BTA questions

A

agruetz

New member
OK,

So my green bubble tip seems to be deflating a lot (2 - 3 times a day) and it almost looks like all the tentacle's on it have fallen off. What do remain appear to be like 1/8th in stubs. Is there something wrong with it (I will try to get pictures but he is in a difficult spot). Or is this just another crazy thing anemones do?

Thanks
 
I know what you are explaining, it is normally what they do on their path to death. It is possible it has an internal infection or that it is in bad tank conditions for its health. Or that it had a tear and is slowly dying from it. BTA's are fairly hardy but what you are explaining is something i have seen in a few BTA's, it normally means they will die if conditions are not improved. I have seen these BTA's come back to full health, it just takes some time.
 
I bought some silver sides today. Mine looks close to the ones that are starving. I was told you never needed to feed them they got all their energy form the lights in the tank etc... all my other coral's are doing well (I know an anemone is not a coral). I am going to get it some pieces of silver side tonight and see if that helps his state at all.
 
Tmoriarty said:
I know what you are explaining, it is normally what they do on their path to death. It is possible it has an internal infection or that it is in bad tank conditions for its health. Or that it had a tear and is slowly dying from it. BTA's are fairly hardy but what you are explaining is something i have seen in a few BTA's, it normally means they will die if conditions are not improved. I have seen these BTA's come back to full health, it just takes some time.
Click to expand...

What do you think I should do. The tank parameters are good. All the normal ones are well with in acceptable limits and I do not have swings. I believe the guy may be starving. He sorta had himself in a confined little space that was not getting a ton of light and I know it had not had a lot of additional food. Should I try to remove it form the rock and put it in a QT bin (in the same tank, so I can feed it easier?) what are your recommendations?
 
So far it is refusing to eat. Does not seem to hang on to any piece of silver side no mater how small. Color is still ok. Mouth is open and not tight, but no guts spilling out. I took some froze rod's fish food and ground it up and fed it like i would my coral's. I do not know if this would help or not but I did not know what else to try. Anyone have any idea's on how to best help this little guy?
 
I own one small Bleached BTA (this is how it comes from the store) and it divided a few days after i put it in my tank. After this, they start deflating and losing all of the tentacles. I used to feed them once a week but Sometimes a clown Or lysmata steal their "meal" from their mouth. I've always been told the same as agrueth so i was no worried for them.

Thanks to The link to Rose's site, now i know they're starving to death. I'll follow all the advices to heal them, starting to feed them daily, as they are quite small.

Agruetz, try on some Crude shrimp. I give them a little piece and they swallow it quite fast. Good luck, hope we can save our friends.

Ps- sorry about my english, i'm not english speaker...
 
Mine seems to be doing a bit better (least the mouth is closed today). Seems the new tank is helping he is not hidden in the corner where it cannot get a ton of light. I will keep shooting food at it and trying to get it to eat, what I can get it to. Time will tell.
 
Unfortunately he is in a part I can not get pictures of without moving the whole tank. However I am 95% sure it is starvation at this point. I have been feeding him little chunks of silver sides. Seems to be slight improvements.
 
Some have reported issues with feeding silversides. I would use raw shrimp or maybe mussels or scallops. If it's in a hard to reach area, I would smash up the food in tank water to a paste-like consistency and use a syringe to target feed the anemone. You can suspend the flow/circulation in the tank while doing this. That will give the weak/starving animal a better chance ... it won't have to fight the current to hold onto the food.
 
That is exactly what I did for the first few days when it would not hold a silver side chunk. I will continue a combination of that and silver side chunks till it improves. Will maybe try the shrimp as well. Thanks least I know I am in the right direction of helping him out. Now only time will tell.
 
Here is a picture of the little guy, he finally moved and I was able to coax him to plant firmly on my frag rack. You can see his mouth is open however right now he has a 1/4in chunk of silver side stuffed in his mouth. But you can see there are no tentacle's etc... Mouth has been remaining more closed than it has been from the feedings over the last week or so. Any additional advice is welcomed.
 

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What type of lighting?
Another food that you should try would be krill, mine love them, but to much food can and will kill your nem depending on the lighting and paramaters of your tank, tank parameters look good thou. A nem can only digest a certain amount due to their health and food can rot inside of them in theory killing themselves like gluttons! Also what kind of flow do you have in your tank, numbers of powerheads & or return?
 
At the time I had a 10G with about 40 - 50x turn over. Now he is in a 27G with about 20 - 30x. He is sitting under 4 T5HO 18W 2 x 10K 1 x antic 1 x purple (in the 10G it was the same lighting but 2 x antic). Before I never fed him, I have started feeding him at the direction from Karen over @ http://www.karensroseanemones.net/ . He seems to be slowly improving. It currently has 2 power heads hydor (small ones rated for 36 - 60G tanks, 240GPH. 1 HOB filter for carbon, poly filter or other types of chemical filtration as needed (small marine land one) and an aquamax HOB protein skimmer. bout 35lbs of live rock.
 
Your lighting and circulation sounds good, from the looks of that pic, your anemone is starving. Extremely short tentacles, like your has, suggests the anemone hasn't been eating in a long time. I would feed small (no larger than a pea) food every other day. Fresh food like shrimp from the seafood dept., PE mysis, small pieces of squid, and small pieces of krill should help to bring your RBTA back.
 
Yep that is exactly what Karen said. I was ALWAYS told they never needed to be fed. I never fed the little guy in 4 1/2 months and all the sudden he looked like this. He had hidden himself in a corner where I could not always get a clear look at him. I have been feeding him small chunks of silver sides. Eraser head side to 2x the size of an eraser head (very towards the end of this week he started taking that). I hope with some good TLC and feeding he will recover. His mouth as been remaining closed with not eating now at least.
 
In a well-fed tank, a healthy BTA can likely get by just fine without target feeding. They will snag food out of the water and, the majority of their nutrition, will be generated from the zooxanthellae that inhabits their tissue. Your lighting should ensure that the zooxanthellae are providing nutrition and your target feeding will hopefully bring it back to full health.
 
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