BTA question

[vessxpress1]

Can a BTA die without bleaching. I've had one for 7 months, it's grown a lot. I feed it occasionally. A few tips were bleached a little but it seems like most have repaired themselves. The last couple days though, it seems like it's been slumping and touching the glass where it usually doesn't and the mouth is open a little bit. I have new PCs I'm going to put in tomorrow. More white light, less actinic. What could be the problem? Bubble tips aren't inflating as much within the last few days either. Still opens up big. It's not reaching for the light.

 

[vessxpress1]

Nobody knows? (bump)

 

[kirstenk]

It could be thinking about splitting.

 

[Anemonebuff]

They go through periods of deflation to clean their interior water out. Sometimes they do it for a few hours and sometimes a day.

 

[ray-ray's_55]

lol...your trying to keep an anemone under power compacts?

 

[Anemonebuff]

You feed her how often?

They seem to prefer shrimp/prawns twice a week under weaker light and once a week to two weeks under brighter light.

 

[Anemonebuff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6822563#post6822563 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ray-ray's_55
lol...your trying to keep an anemone under power compacts?

I do not see what is soo funny. I, and many others kept anemones under PCs. I have kept and bred BTAs under PCs. I also kept a Sebae under PCs. However, my tomato clown kept abusing her(so I traded her in for the BTA that I bred).

I will agree that BTAs will appreciate more light, but PCs are enough IMO.

 

[vessxpress1]

Yeah, I don't understand what's so funny about it either. I've read a lot of people on here that have done it. I decided to try it and I'm very suprised how well it's done. It's not a 150 gallon tank, it's a 38 gallon. Yes, I'm WELL AWARE that MHs would be much better for it but it's more than an anemone tank and soft corals tend to do well under flouresents.
I previously had only tried keeping a couple anemones a long time ago under completely the wrong light and they didn't make it a month. I decided to try one, that was very healthy, in my small tank under the PCs, with not that high of expectations. It's done well for 7 months. It's just acting a little weird lately.

Oh yeah, it's also at the bottom of the tank and has stayed in the same spot for 6 months.

 

[Anemonebuff]

It may just want more food. BTAs are collected in different depths. Where they are collected from will have an impact on their lighting requirements. I would say that it is safe to say that the same genetics found in the original BTA collected have been passed from clone to clone....and so on. IME the one I had was happy under the light I provided(4x96Watt PCs) and liked to eat often.

Personally I would still suggest stroger lighting.

 

[11fishes]

well i'm glad that BTA's can do well under the PC's because i have one under PC's and it seems to be doing well although i seem to be doing well also but i'm not, so uhhhh there could be trouble lol

 

[vessxpress1]

Yeah, I would like to up the lighting a bit. I'm gonna try to get by at least one more year with this set up. I just bought two new Current sunpaq 96 watt PCs... one's a dual daylight, half 10,000k , half 6,700 k and the other one is half 10,000 k and half 460 actinic. They're suppose to put out 3 times the lumens of other brands and this should give me a little more spectrum from just the 10,000 k and 420 actinic bulbs. I'm just going to see what happens and see if I like the lighting too. A marine biologist at that pet place told me I could get better growth with them but with more red light, it'll be more suseptible to algae growth but I keep my nitrates and phosphates undetectable so I'm hoping for the best. I've got a taget feeder coming also which should help.

I'll try feeding it a little more often. I feed it freeze dried shrimp and silversides, one or the other, usually once a week. Sometimes it gets fish food scraps.

 

[gflat65]

I had mine under VHO and MH. I lost my MH ballast (this was years ago) and they all moved to the top as if they wanted more light (no halide for two weeks-only actinic VHO). I moved a few into a frag tank with PC's and none of them made it. I guess mine are more the higher light variety... Under PC's, they shrank slowly until they had reduced size from 4-6" to less than 2". Try extra feeding, though that has always caused cloning in my system. I ran a small experiment a few years back and was able to force a clone in twelve days every time by playing with feeding cycles (light feeding for a while then a dramatic increase in feeding always did it). If it isn't getting enough from the lighting, maybe additional food will help.