BTA Mouth Open...Help.

[erinangele]

I posted a couple weeks ago about my new BTA letting go of the rock and bumping into my torch coral. After the run in with the torch it hid behind the rock for a week! Finally it decided to make its way out. It started to bump into my birds nest, so i moved the BN to allow the nem to come through. Instead it stayed put for a week. It seemed okay until right now.

I just went to check on it and it has it's foot spread from the rock to the back wall (where it's foot has been for the past week), it's tentacles are shriveled and it's mouth is wide open. It has something beige stuck to it's tentacles, I can't tell what it is. It looks like it could have a mucous type texture.

I tried to get a couple pictures, but it is really difficult to see anything because of where it is located in my tank. I just want to add that when it finally emerged from behind the rock after the torch run in, it's color was not as bright as when i bought it. Over the past week a few of it's tentacles seemed to be getting a bit brighter. Here it is-

It's hard to tell, but it's attached to the rock and the overflow. Behind the center of the foot is open space.

Here it is a couple days ago.

And the day i bought it.

I fed it a small silver slide the first week (before torch incident). I have not fed it since as i was trying to let it heal. My parameters are:

Temp 78.4
SG 1.024
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0

 

[erinangele]

I just checked back on it and saw the most bizarre thing! My Blue Tang was swimming between the anemone and overflow tail flicking it. Then he/she swam away, then came back and tail flicked it again! How weird is that? Could my Blue Tang be killing it? I tried to get a picture, but my camera is not wanting to focus on the nem.

This is the best i could get-

 

[Big Dave PDX]

Be as patient as you can with it. I have over 15 BTAs and all are doing good except one I got about 2 weeks ago. I've tried just about every spot in my tank and just can't seem to find one it likes. I keep finding it face down all over the place so I've been flipping back over - it attaches again, looks great for about half the day (inflated, tight mouth, stuck good to a rock) then it repeats this almost every night. You're right about not feeding right now though. Let it settle and find a spot for a week or two before you try to feed it again. BTW, I almost never feed my nems so I wouldn't worry too much about it eating. HTH

 

[orangegoby]

this thing is really hard to figure out sometimes. my experiences of picking a healthy fish is totally useless when it comes to picking a bta. you pick the one with good coloration, mouth closed, clean foot that suck on a surface, then you took it it home it looked good for one day and the other day it all shrink and hiding. mine been hiding for over 2 weeks now.

 

[erinangele]

Thanks for your input. It did close its mouth and puff back up last night. Everything I read said a gaping mouth = dying, and its mouth was open about the size of a quarter. I'm glad it seems better now. Weird about my blue tang tail flicking it though! Actually, It as after the tail flick that it started closing its mouth. Any idea what that was about?

 

[psidriven]

I have a similar issue with my flametip bta. Mouth gaping, shrinking up then perfectly fine in a few hours. This happens about twice a month. Only difference is that it doesn't move and will sometimes eject a dark brownish goo. As long as it hasn't died and keeps a nice color, I'm ok. Freaked me out the first couple times though.

 

[Big Dave PDX]

I have a similar issue with my flametip bta. Mouth gaping, shrinking up then perfectly fine in a few hours. This happens about twice a month. Only difference is that it doesn't move and will sometimes eject a dark brownish goo. As long as it hasn't died and keeps a nice color, I'm ok. Freaked me out the first couple times though.

No worries here - it's just 'pooping'! :lmao: Sounds like normal behavior to me.

 

[electronaught]

Whew! I've had mine for all of a week now and this is the first poop... kinda freaked me out so I came looking here.

Maybe I should be a proud dad?