Gbta stretching, looks like its splitting then balls up

[Centennialnoob]

Hello,
I'm sure this has been answered before but I wanted to get my first post in and thought this would be a good way to do it. I have a fairly new Gbta (2weeks now) in my newly cycled aquarium. I know that I should have waited now but when we bought it my wife and I figured the tank is cycled lets throw some stuff in there. We also have two typical orange clowns (sorry but the official name is not coming to mind), a dragonet, a Sally light foot, 3 hermit crabs, a green birds nest, and a snail. I test twice a week and everything has been fine with a small ammonia jump which I took care of with a water change. We also have live sane in both ref. and main tank, live rock in main tank, spaghetti algae in the ref.... All in all a pretty sweet set up IMHO. What I'm not sure of is the bta's behavior. The first few days in the tank it had an open mouth and was deflated. A few days later it grew 4 times the original size, was looking good, and the bubbles were inflated. Since it moved though, it looks like it is going to split. You can see the foot underneath the rock extending to the rock sitting next to it, the mouth is closed but the tips are flat again. Also, at night it sucks itself back down to a quarter sized red ball and has sickly looking tentacles. It has it's full color but I'm not sure if it's stretching because something is wrong or because something's right. Any advice is welcome! Except for the justified lecture that we stocked it too soon..... I know that but so far so good...everything seems to be doing really well!

 

[Centennialnoob]

Hello,
I'm sure this has been answered before but I wanted to get my first post in and thought this would be a good way to do it. I have a fairly new Gbta (2weeks now) in my newly cycled aquarium. I know that I should have waited now but when we bought it my wife and I figured the tank is cycled lets throw some stuff in there. We also have two typical orange clowns (sorry but the official name is not coming to mind), a dragonet, a Sally light foot, 3 hermit crabs, a green birds nest, and a snail. I test twice a week and everything has been fine with a small ammonia jump which I took care of with a water change. We also have live sane in both ref. and main tank, live rock in main tank, spaghetti algae in the ref.... All in all a pretty sweet set up IMHO. What I'm not sure of is the bta's behavior. The first few days in the tank it had an open mouth and was deflated. A few days later it grew 4 times the original size, was looking good, and the bubbles were inflated. Since it moved though, it looks like it is going to split. You can see the foot underneath the rock extending to the rock sitting next to it, the mouth is closed but the tips are flat again. Also, at night it sucks itself back down to a quarter sized red ball and has sickly looking tentacles. It has it's full color but I'm not sure if it's stretching because something is wrong or because something's right. Any advice is welcome! Except for the justified lecture that we stocked it too soon..... I know that but so far so good...everything seems to be doing really well!

 

[Centennialnoob]

another pic

 

[surferboi2113]

Cool looking set up. What lights do you have on it? flow? Also, IME, BTAs are almost bullet proof almost pest like in some instances, but the birds nest i'd be worried about a little more. The moving around and the inflating and deflating could be because its adjusting to its new home, but its could also very well be because its unhappy. My first BTA did that for about 2 days, open mouth deflated at night, my tank was about 5 months old, but soon it found a spot to settle and is still happy to this day. It still deflates a tiny bit at night/bubbles go away, but not like the pics you posted.

Honestly mate, hate to be that guy, but if it doesn't seem "normal" in a few more days, i'd take them back and wait a little while longer. No harm in that.

 

[Centennialnoob]

Thanks! This its the first aquarium I've owned so its been an interesting and not exactly easy process. The birds nest is doing well...we've only had in there a few days but its keeping color and hasn't died yet. What's strange about the bta is that when the lights turn on in the morning (they are on a timer) it looks good. Here are three more pics.

 

[sanababit]

Anemones tend to inflate when light come on to suck up the light and at night they deflate to rest i guess, my anemone did that all the time, unless you see your anemone loose color then everything is OK, feed it once in a while, let the clownfish host it, it may meep moving till it finds a sweet spot in your tank with enough flow and enough light to keep it happy, good luck

Sana

 

[Centennialnoob]

Thanks for the advice. I've been feeding it every other day but I'm starting to think that's to much. Do they always vary in size? I've seen him twice the size he is now and ours tentacles were also longer. The clowns won't go near it. They do wander throughout the tank but avoid the bta.

 

[risin]

I have a GBTA that is now 6 GBTAs going on 4 years. The first picture looks bad, but the more recent ones look ok to me. Biggest indicator of health is their mouth, if it's gaping, it's either splitting or dieing in my experience. I almost removed mine the first time it split cause it literally rips itself in half. Not nearly as graceful as a mushroom anemone splitting.

 

[Centennialnoob]

I thought the first pic looked bad too but this is a nightly routine. After I first posted this though it has stopped getting as big and the tentacles are no where near as long..I also have a problem with low ph, high nitrates, and brown algae now...when it rains it pours...lol

 

[blanden.adam]

All of these things are entirely expected with new tanks my friend. To run through the causes:

low pH: almost always excess CO2. Try opening a window and increasing surface aeration in the tank. Also test alkalinity just to be sure it isn't incredibly low.

High nitrates: Overfeeding or underfiltering. Do some water changes and really watch how much you feed, no more than the fish will eat in about 2 minutes if you feed twice a day, 4 minutes if you feed once. Also, re-evaluate your filtration to see if it's sufficient. Do you have a sump, are you running a skimmer etc. (as a side note, a skimmer will also help with aeration )

Brown Algae: In all likelihood it's the diatom bloom. Every new tank goes through it because of an excess of silicates from all the new equipment in the tank. Vacuum it off the sand, blast it off the rocks, control your nitrates, and run some GFO. GFO not only binds phosphates to help control algae in general, it also binds silicates to decrease the length of the diatom bloom.

Good luck!

 

[Centennialnoob]

I'm running a sump and I have a powerhead helping with the aeration via an attachment tube plugged into the output. I also have a skimmer. I did notice that the red algae has been growing pretty quickly too..... and.... I just googled diatom and say that phytoplankton is In that group. I have been adding a bit of dried phytoplankton as a treat and now I'm wondering if that caused the "brown" algae growth.... It hasn't gone away. I've done two water changes in the past two weeks (10% each time) and vacuumed the sand but it came back with a vengeance. Also, Is it normal for the red algae to grow on one of my turbo snails?

 

[browning_boy20]

The bta is probably going to be ok but be sure to keep an eye on that dragonet so when it dies you can get it out before it fouls up the water.

 

[aydemir]

I honestly would be more worried about the dragonet atm, what do u feed it? Also, the bta expanding and contracting is usually how the get rid of the water inside themselves.