lta need help ? picture added

[camaroboy8691]

so i have a pretty big lta now for a few months . and it has detached from the rock . and just sitting on the bottom of the tank i have left him go now for the past week just seeing what he is gonna do . but today i got curious . i lifted him up to see if he was ok . well he looks very happy . but on the side of him it looks like he might be starting to split ? im not sure or a hermit crab got on him and started to eat him . but where the spot is it almost look like little tentacles coming out .



what should i do ?

thanks

 

[mhosts]

LTA's tend to want to stay along the sand / lower rockwork. So I'd say that is ok.

As for splitting, LTA's don't split in captivity...

Do you have a PIC?

 

[camaroboy8691]

thanks for the quik reply . ill try to snap a pic . right now he is just kinda sitting on the bottom of the tank .

 

[camaroboy8691]

here is a pic . should be easy to tell how im holding it . the left side is the foot . the right is the tentacles . the spot im talking about is right on its side

 

[davocean]

That does not look good at all.
I'd keep an eye, as it may be melting.
The fact is was on rocks could mean light was not strong enough maybe, they definitely prefer sand.
Need specs/params and time running, looks like you just joined, is that tank fairly new?
And agree, LTA's don't split.

 

[Toddrtrex]

I agree with "davocean" about needing specs --- I have never had an LTA that stayed all the rocks, always in the sand.

From that picture it doesn't look too good at all. IME, damage to the foot has always been fatal to LTAs.

 

[camaroboy8691]

That does not look good at all.
I'd keep an eye, as it may be melting.
The fact is was on rocks could mean light was not strong enough maybe, they definitely prefer sand.
Need specs/params and time running, looks like you just joined, is that tank fairly new?
And agree, LTA's don't split.

yes i did just join , i used to hang out on another forum till i found reef central then decided to come here to since it seems alot more active . which is awsome so i dont need to wait a day to get a question answered .

but the tank is a 70 gal with sump fug combo . i have about 70 lbs of live rock up top and 10 down stairs in the fuge . but the rock came from the lfs and was cured didnt put any dead rock in it . but it cycled very quick about 2 weeks .

so far this tank has been running for just about 5 months . the lta was in there for gosh about 2 months already . yes i know from what i read alot of people dont like to see them in there for atleast 6 months but i was going on advice from the local fish store . but he was doing fine i was feeding him silver sides and then last week when he decided to move i couldnt feed him and alot of guys say dont touch them becuase it cuases stress so i didnt feed him for a week . but the top of him looks fine its just that side .


im checking water params tonight so i will post that up .


i hope its nothing serious . everything else is doing very well in the tank . water params never spiked since then went to 0

my only thought is since i have about 20 hermits in there 1 of them decided to try lta for dinner .

ill post up new water specs tonight . but they should be ok last time i checked 3 days ago everything was in line and spec so we will see

 

[davocean]

I used to ignore other peeps comments on feeding silvers, since I did w/ my first LTA all the time, but it was massive for an LTA, and maybe that made it easier to digest or something, not sure.
Recently I had 2 smaller LTA's, fed them silvers, and watched turn inside out, release, and just melt.
I have seen this posted by several others as well.
Not exactly sure why, bones, or bad batch of silvers, or what, but I'm SO over feeding silvers now.
They just don't need that much food anyway as long as you have good light.
Not even sure thats your prob, could be many things, but I agree, what we are looking at now usually doesn't recover.

 

[Toddrtrex]

I used to ignore other peeps comments on feeding silvers, since I did w/ my first LTA all the time, but it was massive for an LTA, and maybe that made it easier to digest or something, not sure.
Recently I had 2 smaller LTA's, fed them silvers, and watched turn inside out, release, and just melt.
I have seen this posted by several others as well.
Not exactly sure why, bones, or bad batch of silvers, or what, but I'm SO over feeding silvers now.
They just don't need that much food anyway as long as you have good light.
Not even sure thats your prob, could be many things, but I agree, what we are looking at now usually doesn't recover.

I had the same issue about a year and a half ago with silversides, and I feel that is the reason I lost a H malu. Was fine, all settled in, fed it a silverside, and the next morning it was all inside out. When I feed, which is about once a month I only use krill.

 

[coralreefer80]

I read the same thing about silvers, so I only feed my GBTA formlua one 2 times a week and it loves it.