bta question

[benestrogano]

So I have a green BTA. I have had it for about 5 or 6 months now. It looked great for a long time until it split to a second one a few weeks ago. Now its no longer green but like a brown/purple color and the tentacles are stubby and short and don't have the bubble tips. It is still sticking to the rock its on. I checked all my levels. Mg is at 1280, Ca is 360. Temp is 78.4, showing nothing for nitrates, salinity and PH are right on. I have a 8 bulb T5 HO light on the tank. All my corals and fish are doing great. I have two false percs that like to hang out in it. I don't notice anything crazy with them in it. Originally I would feed it a krill or pc of silverside once a week. I read some articles talking about similar condition and it said try feeding them more frequent. So I've been trying to feed it everyday. It wont grab food anymore i have to pretty much place it in the mouth to get it to eat. I was thinking it might be time to pull it out so it does not nuke my tank but I didn't know if I should wait. Also some days no it will stay closed up all day and then some days it will come out.

 

[mcfa2403]

Discontinue feeding. The nem is stressed and food takes energy to digest.

What is your alkalinity? How are you testing your temp? When were your bulbs last changed? Have you recently changed you lighting cycle?

The nem losing its color is most likely a sign of zooaxnthelle die-off and is why it has begun to devour its tentacle tips for resources (doesn't require as much effort as grabbing food).

For whatever reason your nem has discontinued photosynthesis and finding the cause of this is your best chance of saving it. Remember probes and test kits can fall out of calibration and read wrong, taking a sample to your LFS for a double check on parameters is never a bad idea in these situations. Double check your temp probe with a little glass thermometer.

BTAs can come back from this, but it is not a random event. Nems are far more in tune to the environment than most of our corals and fish. For instance, increased heat can speed up calcification, and with proper aeration, help fish fight off parasites and induce clowns to lay. So what may do nothing, or help, to another animal may hurt another.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

What is your SG and what kind of salt are you using? If it doesn't want to readily take the food then don't force it. If it's hungry it will gladly take food in from the tips of it's tentacles.

Also stop feeding silversides, they can actually kill your anemone. There are several threads here on them. The reason is that they are often thawed out and refrozen several times and this causes bacteria to form that can kill your anemone. I feed mine Mysis or frozen mix food, even a small piece of fresh frozen shrimp or fish such as salmon.

 

[benestrogano]

Discontinue feeding. The nem is stressed and food takes energy to digest.

What is your alkalinity? How are you testing your temp? When were your bulbs last changed? Have you recently changed you lighting cycle?

The nem losing its color is most likely a sign of zooaxnthelle die-off and is why it has begun to devour its tentacle tips for resources (doesn't require as much effort as grabbing food).

For whatever reason your nem has discontinued photosynthesis and finding the cause of this is your best chance of saving it. Remember probes and test kits can fall out of calibration and read wrong, taking a sample to your LFS for a double check on parameters is never a bad idea in these situations. Double check your temp probe with a little glass thermometer.

BTAs can come back from this, but it is not a random event. Nems are far more in tune to the environment than most of our corals and fish. For instance, increased heat can speed up calcification, and with proper aeration, help fish fight off parasites and induce clowns to lay. So what may do nothing, or help, to another animal may hurt another.

Thanks for information. I have a spare glass thermometer I will put that in when I get home from work. I tested alk this weekend and it was at 8.6 dkh. I switched to the t5 setup a few weeks before I got the nem. So they are less than a year old. My lighting cycle has not changed its all on timers. I think i have them set to run from around 3pm to 9ish?

 

[benestrogano]

What is your SG and what kind of salt are you using? If it doesn't want to readily take the food then don't force it. If it's hungry it will gladly take food in from the tips of it's tentacles.

Also stop feeding silversides, they can actually kill your anemone. There are several threads here on them. The reason is that they are often thawed out and refrozen several times and this causes bacteria to form that can kill your anemone. I feed mine Mysis or frozen mix food, even a small piece of fresh frozen shrimp or fish such as salmon.

Thanks! Yeah so i have always just fed him krill but when i noticed he started acting like this i got silversides. Ill stop feed them now. I use instant ocean reef crystals. Salt is at 1.024 and i have an ATO so it stays stable no big fluctuations. My temp is set at 78.4

 

[benestrogano]

I took a photo of how it looks now this weekend. also i tested and found my phosphates were a little high. .06 so i setup rowphos is my reactor instead of the phosguard i was using. Not sure if that would cause this but i was noticing i had to clean algae off my glass a lot more lately.