New BTA, is it OK ?

[Tokyo]

I bought a BTA two days ago and this evening noticed the mouth is white and looks puffed up. Almost translucent in the centre, is it OK ?

As soon as I put it in it moved around to the end of the tank and wedged itself under a rock, away from the light and any flow.

 

[BigCountry74]

give it a few more days. it's adjusting to your water/tank. do not move it, it will find its own spot.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Need more info. Water params, tank size, lighting...

 

[Tokyo]

Hi there

Tank is a 120x60x50 established 16mths.
Two MP40's an 3x Aqua Illumination LEDs.

sg 1.027
PO4, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite - undetectable
Ph 8.1
Kh 7.5
Ca 420
Mg 1260


I asked because of the way the mouth looked, wasn't sure if that was normal ?
Looked a bit sickly and I read the mouth should be closed.

I acclimatised for around 2hrs and have completely left it alone. Just moved the corals out the way of it's path.

Had a small outbreak of purple slim since its' gone in though so wondering if my params are rally OK. I did increase the power on the lighting before it went in, and reduced the flow as the flow from the Vortechs was very strong. Since adjusted the power and position and left everything to settle. Don't want to keep changing the settings or the nem will never be happy.

 

[garygb]

Your parameters look okay and so does the anemone. During acclimation your anemone will deflate, may have a open mouth, etc. It's part of the acclimation process often times.

 

[Gyr]

Hmmm, not sure about this, but I wonder if it is going to split. I recall reading a thread several years ago where a new BTA split a few days after going into a guy's tank. It wasn't a large BTA and the guy who posted the thread suspected the stress from the move caused the split. I followed that thread for a while and both 'clones' did well. My BTA has never split, so I don't have any first hand experience, but I kind of remember that in the pre-split photo the guy showed of his new nem it had a mouth that kind of looked like yours. I am sure others who have had nems split could say if that is what they look like (I suspect there are a few photo logs of splitting BTA's on this forum somewhere).
From my little experience, all I can suggest is to maintain the great water parameters you have, leave the nem alone and hope for the best. It is a beautiful color, by the way.
Good luck,
Kurt

 

[Tokyo]

Thanks for the replies.

I'll do a search and see how it compares to one that's about to split. Hopefully it wasn't stressed too much.

It looked fantastic in the shop BTW, great colour and full bubble tips. Hopefully I can get it back to the same standard in time.

Cheers,