I would like you to go to my site, and click on to my email link. Then tell me which picture in particular looks brown. The top eight are lit with a 15000K MH bulb. The pics on the bottom row are lit with older 9325K PC bulbs. They look pinkish in real life. :?:

Bob,
I was looking at the anenome in particular. Camera's are some times not the best to judge from. If everythings pink then your doing just fine. Keep up the good work.

Yes you are quite right, that anemone is brown under any light. It is brown even in daylight. Maybe that is why its former owner called it "Buttugly" :D

BTA's (the regular variety) are brownish under most light, greener under actinic. I think Butt needs more flow also.

Bob has it ever had buble tips? Mine I cant get rid of them whats your secret?http://www3.telus.net/public/montipor/AnemoneWClown.jpg

Chris,
Can you take a pic of your BTA please. I'd like to see the difference.

BTA's don't really change colour. If it's one colour then it typically stays that colour (although the exact hue may differ over time due to differing conditions). Brown is pretty typical. They're brown even in the wild. The only ones I ever saw in the wild were brown. (Although they can come in reds, pinks, oranges, greens, maroons even bi-colour varieties). In shallower water I found more with "bubble tips" and in deeper water less so. I think this makes sense, if you look at the ratio of surface area to volume of a sphere compared to that of a cylinder or cone.

Considering that you likely have your anemone under very intense light, Chris, this would be my guess why yours stays bubbled. However lighting is not the be-all-end-all answer to why they bubble up sometimes and sometimes not. Ultimately it's still a bit of a mystery. I've had clones right next to each other where one would bubble up and the other not.

Chris how big is your BTA? Have you had it long -- or has it split recently? What and how often are you feeding it?

The anemone is 5'-6' across, Ive had it about 3months. You would have to confirm this with Sam. And I dont feed it the Sebae Clown does once in a while. When the tips do deflate they turn a glowing red color and that is usualy right after it eats.
Sam maybe you could post a pic of yours? It would be an interesting comarison, as they do seem to be the same anemone.Tony do you also have pics of these anemones your talking about?

well now I'm out of my area of knowledge. From the picture Bob posted of his anenome it sure seemed deep brown. Sure their are many animals that are brown. The brown is usaully a lot lighter in color and at some level almost transparent. It also seems like the tentacles are very lanky to me. Again I'm no anemone expert. I do feel lighting is one of the major factor in a healthy and thriving reef. That is another reason I will not run old bulbs as if something does go wrong in my system I can always rule out lighting as a problem. From the many bulbs I've change out, if I have pushed them to their limits, I've always seem big and worth while improvments in my animals. Trust me I would love to spend the 500+ dollars a year I spend on lighting else were.

I am again taking crappy pictures at night after lights out, but wanted to share this, since I have two different BTA's. ( I am mostly just posting these for the appearance differences, they also exhibit color differences, although under the same lighting)

One, my original, spawned ButtUgly. Notice the elongated tentacles. They always have been, I really don't recall bubble tips even under the 2 X 250w.

http://members.shaw.ca/bhadford1/BTA1.jpg

This one is a BTA as well, but much different, I didn't use the flash there.

http://members.shaw.ca/bhadford1/BTA2.jpg

All under 175w MH and in the same tank in identical conditions.