Lost a green BTA today :(

[ianjirka]

Looking for advice as to what I could have done differently. (I have 4 others in the tank, two RBTA, two rock anemones)

It looked Ok coming out of acclimation. First indication was it didn't want to stick to anything and kept climbing lower into my rock work.
After a few days, I noticed it was consuming its own tentacles, so I tried to supplement its diet every other day. It was at the bottom of the tank, but in a small spot of light. Not enough for a 'nem, but at least something.

I fed it a few days, then realized it wasn't consuming the food. After that I got more aggressive About getting a small bit of food into its mouth (it was not sticky at all at this point). I think I got one small pellet in, and it hid away the next two days, presumably digesting. When it came out again, it wouldn't accept any food.

Today it had scrunched up and the tentacles were basically gone. No response to food or me prodding it. Turns out its foot was not attached, or very weakly attached. At this point I took it out of the tank so it wouldn't die in there.

Anything I could have/should have done?

Other corals, fish and inverts are doing fine. Only change to the tank is my ca/alk demand outstripped what kalk could provide about a week before the 'nem came in, so am supplementing two part. As a result ca/alk haven't been very stable, though I have dosing pumps now which will help.

Thanks much,

Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, phos 0, sal 52.2us, temp 80-82.4, pH 8.3-8.5, alk 7.7, ca 380 (probes, red sea kits)

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[bradleym]

Between your signature and your parameters, the only thing I can suggest is that the next one should be placed on the sand and allowed to crawl upward. BTAs don't need alot of light, and it could have been shocked by your 3x250w setup, depending on what it had been under previously.

Barring that, I would guess that it was not a healthy specimen, since it wasn't sticky when you placed it in the tank. Any anemone that won't stick to you before you can set it down is less than 100% healthy. If you have a pic of it from when it was new, maybe you could post it?

 

[Korrine]

In just the few seconds it took me from getting mine from the acclimation bucket to the tank mine had mine hand. It stuck to the rock right away. So I would also venture to guess that it wasn't healthy to begin with.

I see your alk is 7.7. I don't know where you got your nem from, but some of my lrc keep theirs at about 10. I don't know how critical that would be for a nem to adjust to for sure. Just something I noticed. Some of my corals had a hard time going from their tank into mine. I believe it was that reason.

 

[taphil]

Maybe unhealthy specimen as mentioned above. I got a GBTA from a LFS, and within a week it had eaten most of its tentacles. I went to another LFS and got two rainbow BTAs, and when I got home the GBTA was dead. Took out the GBTA, put the two rainbow BTAs in the same place where the GBTA was, and both have since been happy and growing fast. Nothing changed in my tank during the one week span.