Lighting for BTA's

[glenns]

I recently purchased a pair of Maroon clowns from my LFS. They appear to be doing well. While at the LFS, the female was hosting a small Rose BTA. I'm not sure it was a BTA. The tentacles looked longer than some of the pics I've seen. I was thinking of buying a larger green BTA, from him. Question is, can I put it at the bottom of my 90 with 5" DSB, under 6 T5 54W lights.

 

[Mike31154]

Your lighting set up will suffice for a BTA, although I'd aim to have it situated more towards the middle than at the bottom. Besides, the BTA may end up moving on you anyway if it doesn't like where you've placed it, so be prepared for that eventuality. From my experience, BTAs prefer a slight hollow in the rockwork for their foot. Other than one incident, during the over two years I've had my GBTA, it hasn't moved more than an inch or two. It's in a fair sized depression in a rock just under half way up. I run four T5 HO 54 watt lights for most of the day, switching to 2 x 250 watt MH during the mid day period. The MH lights are a relatively recent thing, I ran strictly T5s for at least two years with the BTA and it did fine. I do think it's doing better now with the MH addition, but the fact that I switched to RODI from treated tap water could also have a lot to do with that.

Another point to be aware of, especially with your DSB, if you have your anemone too low, your Maroon female is likely going to make a very large hole in the sand bed beneath it. Mine does this even though the anemone is close to 5 inches above the sand bed. She's taken my 4 inch sand bed down to bare bottom in one location. It's what they do, she will use her tail to fan the sand bed under the hosting anemone.

 

[glenns]

Thanks. I had a female that did that before I upgraded. She did not go all the way down, but did fan out a depression. Good thing is, that it's not pure sand. I have base rock burried in the sand to support the live rock.

I hope the GBTA doesn't move too much. I have a lot of pruning to do with my paly's.

 

[vwmike]

Yep, the only issue I had was getting my BTA to be in a viewable location. It loves to sit on the backside of a rock facing the back of the tank. My clowns are always hovering over it...

 

[Reeefer]

More than likely the BTA you choose will move from wherever you put it.

 

[CockyBrock]

yes...they like to move to do yourself a favor and protect it from any powerheads as mine bit the bullet when it moved...

 

[glenns]

Thanks for the info. Picked it up this afternoon. The female clown is already hosting in it. The LFS included the rock it was attached to. It had been on that rock awhile. Hopefully it will want to stay there. I'll post a pic when the lights come on.

BTW, I only have a tunze 6060 and Korillia 4, so if it does move, I hope that means it won't get pureed.

 

[glenns]

Here are some pics.

The GBTA did move. I guess the lights were too bright for it. The female is hosting. In the last few minutes, the male has made his way to the GBTA. There is some unsual behavior between him and the female. Not aggression. They have been rubbing up against one another.

Sorry about the dirty glass. I did not want to clean it and stop what they were doing.

 

[Big Country_IL]

I attempted to situate my green bta towards the middle of my 125 gallon tank, under 12 39Watt T-5s...it migrated itself into a cave on the backside of the tank...twice...before I saw what it was doing.

It is now towards the bottom, in the front, with its foot in a cave and most of the anemone in the top part of the lower half of the tank...mine seems to have done much the same as yours at first, but now shows most of itself.