I've had this neon green BTA for several months now and it was doing great. It found a spot right away and was opening very large daily. Then all of a sudden it was closed up for a few days and when it opened, its tentacles were gone. Did it eat them off? What would cause this to happen?
BTA eating itself?
- Thread starter tanked001
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JahReefster
Premium Member
I had a BTA exhibiting the same symptoms after a power head fell on him for three days while I was out of town on business. One tiny tentacle eventually emerged after three or four days, I fed him mysis, krill, and finally silversides, and he recovered fully. Now, a couple of months later, he's about six inches across with bubbles and good color, the whole bit.
Have you been feeding your BTA? I hear they can do this if not fed over a prolonged period of time, even though they get a large amount of what they need from the light and water column.
Have you been feeding your BTA? I hear they can do this if not fed over a prolonged period of time, even though they get a large amount of what they need from the light and water column.
Tentacles disappearing is generally a sign of starvation. So, what you said is essentially correct. The anemone is eating itself in a manner of speaking. It will slowly consume its own body mass until it eventually dies. I had one do this very thing, and I'm afraid it didn't make it (though I had knew even less about anemones then than I do now). I think your best bet is to do whatever you can to feed him. If he has no tentacles, that's going to be tough. Gently hold small bits of food on his mouth and hopefully he'll grab it. It'll probably take awhile (and it may not work at all), so be patient. Don't shove the food in its mouth by the way, you'll probably damage it. Lastly, keep a close eye on it, and if it starts to decompose, get it out of the tank quickly! An anemone can poison your tank fast, and it's unfortunately the line between alive and dead is generally pretty blurry. I'm afraid I'm nowhere near knowlegeable enough to know why your anemone has started to do this, but hopefully he's not past saving.
Best of luck!
Best of luck!
