Can I keep 2 different BTA together?

[plancton]

I own a very hard to find purple bubble tip anemone, It is very nice and rare, however before I used to have a red BTA and the color although not rare, was more striking and gave better contrast to the aquarium.

I was wondering if I can add a second bta to my tank, and if it would get along well with the other bta?, can they live on the same spot?

 

[bigdaddyadam]

purple bubble tip? are you sure it isn't a Heteractis magnifica? I have NEVER heard of a purple BTA, but then again I could be wrong.

 

[RBTA]

Yes you can keep more that one BTAs together. Do you mean a BTA with purple tips, or all purple BTA?

 

[plancton]

I really mean a purple bubble tip anemone, with green tips. Look for my other threads, I thought nobody had one like mine, but it turned out that at least two other people in this forum own the same anemone, one of them even had a thread with some other pictures, look for "help identifying anemone ID", started by OCD something.

If I keep the two BTAs, is there a problem if they are toutching each other?

 

[RBTA]

No you shouldn't, many people have kept BTAs next to each other touching without a problem. I don't have any experience on it yet because I only have one, but am going to get another soon.

 

[plancton]

One more thing, my anemone is been in my tank for 4 days, I notice it hides at night and comes out during the day, but stays at the bottom of the tank. Since I have Power Compacts, I think it is not getting enough light at the bottom, but it hasn't crawled to the top either, is this a normal behaviour?. Also it looks healthy, but the tentacles are not sticky, I gave it a pice of shrimp and it slipped away from its tentacles, the anemone managed to catch it at the end and ate it, but today I gave her another piece of shrimp and it wasn't able to catch it even though it touched its tentacles. Is this normal?. I had a RBTA once, and the tentacles were really sticky.

 

[RBTA]

Well, it probably needs to get used to your tank. Right now it is adjusting to your light, and will then probably move up in the tank if it wants. My BTA wasn't sticky for the first few days. But now it reacts to when the food touches. Also did you feed it in two consecutive days? Its possible it didn't eat the other shrimp because it was full.

 

[plancton]

anyone else?

 

[Beverly]

The BTA might be spending all its time at the bottom because that's where the right water flow for it might be. Any chance of adjusting water flow in other areas of the tank? What sized tank? How great is the water flow in it?

 

[plancton]

The pumps at the top are quite powerful, however they are not pointing at the anemone. There is a lot of water movement at the top thanks to the crash of the two currents from the pumps which make a swirl, that means there is a lot of waterflow at the top but not direct and not strong.

If the anemone is not happy with the waterflow, would it prefer gentle over good light?, I mean these are powercompacts. I try to keep the best water current at the top since I have a galaxea sitting on the top.

 

[Beverly]

plancton,

In my limited experience, anemones will prefer lower water flow to higher light.

Also, where the water in your tank comes crashing together, you will also find that there is water movement in the water column created the two flows of water coming together.

For instance, in my 120g, I have a powerhead high up on the left corner and another powerhead high up in the right corner. Both powerheads are pointed foward and toward the centre of the tank. Where the two flows converge, there is a huge down draft of water down the centre of the tank, wnich then moves down along the bottom of the sandless bottom. All the corals in that area are constantly moving with the crash of water.

You may have to experiment with poerhead placement and water flow direction for awhile like we did with our GBTA in the 37g. Took quite awhile to get it right, I'm afraid.

 

[plancton]

My powerhead setup is just like yours, do you think that is to much water flow for the anemone to handle at the top?, I will try moving the powerhead somewhere else.