BTA questions

[milhous3er]

I'm in need for advice to what may have happened with a BTA that I got this past Friday. When I picked up the BTA, it looked good, nice green tips and his foot would attach to anything. So Friday, the anemone was good, inflated, color looked great. Then on Saturday things all went downhill. It didn't inflate at all. Saturday night, same thing. I noticed some damage on the BTA. It looked as if something almost sliced it right down the middle, all of its innards were hanging out. Almost looked like raw hamburger...

So I covered it with a tupperware to keep my GSM out, hoping that maybe that was causing the stress. Its condition kept downgrading, so eventually I had to get rid of it.

So after reading about how clowns can be too rough with anemones, this is my only conclusion. My GSM didn't want anything to do with any of my euphillia completely ignoring all of them. As soon as I put the BTA into the tank, the GSM almost swam into my hand so that it could get to the BTA !! So he made himself quite at home in the BTA. I don't have any problems with any of my other fleshy corals (Torch,Frogspawn and elegance) and they are growing like mad (other than my elegance, just got it friday).

Alittle background on my tank-
0 ammonia
0 nitrites
0 nitrates
0 phosphates
SG of 1.027
Been up and running since March
250w MH 20k bulb

 

[Anemone]

It sounds like the BTA was stressed and died. While the clown might have been part of that, I'm betting water conditions and probably lighting had more to do with it. What were the conditions where you bought it? Especially the lighting. How did you acclimate it to your tank?

Kevin

 

[milhous3er]

I did the normal drip acclimation, over 2 hours. As far as I know the conditions were good at the LFS. All their other anemones were doing wonderful. I don't know the specifics on what the SG and temp was, but their lighting I believe is T5s (but may be MH over their anemone tank. The store openend early because of a big sale, so the BTA wasn't fully expanded when I got it.

As far as light acclimating, I didn't acclimate it to my MHs

 

[Angel*Fish]

Could it be a split gone bad?

 

[format]

Could it be a split gone bad?

That's what I was thinking. The only other thing I see is that your SG is a little high, but I dont think that would cause this.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

I got three BTAs online and after 5-10 days they all ripped and died. It wasn't water quality because I had some other BTAs in there at the time and they were fine. Maybe some nems are just jank.

 

[milhous3er]

Thats exactly how I would describe it, just ripped right down the middle, through the mouth. I just thing about how excited the GSM was, and to see his little body just laying on the sand, trying to get a rub on....Seriously, I thought it was dead. He was just laying in the sand, motionless, trying to get one last feel I guess...

 

[Angel*Fish]

And now he's fine?

 

[milhous3er]

The clown ?? Yeah he's fine. As soon as I moved the BTA he moved away.

 

[Angel*Fish]

That's good Those GSM's really love their BTA's.

When I upgraded from my 55 I couldn't get the female to get off the BTA. So I decided to remove the BTA with it's rock and I thought she'd swim off. No way. She stayed on it all the way out of the water into the bucket and she held up one little fin at me that I'm pretty sure meant the same as one finger if she could have managed it. That was Queen Isabella - I miss her

 

[milhous3er]

Yeah it was definantely neat to watch. I just want to know if there was anything else I could have done. Next time i'll acclimate it to the lights in my tank, hopefully it'll work out for me this next time.

 

[seafd]

This really sounds like a stressed BTA trying to split and not making it... This may have been a recent shipment to the store and you got one that didn't make it. I would watch the store inventory for the next week or so and only buy one that survives there for at least a week and still looks healthy. Another tip is to ask the store to feed it in front of you. A healthy BTA should take food really easily... Best of luck

 

[milhous3er]

Thanks for the advice. They said the BTA had been there for awhile, more than a couple weeks. Next time, I will buy one, and have it sit there for awhile to make sure its not too stressed.