I am Clueless and Naughty: Want a BTA Update?

[monicaswizzle]

I added a beautiful 6" BTA to my 90 gallon tank on Friday (7/19). It continues to be beautiful and totally baffeling. It is very capable of clinging to the substrate in a strong current. While the MH's are on it does so. Once they go off, so does it. When I checked last night at 2am it was free floating around the tank in the alternating currents from my pumps and powerheads and wavemaker. About 1/2 the time it was not in contact with any substrate. The other half it was slamming into LR and sliding across the DSB with very little attempt to "do" anything in particular. Oh, and it had its tents inflated in a very healthy looking way and still looks georgeous.

So, people who probably know had advised me not to add my clownfishes until 2 or more weeks from now. I hadn't asked, but I assumed that might include my porcelain anemone crab that I actully bought two wees ago and which lives in the sump to avoid problems with my emerald crabs since it has/had no anemone.

Good advice to the winds, I saw my porcelain anemone crab standing out on the sump DSB and said, what difference could it possibly make if I add it now or let it go back into the LR for who knows how long before I see it again? So, I added the crab to the display. The BTA was "grounded" at the time and the crab latched on and is still clinging on. Most of the rest of the night the crab was on a "magic carpet ride" as the BTA soared about the tank.

I did offer the BTA a small piece of food during the time it was grounded. It put it in its mouth! For the next half hour or so it soared about the tank with the small piece of shrimp alternately completely engorged and hanging out of the mouth a fraction after particularly nasty "bumps" with the LR. Eventually it "ate it", unless it fell out sometime when I wasn't looking.

Last naughty--I did add the smallest of the two juevenile ocellaris that I have in QT. People here had said wait. Drs F&S say "The addition of a clownfish to the aquarium will immediately help with acclimation.". I said, how can it hurt? I will remove it if it makes things worse.

Currently (ever since the MH came on) the BTA is back in "it's corner" (daylight spot) lying on the DSB. The crab is still on it. The clown has looked, but not touched. I am tired.

 

[E.J. Coral]

I hate to break the news to you, but a BTA in the sand or floating around is not healthy. The only times that I have seen that behavior, the animal has died. Can you give a rundown of the tank parameters, inhabitants, age, and equipment...

 

[awestruck]

I would check to see if it's getting too much current. Also, is there anything near it that could be fighting with it? Clowns and nems don't always get together, and when they do it can be a matter of minutes or months.

 

[monicaswizzle]

Hmm... I was typing and it is gone. Sorry if I double post.

Thanks for the interest.

Tank is 18 months old, but has morphed some in size and configuration. Current display (90) and sump (50) combo is about 9 months old.

Residents--VERY few corals (maybe 6), all small since I only buy aquacultured. Only exception is a fist sized hunk of Acropora that is about 15 months with me, the oldest (surviving) coral in my little tank of death. Clams--4, 3 of which came with the BTA.
Fish--Three very small hippo tangs (I know, shoot me, but since I also already own the 180 that they will grow old in I am willing to fight the tang police.), one coral beauty and the Clown that I just added. Clean up crew is pretty "normal". Three feather dusters. More hair algae than any respectable RC member would admit to.

Lighting--450 W MH at 16,000K, plus NO for sump and some moonlights.

Water flow--Slow return, I forget maybe 400 gph. Five Koralia, two run 24 7 and three are syched to a wavemaker. Total average flow (Koralia only) is 2,300 gph, give or take.

Nitrite--undetectable, Nitrate between 5 and 10, pH 8.3, Kalk 13, Temp varies from 79 to 81. What else would you like to know?

How do I check to see about too much current? For periods as long as three hours it has sat on a LR (BTA choice, not mine) about four inches from the 24/7 koralia that is 850 gph without doing any releasing of the substrate. Some of the time I have turned off everything except the return and--surprise--it doesn't spend much time in the water column then. When I turn everything back on it has spent as many as 10 hours in one spot and has spent lots of hours flying around the tank as if it had no ability to hold onto anything. It mostly moves into the water column at night when the MH is off and sump light is on.

Also, I am pretty sure that it is in the process of splitting, but the hundreds of questions I have posted about that don't get much by way of consistent and supoortive replies. After reviewing Marc's photo journal on Melev's Reef I believe it is doing a split that is similar to the multi day process he describes. It is certainly not doing any 2-hour split.

It has eaten one of the three pieces of shrimp I have offerred. Grabed another very aggressively and then dropped it and didn't try to get it again. Most (65%?) of the time the tents are nicely inflated with typical BTA tips. I would try to feed it again, but it is currently folded "in half" with a foot on each side and the mouth in the middle of the ball. This two footed business is one of the reasons why I believe it might be splitting.

OK, enough from me. If you have ideas or suggestions, I am all ears.

 

[monicaswizzle]

Me again. Right after posting that I saw something that I haven't seen before with the BTA. It was touching my Acropora specimen. (other than flying past in the water column, it is the first I have seen it within less than 2 feet of the Acropora. As I watched the BTA pulled the three of its tents that were laying on the Acropora polyps off and "disengaged". The tents took small bits of Acropora tissue with them. Now the BTA is back to one of the odder things it does. It is nicely inflated and touching the substrate only with a small part of its "side" (think tread of a tire if the mouth is at the hubcap). It is rolling around the tank very much like a tire, sometimes with the current and sometimes against it, or at least across the current.

Are my Acropora and BTA incompatible even if 3 feet apart???

 

[hansonfam]

Are you sure you have a bta? It almost sounds like a lta as they take a little more coaxing at times to settle in. Both my lta's were fairly esy to get them to plant but i have read others that were not so easy.

Do you have a pic?

LIsa

 

[E.J. Coral]

Not possible to have too much flow for a BTA, but for an LTA, maybe. Pics would help ... you might have an LTA .....

Have you tried to turn off the pumps for a a few hours? It helps when you first introduce sand dwelling anemones ...

What type of substrate do you have?

 

[monicaswizzle]

No pic.

I bought it from Dr F&S out of the Diver's Den and it was clearly labeled as one, looked like one, and still does.

I am not an Anemone expert (duh!), but I am a biologist and I would say it is 100% BTA unless I am a very bad biologist.

Yes, I have turned the pumps off every now and again for various periods. I think they were off about three hours after I first put it in the tank. Another five or so when I got totally worried at one point.

Substate is about 4 to 6 inches of "sugar" sand. Maybe 30 to 40 pounds (minimal) of homemade LR. Another 20 or less of "real" LR rubble. When not active, the BTA seems to like the LR rubble almost as much/often as it likes a certain corner of the DSB that has about three chuncks of rubble and the edge of the tank. One foot on each. (the tank and the rubble).

In another post someone talked of sponges and BTA alleopathy. I have a red ball sponge in the sump (of the BTA display). I have turned off the return pump, started to use carbon and am mid water change of a 50% . So far the BTA looks as healthy as ever (which is pretty damn healthy) and is still spending about 25% of the time in rapid/free float movement.

 

[E.J. Coral]

I doubt that alleopathy would have such a drastic and immediate effect, but I could be wrong. My guess is that you got an unhealthy specimen, sorry to say. What's your salinity and how did you acclimate it? Are you running carbon?

If it is alleopathy, removal of the sponge, massive water changes, and carbon would nip the problem in the bud ....

What color is it ... is the mouth open or closed ... it won't take food, but is it sticky to touch?

OT: what type of biologist are you?