GBTA Issue

[VGT]

So, I had an extremely healthy GBTA:

Then, I suspect that it ate my lawnmower blenny (it disappeared, totally MIA, and the Anemone was swollen like it had just eaten). Blenny is nowhere to be found (I moved rocks, combed the sand - nothing).

Anemone has looked terrible ever since, but still very much alive. Moves, response to touch input. I rotated the rock that it's on, and within hours moved itself back to the side where it had been. Mouth is tightly closed, but tentacles appear to have withered to nearly nothing.

Is there a chance of recovery?

 

[bradleym]

That is definitely not promising. But anything's possible. If it starts to regrow it's tentacles you're in good shape. In the meantime, if it ever faces upward and extends itself towards the light, try to set some thawed mysis on the oral disc and see if it'll eat.

 

[BairdimusPrime]

oh man its eating itself... do you have strong enough lighting? thats usually a sign of a starving nem.. what are you feeding it?

dice up some fresh clams and scallops and i mean super small... feed it slowly with a turkey baster with NO FLOW.. this guy needs some loving.. best of luck

 

[VGT]

oh man its eating itself... do you have strong enough lighting? thats usually a sign of a starving nem.. what are you feeding it?

dice up some fresh clams and scallops and i mean super small... feed it slowly with a turkey baster with NO FLOW.. this guy needs some loving.. best of luck

Lighting's fine, had been feeding it fresh fish weekly. I think you missed the point that it literally went from the first picture to the second picture in a period of 2-3 days following my blenny's encounter with its mouth.

 

[Jacwil]

New system? How long has it been running? Water parameters? Are you positive the 'nem ate the Blenny?

 

[jwoyshnar]

My vote is bad water parameters. Check ammonia.

 

[VGT]

New system? How long has it been running? Water parameters? Are you positive the 'nem ate the Blenny?

Transferred from old tank to a new tank about six weeks ago - all existing live rock went with it, and no changes to livestock. No cycle seen following transfer

Ammonia/Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-10
Salinity - 1.025
pH - 7.8-7.9 (via probe)
Water Temp: 79.5 +/-0.2

I can't be 100% certain that the anemone ate it, but I can't think of another possibility. The fish is gone, I removed all the rock to check for it, and combed the sand looking for a carcass. I don't have an extensive CUC, so the likelihood of it having been completely devoured overnight is slim. In the days leading up to its disappearance, it had been pod hunting more frequently on the rock where the anemone lives. Couple that with the change in the anemone at the same time the fish disappeared really makes it more than a coincidence. All of the other corals are opened up beautifully, so I doubt there's something in the the water not being shown on the test.

 

[BairdimusPrime]

i understood the point, eating a blenny wouldnt do that to a nem. in my time owning bta's and researching them the only time i've seen the tentacles completely absorbed like that is in a starvation issue when they eat themselves. do you feed it solid food? does it get spit out? try dicing up the food and spot feeding it.. good luck its a shame as it was a gorgeous nem

 

[VGT]

Yep, I feed it solid food (usually flounder filet). It's still hanging in there, responsive to light and physical stimuli, but looking progressively worse. If it hadn't deteriorated so quickly, I might have suspected starvation as well. Unsure if the blenny might have injured it.

 

[bradleym]

Yep, I feed it solid food (usually flounder filet). It's still hanging in there, responsive to light and physical stimuli, but looking progressively worse. If it hadn't deteriorated so quickly, I might have suspected starvation as well. Unsure if the blenny might have injured it.

Given your timeline of events, and assuming the BTA did in fact eat the blenny, it is much more likely that the BTA developed an infection from holding the rotting corpse in its stomach too long. This has happened on occasion when people feed with silversides as well, which is why many people have stopped using silversides for anemones. Unfortunately, it is very uncommon for anemones to shake such a bad infection.

 

[VGT]

Given your timeline of events, and assuming the BTA did in fact eat the blenny, it is much more likely that the BTA developed an infection from holding the rotting corpse in its stomach too long. This has happened on occasion when people feed with silversides as well, which is why many people have stopped using silversides for anemones. Unfortunately, it is very uncommon for anemones to shake such a bad infection.

I wasn't aware that was a possibility, but certainly makes sense. I'm going to give it another day or so to see how its trending.

 

[ssgtgonzo]

Given your timeline of events, and assuming the BTA did in fact eat the blenny, it is much more likely that the BTA developed an infection from holding the rotting corpse in its stomach too long. This has happened on occasion when people feed with silversides as well, which is why many people have stopped using silversides for anemones. Unfortunately, it is very uncommon for anemones to shake such a bad infection.

+1. They don't eat that often in the wild, and when we feed them, we tend to feed them more than they could ever catch/be given by the clowns. Good luck, I hope you document a turnaround versus a loss.

 

[VGT]

Hope so too. I'm not giving up until it's actually dead. It's unsightly, but still alive.

 

[bues0022]

my $0.02:

First, I wouldn't call the nem in the first picture extremely healthy. Perhaps it's just the picture, but it looks slightly bleached and translucent. A GBTA in tip top shape shouldn't be see-through like how it appears. The green should be much deeper in color.

Second, I agree with bradley that it could potentially be a rotting blenny corpse in the nem, however typically a BTA would have spit it back out eventually also. If you still haven't seen the body, I find it possible the fish is still around (overflow, sump) or dead and eaten by CUC - even a small CUC can make short work of a fish to the point where you won't notice it's a dead fish. I've had fish die in tanks without nems and never found the body, so just the lack of finding it doesn't equate to the nem eating it.

Third, if you really did take out all of your LR, and sift through your sand looking for the blenny, you likely caused a pretty nasty spike in nutrients that took your (IMO) already questionable healthy BTA and tipped it over the edge to a steep fast decline. It isn't clear to me how recent your testing numbers are, but even if they were taken yesterday, it's still possible your tank restabilized a bit before taking the numbers and you weren't able to adequately capture the swing your tank actually went through (Think about this, if your AC broke and your house temp went way up, then you fixed the AC and temp came back down but you only looked at the thermometer before/after, would you be able to say exactly what your temp swing was?). This is my vote for a likely cause for decline.

You say your lights "are fine". Please quantify your lighting situation, along with tank size and other specifics. What kind of light (MH, T5, LED, PC), bulbs? (wattage, color, age), what kind of reflectors (individual?).

 

[OKCchief]

The color does look a little bleached. A lack of lighting possibly. How old is your tank? It still looks fairly young. I'd agree with buess0022 that you kicked up allot of junk when you went hunting for Blenny. BTW a dead fish can easily desolve overnight without any trace.

I wouldn't give up on your GBTA until his foot detaches. Ive seen some miraculous recoveries. Good luck and let us know how it works out!

 

[m758b033]

My BTA was healthy for a while then lost all of its tentacles and I thought I was going to lose it. However, over a week or two it regrew them and is starting to darken up again. Not saying it happens every time, but your could still turn around.

I agree with OKcchief that the tank looks really young, may have some parameters out of whack. You got reading on anything other than the nitrogens? Alk, mag?