RBTA Spewing

[montec24]

I have two RBTA's (mother and daughter) and tonight they are spewing a white substance. Never seen this before. They look good and are doing great so I am not concerned. Do the Spawn like this or something? Always thought they jsut split. I fed them both a good meal yesterday and did a small water change. They are both doing it at the same time, pretty cool looking, look like volcanos.

Thanks
Dana

 

[montec24]

Unreal, they went on for about 15 minutes. Now they are shriveld up, just like.......... Never mind I cant see very much in the tank, had things spew stuff before but never this much before. Corals seem to love it, clownfish are confused. Skimmer went nuts, had to shut it off, cup filled with water twice in an hour.

 

[~Flighty~]

Maby you should call them father and son rather than mother and daughter?? I think it is yellow when it is eggs, but I could be wrong.
eeeew.

 

[dz6t]

Now you started it, Cindy.
Well, here in Mass, it is leagal for same ...never mind, that is disgusting.

 

[starrfish]

LOL!! My RBTA has NEVER done anything like that! YUK!

 

[NateHanson]

The do reproduce sexually as well as by cloning/splitting. I've never heard of it in someones tank though. I'd take it as a complement. They must be some very happy boys in your tank!
Nate

 

[Pat H.]

It's cool to watch. My Sebae anemone has done it a few times, but it lasts more like an hour just before lights out.
I think your going to want to turn your skimmer back on and do a large water change ASAP. That stuff will start to decay quickly. It will keep filling your skimmer cup, just keep emptying it.

 

[montec24]

It's cool to watch. My Sebae anemone has done it a few times, but it lasts more like an hour just before lights out.
I think your going to want to turn your skimmer back on and do a large water change ASAP. That stuff will start to decay quickly. It will keep filling your skimmer cup, just keep emptying it.

yeah it probably lasted pretty close to an hour, I still cant see whats in the tank. I will turn the skimmer back on, it was foaming like crazy and the water was clear as could be. If it kept up that pace I would need to add a few gallons of water. I just did a water change yesterday, I will have to make some more tommorow. I am running carbon. Corals are all extended , opened like crazy. Fish cant figure out what the deal is.

 

[Pat H.]

Try to keep your eye on it overnight if possible. The second time it happened to my tank, in the morning the whole first floor stunk like low tide. Real bad.
Just be glad you were home to see it. If you weren't you'd really be wondering what happened.

Did it look like smoke coming out of the anemones? That's how I'd describe it. When it's over it looks like someone dumped a gallon of milk in the tank!

 

[dz6t]

All your corals should be very happy to chow down the ...well, never mind.

 

[montec24]

Try to keep your eye on it overnight if possible. The second time it happened to my tank, in the morning the whole first floor stunk like low tide. Real bad.
Just be glad you were home to see it. If you weren't you'd really be wondering what happened.

Did it look like smoke coming out of the anemones? That's how I'd describe it. When it's over it looks like someone dumped a gallon of milk in the tank!

All cleared up now, just turned the skimmer on. Looked just like smoke or more like ....... well you know.

 

[Pat H.]

Update? Just wondering how you made out.

 

[montec24]

Update? Just wondering how you made out.

I don't know to be honest, it cleared up pretty quickly, skimmer went kind of nuts for a day and I did some daily water changes.

Two days later my purple firefish turned up dead Yesterday my hippo tang died, he has not been right since a day or two after the spawning, looked ok, no spots or signs of sickness other than not eating. Firefish seemed ok right up until it died. Now I am wondering if this caused them to die for some reason? I ran tests the next couple days and noticed no increase in AM- Ntrites or nitrates (nitrates around 15 but that is what they always are , a whole other issue)

Anyone think think this had something to do with it?

 

[Pat H.]

Sounds like stress from the incident and maybe even low oxygen levels. Just my guesses.

In Anthony Calfo's Book of Coral Propagation, he talks about broadcast spawning being
really bad for a closed system. Can't remember exactly what he said but it had something to do with moon lights triggering spawn events.

Very sorry to here the bad news.

 

[JohnK]

My original RBTA spawned once, female I assume. Released about a zillion tiny brown eggs. You could see the eggs through the body while they were released. They appeared to come out of the tentacle tips and not the mouth in my case.

No ill effects on the system that I noticed. When it happened I posted and a few other BRS members had seen BTA splitting before.

jk