RBTA Help please
 

Ok here's the story. I bought a medium size rose bubble tip anemone and added it to my tank, It seemed to be thriving with big bubble tips and eating a small piece of shrimp every 3 or so days it doubled in size and then split a small piece off of itself. Both the mother & baby healed quick and were once again thriving. After about a month they both started retracting and loosing there bubble tips. The only change that was made to the tank was very slowly increasing kalkwasser every 10 days until it met the demand of the tank 1 1/2 tsp per 10 liters dosing 1000ml per night through dosing pump & adding an anemone crab. Both anemones were looking like they were going to die and we were heading out of town for 3 days so I removed the large anemone knowing that if both were to die it would crash the tank hard. When we came back the small one was still alive but barely I did a 50% water change and it seemed to perk up for a couple days then went back to it shriveled self. It has now been very retracted for over a month and barely has any bubbles. Before this happened it was at least 4X its current size. Not really sure where to go from here I guess just leave it be unless it looks like it is going to die...
https://i.imgur.com/7TXdmNFl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/UBd1SFSl.jpg

I've had this happen in a tank with no obvious issues. Just kept on doing maintenance. The months later, it got big again and proceeded to murder my hammer as thanks.

Probably not a very helpful reply, but just saying I went through the exact same thing.

what levels were you watching with the kalkwasser adjustments?
Ph? Alkalinity? Calcium?

Did any of them swing more than expected at the start?

I read somewhere that they are sensitive to PH. The kalkwasser could be causing swings in pH. Have you checked the PH lately?

PH
 

Yes I have a Milwaukee Martini ph-55 meter pretty stable 8.0-8.1 doesn't swing with lit refuge on reverse cycle. 8.0 right now. everything else in the tank is doing great.

S 1.025
Cal 425(red sea)
Alk 8.0-8.2(red sea)
mag 1350-1400(red sea)
Nitrate <5
Phos 0! actually 0(api,salifert,redsea)

swings
 

PH was always stable Cal & Alk were always low but became less and less as I came closer to the magic kalk number.
Everything has been stable for around 2mo now

How big is it originally? The baby nem look small and was not a direct split from the first nem. Normally it is almost 50/50 split.

I have these small babies pop out of no where about twoonie size once a while and they take a while to open and and more finicky sometimes or they would be strange color. i bet that anemone crab is not helping that small one

How is the bigger one looking like?

Any other coral in the tank that is ia near? What fish do you have?

Well holy sh!% I just went and looked at the tank and the GD crab had its claw right inside the anemone and was pulling food or pieces of the anemone out of its mouth. wtf, then I tried to grab the little little prick and he pinched me real good.
He has a date with the sump later........ I will get him

Claw dropper
 

Well I waited till the lights were out and went in to catch him, had to try and get him to move out of a crack in the rock and he dropped one of his claws. Now looking it up I see that if they feel threatened they will drop a claw to distract the predator. The claw should grow back in a few molts, pretty cool
I hope he enjoys his new sump and 2 mandarin friends.

Ill post a new pic of the RBTA in a month or so I almost guarantee the crab is the issue after seeing him claw deep in the anemones innards.

Thanks for all the reply's

In my experience, porcelain crabs are not a good mix with smaller RBT anemones (under 6"), as they seem to mostly pester them into remaining deflated.

Ya I believe it. I thought the crab had something to do with it but after heavily googling the only thing I could find was "porcelain crabs will not harm the anemone" I just dismissed that as the cause.
I don't see how even a large rbta would put up with something stealing its lunch right out of its guts, the relationship is clearly not symbiotic.

I have noticed that even clownfish can be really hard on their host anemones. Mine will steal food out of the anemone everytime I feed.

It's definitely not symbiosis in my opinion. It's clear-cut parasitism that is usually mostly benign but not always.

Maybe rehome the porcelain for now and see if you can get the anemone to start feeding again? Maybe start off with smaller mysis until you see it getting bigger?

My RBTA is host to both a porcelain crab and anemone crab (the clowns got evicted with the fallow period for crypto and couldn't get their spot back), it can extend to about 8-9" across when fully inflated. That seems to be a happy size for it, but prior to that when smaller and before the clowns became hosted, the RBTA and porcelain crab were not a good mix.

That should have been anemone shrimp, but I can't edit the post.

slowly opening again
 

Well it is very slowly opening up again. I think it will take a few weeks, but it looks a lot better already. The anemone crab in the sump is just hiding and not actively filter feeding or anything. I may have to get one of those pink silicone anemones from wally mart for him.......
https://i.imgur.com/nsPonzzl.jpg

The porcelains don't need an anemone to be hosted in, they'll perch on pretty much anything as long as there's a current to catch food in.

Stop feeding so often and quit adding so much stuff into your system.

Jardini

Hey great advice..... you must be from Edmonton....

my RBTA is exact same size as that showing in picture , had the same problem after a while she moved away from light
now the color is coming back and looks healthy

pix
 

I'm pretty sure the problem is the porcelain crab. The anemone is opening more and more every day. I found a few pix from 7 months ago that show what it did look like.

Was about 4-5" across when I got it
https://i.imgur.com/MFM6xP4l.jpg

Pic of it spitting out a half digested yellow watchman goby
https://i.imgur.com/VvE69mQl.jpg

The day I got the porcelain crab
https://i.imgur.com/bPWlnyCl.jpg

What it looked like a week or two after it split. The small one on top is the one I still have. Bigger bottom one was tossed out in fear it may die while I was away.
https://i.imgur.com/MiWSVjJl.jpg