Frustrated - what to do with bleached RBTA that is shrinking and won't eat

Are there nitrates in the water?
My rbta d obad when nitrates are zeroish.
Add some nitrates (ish food) to the water and see if that helps.
 
They are usually very hardy. I read you said they just split. they take time to heal and are generally very stressed from the split. Mine did that and looked awful for months and now they are fine. Sometimes if you just let them be and stop messing with them they recover.
 
thanks for the response guys. My params have been in flux a bit lately (which I realize may be a source of the cause). I've been getting my water for years at a LFS right down the road from me, but lately I've noticed the params in my tank flexing around all over the place (strange after 2 years of stability). I did some baseline tests on the water I was getting and found the following params (thread here if you want to follow)

Salinity it out of the roof @1.03
Alk is pretty decent @ 9.0
CA is CRAZY low @ 260
MG is CRAZY low @ 850

I had to do some MAJOR dosing to get the 5gallons up to par before doing my 2.5g water change. I've *completely* isolated my clowns, which I think were causing more stress on the poor nems, I'm feeding the nems 2x a week with *small* pieces of silver side (which they sometimes take, and other times don't), and I'm also dosing marine snow 2-3x a week. I'm not seeing *any* change, how long should I wait before I just give up hope?!
 
Reefbox said:
Are there nitrates in the water?
My rbta d obad when nitrates are zeroish.
Add some nitrates (ish food) to the water and see if that helps.
Click to expand...
Had a blenny jump the grate on my 28g cube, was pretty gnarly for a couple days so I ran a cycle of Algone to cut the nitrates. Other than that, I'm doing Marine Snow every 3 days or so, should be plenty of micro foods in that water
 
I'm in the same situation. Bta bleached in July and hasn't recovered. I heard it takes somewhere around 3 months in good conditions to recover usually, but mine hasn't improved at all. My water is decent, too- nitrates 10-15ppm, salinity 1.025, ammonia/nitrites 0 ppm, phosphates 0.25 ppm it's not pristine conditions yet so there should be enough nutrients for the bta. It has shrunk from about 3 inches in diameter to 1 inch, and eats less readily, although it had eaten every time I offered food. The clowns didn't seem to stress it, and have recently left it so it's not stressed anymore. I tried moving it to better lighting, but it wouldn't move has just gotten paler and smaller and now has an open mouth regularly. I have been ready to give up, because I don't want it to die when I'm not there and release stuff into the tank. So I'm tagging along and hopefully someone has a good idea...
 
NirvanaFan said:
how big are the silversides that you are feeding?
Click to expand...
standard silverside (about 1.5-2"), but I'm cutting a single silverside into about 3 pieces hoping that it will take the smaller piece. Most of the time I put it to the tentacles, and it won't take it (even if I hold it there for awhile)
 
Don't know if you've already tried this, but as bleached as my anemone is, it still takes individual mysis and always has. Might want to give that a try to get it eating if you haven't already.
 
Baltimore Bryan said:
Don't know if you've already tried this, but as bleached as my anemone is, it still takes individual mysis and always has. Might want to give that a try to get it eating if you haven't already.
Click to expand...
Yeah, have tried that too. I have a small tank (28g) so I usually dissolve half a mysis cube in a small container, then spot feed with an eyedropper. They *sometimes* take some, more ofter than not, it just blows by.

Thank for the input, would love to hear if anyone else has ANY recommendations
 
Anemone

Anemone

Try your local reef club. Some people love to rehab them, I would take them but live too far away. I hope they get the chance for rehab before it is too late.
 
i am having the same problem, but my bta is in way worse shape. it was very bleached and then it decided to move and i never saw it again. This was 2 mts ago. i broke down my tank this weekend and saw that it is still around. at this point it has no tentacles and wont eat. would be interested in what suggestions you get.
 
You need to get params in check.
Don't worry about feeding so much, you're probably stressing it more.
Stick to just mysis for now, and don't even need all that much.
 
I'm in West La and I'd be willing to give it a shot. I have a tank that is empty except for a GBTA (that is a rescue from a pet shop I ran across last week) and a percula. You can PM me.
 
Try putting some raw shrimp in tank. Does anemone open mouth in 5-10 mins after smelling the shrimp? then squirt very small foods into mouth.

try real small foods. cyclopeeze, coral freenzy or mince shrimp w a knife razor into really small pieces.
 
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