Is my anemone sick or just doing it's thing?

[Croney82]

Hi all, Is this the usual behaviour of a BTA??

I changed 5% of my water yesterday, and i'm about to change a further 5% today but I noticed my anemone looking very small, and I'm worried about it!!

Any help would be appreciated!!!

Thanks Dan

 

[Croney82]

0

 

[RudeBoy]

You have quite a bit of Hair Algae... ho old is your tank and what are your water parameters??? Also, what kind of lighting do you have?

 

[BlackOnyx]

thats not a good looking anemone

 

[Croney82]

which params in particular?

 

[Croney82]

temp 24c/76f
ph 8.5
PO4 0.25
salinity 1.024
NO2 zero
NH3/NH4 zero
NO3 50 mg/l hasn't ever been this high!

 

[Croney82]

seems to be picking up a bit now

 

[Abysswater]

Your Ph is high!

 

[geekreef_05]

...well, you've got an obvious phosphate problem. Try some good water changes; maybe buy some more snails and get some phosphate remover!

For that BTA...feed him! And keep feeding him! Give him anything meaty to much on. Make sure your param's are steady too, any quick fluctuations will close him up real good.

 

[Zach117]

My BTA tends to look very similiar to your second picture. He will get very small usually once a week regardless what time of day it is. He seems to open fully the next day or later on so I have had no problem with him restoring. It is kind of scary but it seems normal from my experience.

 

[Croney82]

Thanks guys,I've fed him a piece of shrimp, and I'll replace the rowaphos in my external filter, I definitely need a bigger clean up crew, are crabs better than snails or is there no real difference in your opinion?

 

[Dubbin1]

One of the more important questions that nobody asked you is what kind of lighting do you have? How long has the tank been set up? How long have you had the anemone? IMO I would raise the temp a couple degrees.

 

[Croney82]

I have a juwel rio 240 tank with the standard 2x 38 W lighting system, one lamp is blue actinic, the other is white, they are on for ten hours a day, I also run low voltage "moon" lights, that I vary the brightness to follow the moons cycle.
The tank has been set up for over a eighteen months, however I have only owned it for about four months, the anemone has been in there for about three weeks, and seems to be alot happier now.

I have pulled out a load of hair algae, how much is good to have?

 

[BlackOnyx]

no crabs

 

[MrChico]

Does that mean that you have 76 watts over a 50 gal. system?

if so then that is your problem.

 

[a4twenty]

i have to agree with MrChico most aneneome need a fair amount of light. you could try moving him up in the tank, or adding more light would be better. also is that the first time you feed him in 3 weeks? i feed mine once a week (sometimes more with smaller portions)

to try and get you phosphates and nitrates down you could do a larger water change than 5% ( try 20 - 25% ) and keep plucking at that algea

 

[dhoch]

Let me third the statement about the lighting.

I'm guessing based on your statement you only have normal NO ligthing over that tank...

That anemone is going to have problems long term unless you get him/her some more light (look into HO flourscent or MH lighting to keep a creature like that long term).

Dave

 

[Fishfirst]

but don't just throw the mh on top of the tank and shock the heck out of him, keep the NO's and start with a half hour of mh first then increase it every two days by a half hour.

 

[Pandora]

While I totally agree on the lighting and the other things people have said here (including that you do may have enough of it, and that if you upgrade, you should do so slowly to avoid shocking it)... the shrinking down and expanding thing that they do in itself is not abnormal. They do this to exchange the fluids in their body and expel wastes. If they don't reexpand within a few hours, it usually means trouble, or if they do it too often, it indicates stress.

 

[Croney82]

thanks pandora
apparently he did it again today while i was at work, I'm already looking into MH lighting, is there anything i can do to minimise stress if that is what's happening?