BTA looks terrible >:(

ag09g

ag09g

New member
I got the anemone at the end of January and it lived until the end of march in my nano tank. While in there, it looked great, with long and very bright thin tentacles.

At the end of march I broke down the tank and transferred everything to my 135. The anemone has been in this tank since, and has been in the same spot in the tank since a week after it was introduced.

When it first moved to its current location it was fairly close to a torch coral with unruly tentacles. But I assumed if the bta was getting stung it would move. A while later however I noticed that the part of the anemone closest to the torch coral was retracted. Thinking it must be getting stung I ended up moving the torch away. There is now nothing around it that is within reach.

Several weeks later though the right side of the nem was still not extended....
I did some reading and thought that perhaps it was starving and consuming its tentacles. At the end of April I began feeding it daily/every other day portions of squid and krill soaked in selcon. I could definitely tell after a few of these feedings that the anemone looked fuller, though only fuller in the portions that normally looked fine :/

I've kept up with feedings but the anemone is getting worse. About 3 weeks ago my clowns took to the anemone, and im wondering if they could be irritating it further?

It is still firmly attached the the rock. The mouth doesn't have except when it's eating or expelling waste, and it still greedily accepts food. I just don't get why it looks like this.

The tank params are:

135g with 2X150w halides and 4X96w VHO. All bulbs were replaced early march of this year.

Ammonia/nitrite 0
Nitrates 5
Specific gravity 1.026
Calcium 480
Alk 10
Mag 1300

The two pictures are about 3 weeks apart. The first is when the nem first started hosting the clowns. The second is today. You can see how much worse it looks.

Sorry for the long post! I hope someone can help!
 

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I'm on my phone and it wouldn't let me attach both in the first post. Here's the current picture.
 

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it looks like it is still inflating fine, I had a BTA that looked similar to that after getting stuck in one of my PHs. It came back just fine. I would keep an eye on it and if you notice it not inflating then be alarmed. Feeding might help if it will take food.
 
Starving? I had a BTA that looked like that and eventually no matter what I did it just melted away and died..

Not sure, but good luck.
 
@jwalker
It's definitely inflating. If it had suffered trauma I wouldnt be as concerned as there would be a reason for it looking like this, but nothing has happened to it and yet this is its condition still...
but yes Ive been offering it food everyday. Most days it eats very well.

@xtlosx
starving was the first thing I considered back when I first noticed some of the short tentacles and have been stuffing it full of as much food as possible (not force feeding though, it accepts it all fine) :/
Im sorry to hear that you had one that did something similar, Im concerned mine might be on its way to that.

Does anyone else have any input?? Any help is appreciated!
 
Sadly, I have had similar experiences with xtlosx, where no matter what you did the tentacles just got smaller and smaller until there was nothing left. Feeding did absolutely nothing for it. I hope yours pulls through, but I would def. keep a sharp eye out for deterioration. Good luck.
 
ag09g said:
@jwalker
It's definitely inflating. If it had suffered trauma I wouldnt be as concerned as there would be a reason for it looking like this, but nothing has happened to it and yet this is its condition still...
but yes Ive been offering it food everyday. Most days it eats very well.

@xtlosx
starving was the first thing I considered back when I first noticed some of the short tentacles and have been stuffing it full of as much food as possible (not force feeding though, it accepts it all fine) :/
Im sorry to hear that you had one that did something similar, Im concerned mine might be on its way to that.

Does anyone else have any input?? Any help is appreciated!
Click to expand...

I have an anemone and it has gone through some rough times but always seems to bounce back. Even a ripped foot. Give it some time, feed it the squid and krill like you are doing and see how it goes. Honestly, in that picture for some reason it doesn't look bad to me.
 
Thanks guys! I'll definitely continue to feed and monitor it. For now it acts completely normal, just looks terrible, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to wake up to a dead decaying body for a bit longer.

Hopefully it'll pull through, I just wish I knew why this is happening :/
 
I wouldn't feed it every day. What kind/level of flow is it in? In the nano tank what lighting was it under? When you transferred it to the new tank did you acclimate it to new lighting?

If you placed it higher in the tank and under a new, stronger light source then maybe that's part of the problem. It might have been stung by the torch ... those things can be pretty toxic. Other than the nubby tentacles it looks pretty healthy.

I would just let it be. Feed it twice a week and maybe increase the flow around it. If the lighting is significantly stronger than the nano tank, you might decrease the photo period or screen the area above the nemmie and give it a chance to get used to new lighting.
 
The nano had led lights, the jbj professional led system which was 89 watts I believe. In the current tank the nem is only about 4 inches from the bottom of the tank under 150w halides. I'm not a lighting expert, but I think the LEDs were supposed to be equivalent of a 150w halide, so considering its pretty low in the tank I wouldn't have expected the new tank lights to be too strong, what do you think? But no, I didn't acclimate it to the new lights. I could definitely try screening it off if you think that could help though!

Now the torch coral has been moved well out of reach for over a month now, and most of the shrinking tentacles have occurred since then. Could a sting a month ago still be causing retraction?

It was in low to moderate flow, but I actually just added a new power head close by to up the flow. It's not getting hammered or anything but it getting moderate/strong indirect flow now.

I'm glad some of you have said it still looks somewhat healthy though. I was just mortified at his appearance, but it definitely could be worse. If it weren't for the tentacles I really wouldn't have any cause for concern.
 
i don't know anything about nems but i know when i have bought corals, i always acclimate to my MH lighting. they go on the sand bed with 3 layers of nylon window screening over the top glass to lessen the bright lighting. i remove one layer of screen each week. after 3 weeks, i can pretty much move the corals to where i want them to live in the tank. i've only had problems with one and it was a lavendar mushroom coral that arrived already looking pretty bleached.

hope your nem makes it but it might not hurt to shade him from the lights for a while.
 
Ya honestly it didnt even cross my mind to acclimate it to the lights! I had to transport the tank and it's inhabitants across Florida for 4 hours so I think I was just preoccupied with getting everything in the tank without massive die off haha. I'll definitely try shading him some to see if it helps!
 
Yes, I think that coral sting could still be having this affect. Like I said, Torch stings are pretty nasty. I had a torch drop on another LPS for a second and, that quick, the LPS shriveled up and stayed that way, permanently. Hopefully that won't be the case with the BTA since we've seen/heard many that have been mangled in PHs and have grown tentacles back.

Increasing the flow is good. Screening the light is also a good idea. Feed it regularly, twice a week, fresh seafood (human consumption quality) ... no silversides, small pieces ... you know the drill. And just be patient.
 
Thanks sjwitt! I've definitely seen the killing power of this torch, usually the affected corals don't linger for too long....

Screens are in place, powerhead is on and food is soaking. Now I just need to find some patience and I'm good to go.

Thanks everybody for all of the advice!
 
SeedlessOne said:
Welcome to reef central. May not want to come off as such a _____. I'll let you place your adjective of choice.

Not a good foot to start on that's for sure.
Click to expand...

Thank you!!! No one else said anything so I was starting to wonder if getting ****ed at that comment was understandable or if it was just my mommy instincts getting hurt when my "baby" was insulted.

Glad someone else noticed it was a dick comment, too.
 
Trust me, everyone noticed. Your response was perfect so there was no need to comment further.

I usually just ignore those types of posts (well, most of the time)... not worth the effort.
 
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