GBTA Split? Not sure. Pic intense

[ezhoops]

The other night I noticed my GBTA had moved from his rock to the overflow wall. It is a rather large GBTA, about 10-12" across when full. I've had it for about 2 months and it has never really been happy. It doesn't fully come out of the rock, it has moved a few times, etc. So, now when I see it on the overflow wall, I noticed it has 2 mouths and is a very weird shape. I'm not sure what it is doing or attempting to do. Maybe you can help. I have many pictures in a time lapse format.

Here goes:

This is picture 1 of Saturday Morning 1/8/2011 at 9:24am est

5 minutes later

5 mintues later

5 minutes later

notice that released some slime or bubbles or something on the water surface to the left.

another view
About 2 hours later:

You can cleary see in the photos that it has 2 mouths. For some reason in the next few pics it is holding on to the overflow teeth and it seems to be tearing. At one point you could see inside its mouth and it looked like it was torn up and shreded.

examples:

here are some examples of the hanging on and tearing

here is the picture of the open mouths and shredded insides.

I asure you the overflow is not forcing this, at this point had only 1 nano powerhead going and it was on the opposite side of the tank.

now for the latest: it is still on the wall, not sticky at all (never has been) I tried feeding it just to see and I think one mouth may have eaten but not certain.

Any ideas or theories as to what may be happening would be greatly appreciated.

Eric

 

[papa_dog]

I am not sure what your BTA is doing, but I can tell you that I had a RBTA with two mouths that I got in August. Mine settled in ok, but did eventually split into two in December and both the original RBTA and the clone seem happier than the original one.

If you can, you should post your water parameters (with numbers) as I just know someone is going to ask for them, and the more experienced people who can likely help you are going to want to see them to rule out the obvious. They will also want to know tank size and lighting type.

Cheers,
K.

 

[ezhoops]

Good Idea Papa Dog,

tank specs are listed on my signature and well.........params are 15% water changes like clock work every week. I'm an experienced BTA keeping (not sure what that means) I've kept BTA's before with some success. Had one in this tank prior to this one and it was fine, except for the fact that it like to jump overflow walls (since solved that problem)

 

[ezhoops]

Some more interesting pictures

Some more interesting pictures

Frankly after seeing how this thing looked torn and mangled, I am amazed it is still in one piece and even alive.

 

[ssavader]

I am not sure what is actually happening except to say that with two mouths it will almost certainly split if it survives. I would not try to feed it in this time of obvious stress. The energy needed to digest the food would be wasted at this point. I see you have the flow in the tank low- I agree to keep it this way until what-ever process is occurring is finished. Also, make sure you have fresh carbon in your filter to adsorb any "nasties" being produced, like the slime that you mentioned. Good Luck. Keep us posted.

 

[ezhoops]

now it seems to be non-affected and it looks somewhat symetrical??????? when I experiment and turn the flow back on and seems to inflate and look healthier. I'm clueless!!!

 

[ssavader]

I am not sure what is actually happening except to say that with two mouths it will almost certainly split if it survives. I would not try to feed it in this time of obvious stress. The energy needed to digest the food would be wasted at this point. I see you have the flow in the tank low- I agree to keep it this way until what-ever process is occurring is finished. Also, make sure you have fresh carbon in your filter to adsorb any "nasties" being produced, like the slime that you mentioned. Good Luck. Keep us posted.

 

[Sfork]

double post 30 mins apart ??

 

[jorgeldelapaz]

Look like it is splitting
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[Johndoe0336]

I never thought I would see a nem split from start to finish. cool video

 

[RoganTerrance]

Did the Gbta live

 

[ezhoops]

not sure I got frustrated with it constantly hiding and sold it off