GBTA won't eat.

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

I have a green BTA it was eating raw table shrimp every other day. Now it doesn't want to eat anything. I thought maybe it would like silversides...So we tried giving it silversides a few times and still it won't take it. Maybe it prefers the shrimp, my pink skunk clown wouldn't go anywhere near the GBTA untill I removed the silverside. My husband thinks maybe its getting enough light ..so it is not getting hungry. I've been told to feed my BTA at least once a week. Its been two weeks and it still doesn't want any food. It hasn't lost any color. Maybe the reason it isn't eating.. because there isn't much current back there? I don't know..what do you guys think?

 

[guido_kp]

sometimes, mine gets in a funk and is reluctant to eat. so i wait a little while, and try again that same night. it seems particular about the size of the food also. too big, and it just lets the food float away. sometimes, i will load up a syringe with mysis and gently blow it on its tentacles. it always eats mysis for some reason, even if it refuses the silverside. if its not losing body mass, color, gaping mouth, etc then i would just watch it closely and try to feed again in a day or two. if it wasnt happy where it was located, it would probably move.

 

[phender]

If it was eating and now its not, that is usually a sign that something is wrong water quality wise. See if a water change helps and use or change your carbon. Polyfilters have also worked well for me to get anemones out of a funk.

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

I don't think its the water quality. We used three different test kits, ours at home and two others at the lfs. All tests showed that our tank is where it should be. I sent an email to karen and she says my anemone looks healthy and she also said I should just keep trying to feed it. She thinks that maybe it is getting food from what ever is in my tank or when ever I feed the fish. We are going to keep trying to feed it. Maybe we aren't picking the right time in the day or we should try feeding at night.

It went from this..




to this...

Some thing else I want to know about..My husband was feeding shrimp soaked in garlic extreme.. I told him not to do that..fish love it but I have no idea what it could do to an anemone..maybe thats why it stopped eating.. Maybe feeding it garlic made it sick ..Can feeding a BTA shrimp soaked in garlic juice make it sick?

 

[Reefbox]

It look happy to me.

Feed the other fish then about 15 minutes later look and see if the anemone's mouth is opened up. If it is open then feed him.

 

[phender]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10485551#post10485551 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wicked_NaCl_h2o
I don't think its the water quality. We used three different test kits, ours at home and two others at the lfs. All tests showed that our tank is where it should be.

Did you test for dissolved organic carbon? Did you test for heavy metals like iron or zinc. There are lots of things that accumulate in our aquarium water that we don't normally test for that have detrimental effects on anemones. That is why I recommended a water change and addition of some chemical fitration.

I don't have any evidence that garlic is bad for anemones, but since they are very simple creatures, I would not soak the anemone's food in it.

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

Thanks Phender, We change our carbon filter when needed and we also have a seachem purigen filter that removes soluble and insoluble impurities from the water. The anemone is looking a lot better today..I am going to try to feed it again. If it still doesn't eat I will go to the lfs and get some mysis. Even if thats not a good diet for the anemone..if I can get it to eat that..great..some thing better than nothing. Oh and we also use RO water for top offs.

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

I got fed up with the bta being in the back of the tank..so I moved all the rock work and now it is facing the front of the tank.. its mouth was all open ..not swollen..just open..maybe it was angry..I don't care..now I can see it and feed it without worrying is the food going to float away if it doesn't grab it.
First I put the food on its tentacles...the tentacles wouldn't grab it
Then I put the food on its mouth..still wouldn't grab it..maybe it is too weak to grab it?
It did act like it wanted the food..because its mouth got all big when the food got close to it...so I pushed it into the bta's mouth and ..Finally!..it started to slowly pull the food into its mouth. Here is the pictures.


That is a piece of raw shrimp in its mouth.



Now my skunk is back to hosting the bta and the bta's mouth is shrinking back to normal size.
I am glad I moved every thing my gbta lost a bit of its color and size being in the back of the tank.

 

[Mikigo]

Yeah, Sometimes it takes tough love to make them thrive. Good luck.

 

[Mr Stomato]

I've had my LTA now for hmmm, 7-8 months. I got it for like $10 because it was rolling around on the bottom of an LFS tank. It went a solid month without footing on anything in my tank. Last week was the first time it would take food. So it went without direct feeding from me about 6 months. It's also triple the size it was when I got it. My maroon clowns are great feeders, I've seen them pickup dead hermits and krill pieces and deliver them to my nems. But I have tried to feed my LTA and to no avail it would not feed. I wouldn't sweat your nem, it will eat when it's ready. I would wait a week and try, wait another week and try, and so on.

As a side note, when my Niger trigger died I found him stuffed into my gbta thanks to my female clown Cloie, but if my Niger was small and my bta had consumed it fully, I would have had no idea. Sometimes things take care of themselves if there is a good symbiotic relationship going on.