BTA question

[myram]

I've had my BTA for about 3-4 weeks or so. It's moved around a bit and up the rock a little, and has been stationary for about 2 weeks.........so I thought it was happy. It does the usual deflation every once in a while and you can see some poop come out of it, then it comes back. But I have a couple of questions about it in general.

1 - I know it's called a bubble tip, but mine doesn't seem to bubble at the tips anymore. It used to a little when I first got it, but now it's more just regular tentacles. I had read somewhere that it's believed that they bubble when they need more light, and are "normal" when they have enough.
Any thoughts?

2 - It looks like at some point it tried to split, but never finished. It has a small ball that's attached near the mouth and at the edge, but other then that it's detached. I tried to get a picture but they just wouldn't show the details needed to get the point accross.
Any thoughts?

And my maroon still hasn't shown any interest.............but I'm not pressing the issue.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[scarlett778]

To answer your questions:
#1. I don't think it's because it needs more light but more of how much flow you have in the tank. The more flow you have the less it can be more "bubble" like. (correct me if I'm wrong). Many bubble tips can be stringy and some are very puffy. As you can see mine in my profile, it was puffy at the low flow areas and when it moved to the high flow area (my lights broke for 4 days), it moved got stringy

This is what it looked like when it moved:

#2 I don't know about the ball part. Maybe it's just a growth. It might not be splitting. I don't think it should be splitting. Splitting can be good and bad. If it's splitting at this fast of a rate, I would be more worried about it trying replicate because it's trying to save itself. (hope I didn't make you panic)

Just keep a close eye, on it with that growth by the mouth and check your params for safe measure.

Happy reefing!

 

[myram]

Here is a picture I just took. It's back to normal size tonight, about 6-7" around. The little ball type thing is hard to see, but it's on the left upper side of the mouth.

He hasn't taken any food from me at all, so he must be getting enough light.
Also, he's in an area where there isn't a lot of flow but also not a dead spot.

Steve

 

[myram]

It really appears that it's trying to get that small ball off of it. Today when i got home from work it was fully open, but that little ball was shrunk and had what looked like an open mouth in the middle. I'm hoping it can drop of that ball soon so it can be happy again, and I'll be able to see what that thing is. It almost looks like I could reach in and pluck it off...........but I know better.

Steve

 

[kduen]

Are you sure what you are referring to isn't the mouth just puckered up. I see no "ball"?

 

[myram]

It's the little area of short tentacles, it's hard to get a good picture of it with it always moving from the flow.

Steve

 

[kduen]

If you are talking about the red circle I added it could very well be a split that never finished. The mouth is in the yellow circle.

 

[myram]

Yes, exactly.

That's exactly what I'm thinking, it tried to split at some point and never finished. It looks weird when it's fully open, and I'm wondering if it bothers it by having that attached right there.

Steve

 

[reefinghabit]

your anemone looks happy.the bubble is a possible semi split it may finish budding and break off.as far as the bubble tips,i notice mine has less bubble tips when the flow is high,when i lower the pump pressure it has awesome bulb tips like mini light bulbs.ive been waiting about 3 weeks for my clowns to host in my rbta they just prefer hanging out in the lower left hand corner.i have an intense orange colored rbta under 130 watts pc lighting.u may try feeding it once per week.

 

[myram]

I'm hoping the little bulb drops off at some point, I think the main Anemone will be much happier when it does.

Steve