemone.

http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/21129/p/372929_503090614455640322_vl.jpg

[heuerfan]

Just a comment on your tank, awesome. Did you glue all the zoos on the live rock? If so what type did you use?

Thanks!

[flamehawkfish]

Some of you asked for a complete tank shot. I ripped through about 100 digital pictures, and still came up somewhat empty-handed. Nevertheless, this gives you some sense for the layout of my 20 gallon reef. I posted a full tank shot in this same reel of messages; notice that I removed the large pearl coral in the center to make room for the rose bubble anemone.

http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/21129/p/372986_7386742205494984203_vl.jpg

[flamehawkfish]

About 11 days have gone by since I introduced my Rose Bubble to my 20 gallon zoo tank. After enduring some frustration with the creature, I'm pleased to say that it's finally settling down. Nevertheless, it continues to wither up, retracting all its tentacles for short periods of time, only to expand itself into full bloom 1 hour later. Is that normal? Also, to those concerned about the bleached appearance, the anemone seems to be recovering its zoox. Anyway, here are a couple more pics:

I'm keeping a watchful eye on the areas where the anemone's tentacles rest on the zoos. Neither the zoos nor the anemone seem to mind each other so far.

http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/21129/p/377012_186793273591108993_vl.jpg

The anemone regained its "bulb" tips on its tentacles. It still elongates its tentacles from time to time, but after I feed it silversides, it will resume the bulb shape.

http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/21129/p/377013_8610255259300425767_vl.jpg