New BTA hiding for 4 days

[D_Rock]

Hello,

I bought my first BTA on Saturday. It was beautiful when I got it. I acclimated him and placed him near the sand bed bed with rocks. It quickly retreated to a cave where it has been for 4 days with out direct light.

It shrivels a lot and then inflates. His mouth has been protruding and just does not look good. This does not seem like healthy behavior to me but I am no expert!

I reached out to LFS and he recommended trying to feed it as he said he fed it a lot. It ate a lot yesterday but continued its behavior today.

Do I attempt to get him in the light or just leave it be?

When do I know it needs to come out before it poisons the tank?

The Set Up:
55 gallon
Us orbit IC LED Full spectrum lighting
2 power heads
Bubble Magus c-35 protein skimmer
Twist UV Sterilizer

Whats in the tank:
5 Chromis
Clove Polyp
Zoa
Toadstool Leather Mushroom
Bubble Coral

Paramaters:
0 amonia
0 nitrite
10ppm Nitrate
1.025 Salinity

 

[humphreyhh]

It always not a good sign for anemone hiding that long. 4 days sounds long to me at least since mine never hid even when they were just introduced into my tank. Something must be irritating it.

As for when to take it out, it's hard when it is hiding. If you can get it out of water then if it has some rotten fishy smell then it's definitely dying. If it's fresh kind if ocean smell then he is still fine.

Hope everything goes well with your anemone.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

 

[D_Rock]

Thank you humphreynh. It is real strange because he has moments of brilliance. Last night it looked completely normal just still out of the light. Than this morning looked very small and mouth protruding again. It still has a strong foot hold and does not show any signs of rotting flesh or anything.

 

[MurphyLong]

Thank you humphreynh. It is real strange because he has moments of brilliance. Last night it looked completely normal just still out of the light. Than this morning looked very small and mouth protruding again. It still has a strong foot hold and does not show any signs of rotting flesh or anything.

When I bought a RBTA from my LFS a few weeks back, I put him where I thought he might be happy... Of course, I was wrong. Overnight, he made his way into a cluster of montipora shelves and stayed there for over a week. I ended up moving that rock into an area with more flow and it scooted back out, and now seems to not hide from the light so much. I know they don't have brains, but it sure seems like he was just acclimating himself to my lights, because now it is hanging off the side, all inflated and looking good. Maybe just give him time, you don't have to directly feed them.