Need some input on my new gbta!

Rippinfrags

Active member
Just picked up my first anemone yesterday! Acclimated it to my tank for roughly forty five minutes and placed it in my seventy five gallon tank. The nem immediately attached and began to open up! All last night and this morning when the led stunner strips were on the nem looked fantastic,but as soon as my main light came on (150 watt metal halide) the nem began to bring it's bubble tips in! That's when I noticed it had two mouths. Is this normal? I decided to turn off my main lights after about two hours of having them on, the nem seemed to look worse and worse! I proceeded to keep my LEDs on, just watch the nem and hope to see some improvement. Sure enough around noon the nem started to look better and now it looks like it's back to 100%! Not sure what's up, I'm hoping the nem is just having a tough time acclimating to my mh lighting. I purchased it from a local lfs that had it under led lighting only. What do you think, is my lighting the sole cause of the nem acting really weird? I will try and post a couple pics of the nem shortly.
 
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The pics are way too blurry and oversaturated to tell much about the condition of the anemone, but it does appear to have 2 mouths. BTAs usually look a complete mess when splitting, so it may be ok. Is your light just a single 150 MH or multiple MHs?
 
I thought the pics were pretty good, as far as actual representation, they were taken from my droid though. Sorry it's the best I can do right now. There is just one 150 watt mh over the left side of the tank, where the nem is located.
 
I thought the pics were pretty good, as far as actual representation, they were taken from my droid though. Sorry it's the best I can do right now. There is just one 150 watt mh over the left side of the tank, where the nem is located.

Yea, seem pretty good quality pics for me as well. I think he has the actinics on in the first pic, that's why it might seem overly saturated?

Cool looking BTA by the way :thumbsup:
 
I thought the pics were pretty good, as far as actual representation, they were taken from my droid though. Sorry it's the best I can do right now. There is just one 150 watt mh over the left side of the tank, where the nem is located.

Oops! My phone did it. They look great now, sorry.

The color is a touch transparent, which may darken up over time, but otherwise it looks healthy and well-colored. I keep mine under 250w and 400w MHs so you shouldn't have too much trouble with your lights.
 
Oops! My phone did it. They look great now, sorry.

The color is a touch transparent, which may darken up over time, but otherwise it looks healthy and well-colored. I keep mine under 250w and 400w MHs so you shouldn't have too much trouble with your lights.

Oh no worries at all. That's what I figured about the lights, especially because the nem is on the bottom of the tank a good 20 to 24 inches from the light. However as soon as the lights turned on it started to suckin and release a brown sludge looking material, probably poop. It got worse and worse, eventually it was completely sucked in. Then it came out, looked bad for a while and then completely made a 100 percent turn around. How long should I run my lights tomorrow? 2 hours like today or should I bump it up a little bit?
 
I would suggest giving it a week for each photo period length. Or, to be honest, you could probably turn them all the way back to normal. BTAs are pretty hardy, and will usually just move to a shady spot if the light's too bright. But one change a week is ideal if you want to do it right.
 
Thanks again! I will slowly extend the light period weekly like you suggest. I have another question I forgot to ask. I currently have a pair of oscelaris clownfish in qt that are ready to be added to the dt. I know the bta nem is not the nem that they naturally host in, but my luck they would find it the first day and love it to Death! Should i wait a couple of days before I add the pair?
 
Thanks again! I will slowly extend the light period weekly like you suggest. I have another question I forgot to ask. I currently have a pair of oscelaris clownfish in qt that are ready to be added to the dt. I know the bta nem is not the nem that they naturally host in, but my luck they would find it the first day and love it to Death! Should i wait a couple of days before I add the pair?

The key is not so much time, but size. Your nem should be at least 3 times the size of the larger clownfish. So if your female is 3 inches, the nem should be 9 or more inches across.
 
The key is not so much time, but size. Your nem should be at least 3 times the size of the larger clownfish. So if your female is 3 inches, the nem should be 9 or more inches across.

My female is probably two to two and a half inches long. The anemone at best is 4 to six inches when fully open! So I guess I better wait a little while before I add the clown's. Thanks again bradleym for the input. I will keep you updated on my nems progress!
 
I thought I would give an update of my nems progress this morning! So far so good, I woke up and the nem is looking great! I was so excited I snapped a few pictures. The picture I took is with just the LEDs on. Even though the nem was looking really good, I was nervous te see what happened when the main light came on. However, to my surprise the nem acted like nothing had changed when the main light came on! The nem must just of had to go to the restroom at the exact same time the mh light came on. I decided to extend the mh lighting from two to four hours and will stay at four hours for at least a week. I dont want my sps to get to angry with me. Here is the pic:
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