monicaswizzle
Premium Member
Wow! "What a long strange trip it has been"
I purchased a "6-inch" BTA from Drs F&S that arrived at my house 15 days ago. The first week was totally "crazy". I still think the BTA is splitting (do they have ability to reverse a split? It seems to split and then regroup), but at least it is only moving around the tank a bit now. For the record, and if you are interested, here is what happened and a few observations about BTA locomotion that I have never read about anywhere, but I witnessed with my own eyes.
So, turns out that the red ball sponge in my sump was "at war" with the BTA in the display tank (140 gallons total capacity) and my new BTA was making desperate efforts to "escape" or relocate to an area free of whatever the sponge was putting into the water. The BTA did a bit of "normal" movement, gliding about on its foot, but for about four days (until I figured it out and cut the return pump and removed the sponge) my BTA spent most of the night hours (when the sump light is on and the sponge is "more active"?) attempting rapid movement to a new location. I observed hours and hours of the following:
1) The BTA would "roll into a ball", sometimes with foot on the outside and the mouth and tents on the inside and sometimes with the foot on the inside. Once all balled up, the BTA would crash around the tank wherever the currents took it. The BTA didn't appear to have much if any control over this movement other than the "decision" to release hold with its foot and ball up in the first place.
2) The BTA would expell most of the water and "flatten" into a tire/wheel shape with the mouth on one side of the "tire" and the foot on the other side. After flattening out, the BTA would somehow get on its side (think rim of a tire) and roll around the tank like a wheel. This movement wasn't totally "random". The BTA definately did something to stay on "the rim" and not fall back onto the foot or mouth. It mostly seemed to roll with the currents in the tank (5 powerheads on a wave maker produces lots of complex motion), I never saw it roll directly against the current, but many times it rolled across the current, which seems to indicate some kind of "control" by the BTA.
3) The WEIRDEST was the time that the BTA spent using "normal" motion to climb to the top of a small rock "outcrop" that has a fairly distinct "summit" about 4 inches above the DSB. Once on top of the knob, the BTA would somehow "hop" from one side of its foot to the other and create momentum so it looked like a hoola hoop spinning around on the tip of the LR. Then it would "let go" and launch itself up into the water column where the currents would crash it around the tank. Once it was back on the DSB it would use "normal" motion to come back to the exact same rock and do the exact same thing over again. I watched this (jaw gaping) for hours and am sure that it wasn't just a one time weird coincidence. My only guess is that maybe BTA do this kind of thing in the wild if they want to float with the current/tide and are needing to get above the substrate to do so.
Well, I wish I had pictures. Or better yet a movie. I have read that BTA are suspected to roll about on the ocean floor since large individuals can show up at new locations far from any known colonies, but what I witnessed was a lot more complicated than simply rolling about.
Thanks for reading. I will let you know if the BTA ever splits or if that was just "my imagination".
I purchased a "6-inch" BTA from Drs F&S that arrived at my house 15 days ago. The first week was totally "crazy". I still think the BTA is splitting (do they have ability to reverse a split? It seems to split and then regroup), but at least it is only moving around the tank a bit now. For the record, and if you are interested, here is what happened and a few observations about BTA locomotion that I have never read about anywhere, but I witnessed with my own eyes.
So, turns out that the red ball sponge in my sump was "at war" with the BTA in the display tank (140 gallons total capacity) and my new BTA was making desperate efforts to "escape" or relocate to an area free of whatever the sponge was putting into the water. The BTA did a bit of "normal" movement, gliding about on its foot, but for about four days (until I figured it out and cut the return pump and removed the sponge) my BTA spent most of the night hours (when the sump light is on and the sponge is "more active"?) attempting rapid movement to a new location. I observed hours and hours of the following:
1) The BTA would "roll into a ball", sometimes with foot on the outside and the mouth and tents on the inside and sometimes with the foot on the inside. Once all balled up, the BTA would crash around the tank wherever the currents took it. The BTA didn't appear to have much if any control over this movement other than the "decision" to release hold with its foot and ball up in the first place.
2) The BTA would expell most of the water and "flatten" into a tire/wheel shape with the mouth on one side of the "tire" and the foot on the other side. After flattening out, the BTA would somehow get on its side (think rim of a tire) and roll around the tank like a wheel. This movement wasn't totally "random". The BTA definately did something to stay on "the rim" and not fall back onto the foot or mouth. It mostly seemed to roll with the currents in the tank (5 powerheads on a wave maker produces lots of complex motion), I never saw it roll directly against the current, but many times it rolled across the current, which seems to indicate some kind of "control" by the BTA.
3) The WEIRDEST was the time that the BTA spent using "normal" motion to climb to the top of a small rock "outcrop" that has a fairly distinct "summit" about 4 inches above the DSB. Once on top of the knob, the BTA would somehow "hop" from one side of its foot to the other and create momentum so it looked like a hoola hoop spinning around on the tip of the LR. Then it would "let go" and launch itself up into the water column where the currents would crash it around the tank. Once it was back on the DSB it would use "normal" motion to come back to the exact same rock and do the exact same thing over again. I watched this (jaw gaping) for hours and am sure that it wasn't just a one time weird coincidence. My only guess is that maybe BTA do this kind of thing in the wild if they want to float with the current/tide and are needing to get above the substrate to do so.
Well, I wish I had pictures. Or better yet a movie. I have read that BTA are suspected to roll about on the ocean floor since large individuals can show up at new locations far from any known colonies, but what I witnessed was a lot more complicated than simply rolling about.
Thanks for reading. I will let you know if the BTA ever splits or if that was just "my imagination".
