How to nurse GBTA back to health

[jdizzle707]

Stupid Maroon Clown... Almost killed my GBTA. The anemone has been hiding deeper and deeper in the rocks to a point I couldn't see him anymore. With my water params in check, I cant think of anything else but the stupid maroon lowing it to death. Even caught him picking at the tentacles one time.

Anyhow, I decided to take apart my rock work and look for him. I found him shriveled up on the sand underneath all the rocks and he looked head. Instead of throwing him in the thrash, I put the poor thing in a small breeder container. He was in bad shape and I can't believe I almost threw him out. He is down on the sand where theres direct lighting, and now his tentacles started to expand again.

Anyone have any suggestions how to nurse this poor thing back to health? Nor sure if he can eat because he has a whole through him. He looks like a donut right now with a hole in the middle through the mouth. I think he was in the middle of splitting when the maroon got to him.

I picked up a GFO and Carbon media reactor today just in case he goes south. But so far he looks like he is fighting through.

 

[jdizzle707]

He looks a lot better today. Twice his size yesterday. How soon can I started feeding? He still has a hole through his body. Will he continue trying to split?

 

[jdizzle707]

Here are some photos I took last night.

Doesn't look good but a lot better than when I first found him on Sunday.

A photo with the hole through it

 

[Spazdad]

wow crazy

 

[jdizzle707]

Yeah you tell me. Did a 20% water change today. Hope he pulls through. Still nicely inflated albeit small before I did the water change.

 

[Mike31154]

Looks like you're on the right track and it should recover. My GBTA has been through quite a bit as well, including a similar event where it wandered behind and below the rockwork out of the light. Had to re aquascape to get back to a more favourable position. It also did a 'semi' split last year. At one point there was only a small thread holding the two parts together and then surprisingly it decided to abort and somehow put itself back together! They can be quite tough.

 

[reefer31]

I would try feeding it some small pieces of mysis/brine shimp and see how it reacts. I have been coaxing a GBTA back to normal health in a tank I maintain at work, I took over the maintenance from another company that was not doing their job . It was really tiny and all brown. With feedings once a week I have noticed a significant change in the size and color of the anemone.