My BTA is literary scared of the light...

[Stipe]

I purchased a green BTA a couple of months ago and in the same day he went on a walkabout. He went to the back of the rocks and now has stayed there for the past few months. He is still eating (i moved rocks to feed him), his mouth is closed, tenticles are normal. If i moved a rock that shaded him from the light he would move back into the darkness. He is also a agressive eater so nothign wrong there. I dotn get it. He is under 2x150watt MH and t-5 actinics. Everythign else is good, parameters are great. I cant seem to see the problem.

Also nothing else is bothering him.

Here is a picture from the first few weeks i had him. He went intro the rockwork and poked out here, but only for a day or two. THen he went back in.(photo taken with flash, he is actualy much brighter)

 

[nickterp]

Especially with corals and anemones, make sure right after you add them to the tank to slowly introduce them to your lighting. Start with an hour a day or something of your halides and slowly increase that.

The problem is that at the LFS the lighting may have been much weaker, so its a slight shock to get in your much better light.

The anemone looks pretty healthy in the picture. One thing I've seen suggested is to leave one halide off and one on, and slowly introduce the other one with increased time. (this might bring it out to a better position)

Or just wait until he gets used to the light. Its behavior seems pretty normal. Good luck!

 

[nickterp]

Well that hour a day to start off suggestion is mostly just appropriate if the LFS lighting was much weaker than yours.

If it wasn't then at least leave the strong lights off for the first few hours that your anemone is placed in the tank.

 

[Stipe]

No its not the shop. They just got in thier shipment so the only thing is that it was in total darkness for a day or two.

I cant do the one side of thing because both sides have some sps frags and other lps that need light.

He is slowly comming out now and about 1/5 of his body is out.

He was dripped for a few hours before i put him in the tank, by this time the lights where off and actinics on.

I hope he doesnt stay back thier forever .

 

[theop]

I am going through the same thing with my BTA. I found that he was shrinking down in response to my MH and kept moving down lower in the tank seeking shade.

It actually came from a LFS tank also with a 150W MH but theirs was 14K and mine was 10K (and I have some PC actinics).

What seems to be working for me is slowly building up the time the MH is on. I am up to 3 hours now. That may not be an option for you given the other corals you're supporting. I also am blocking some of the light to the BTA by placing a piece of cardboard on top of some egg crate in light path. Once I work up to a full 8hr of MH lighting, I'll slowly decrease the size of the cardboard until the anemone can tolerate full light.

 

[nickterp]

That sounds like a pretty good idea theop. Stipe if your anemone is slowly coming out, then I would not worry too much about him. You could try what theop did or just give it time to adjust.

Good luck!

 

[theop]

I read my post and realized I maybe wasn't very clear about what I am trying.

I have a piece of egg crate plastic on top of the tank (normally run open top). I have a piece of cardboard (about the size of a CD case) sitting on top of the eggcrate inbetween the bulb and where the anemone is. A good bit of light still gets to the BTA because of diffusion and the reflector but it cuts out the direct light. I have read of other people using window screen to acheive the same effect.

 

[Stipe]

I think its ok now, he is halfway out. I had to move like 1000000000 corals out of this way.