bta feeding with clowns

[kurt72]

i got a green bta the other night. my maroon clowns love it. but, when i try to feed it, it closes like it should, but the clowns keep pushing into it, until the BTA opens up again and the food floats ayway. anyone else have a problem feeding their BTA's because the clowns get in the way? should i shoo them away and try the strawberry basket trick? the BTA has only been in my tank since sat. night, and it's thriving. in fact, it's even BIGGER than it was in the store!!

 

[RedSonja]

Re: bta feeding with clowns

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9413317#post9413317 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kurt72
i got a green bta the other night. my maroon clowns love it. but, when i try to feed it, it closes like it should, but the clowns keep pushing into it, until the BTA opens up again and the food floats ayway. anyone else have a problem feeding their BTA's because the clowns get in the way? should i shoo them away and try the strawberry basket trick? the BTA has only been in my tank since sat. night, and it's thriving. in fact, it's even BIGGER than it was in the store!!

What do you mean, when you feed it, it closes like it should? When I feed my bta's they only close up if the food gets pushed onto them harder than they like by the water flow or something and they react defensively. Mine always stay open to eat, they just push the food to their mouth with a couple of tentacles.

And your bta being bigger now doesn't necessarily mean it is thriving. It may mean it is stretching itself out as far as possible to get as much light and/or food as possible, which means something is lacking in its environment. Has it actually taken any food since you had it, and kept it down? Have you seen it excrete waste yet?

-Sonja

 

[kurt72]

thanks for the reply. you obviously know more than i do. i am learning something new everyday. closing like it should, i meant, well my last BTA did that. i initially would put the food by hand into it's mouth. it would close up, then reopen and swallow. it did ok until i put my two maroons in the tank with them. my last BTA was a little small for my two maroons.

as far as my new BTA goes, yes, i can see that it is stretching. it is right below my water filter where the flow generates from. my light setup is 2x130 Orbit Extreme Compact Fluorescent Lunar Lights in a 60 gallon tank 48" x 15" x 17". is the light not good enough? but, it has not moved but 2 inches from where i placed it in the tank 4 days ago. so it seems happy where it's at.

i know, it's still getting used to it's new home. and it may move, and it may not be in the "great" shape i thought it would. just, so far, it looks ok. thanks again for the info.