New GBTA looks healthy but not attaching

[jgreen1025]

I picked up a very nice BTA last night - green tentacles with a rose-colored face. I have a nice piece of LR I've been saving for it which should be ideal - nice crevice area, about 2/3 up in the tank (lighting is 2 VHO and 2 NO), and moderate flow. When I first gently placed it into the crevice (after slowly acclimating it, of course) it appeared to kinda attach parts of the base and squirmed around a bit. But when I checked on it later it looked like it was drooping out. I gently pushed it back up to the top of the rock, but when I checked on it this morning it was on the sand behind the rocks, face down.

This is the first time I've tried an anemone, and I tried to do my homework beforehand but it appears healthy - the mouth is not slack and there are no tears or apparent damage on any of the tissue. The face is more or less inflated and the "body" of it kinda slowly squirms around. But it doesn't seem to be actively moving like I imagined it would. The clownfishes haven't bothered it at all, they seem contented with their surrogate xenia. Is this normal behavior for a new anemone? Should I try feeding it? Should I just try being patient, or is there anything I can do?

John

 

[55semireef]

Most healthy anemones would normaly grab on to the rocks or sand. In your case your BTA would grab onto a rock. Try putting it on a rock again close to the light.

How many watts/gallon do you have?

Try feeding once you put it on the rock.

Sorry about no one responding.

 

[finding nemo]

I to would try to feed it, it may be in shock from all of the moving around.
Give it time to settle in but make sure that your powerheads and filter intakes are covered in case it roams during the night.
Try turning your lights off also to give it some dark time.
Post a picture of it if you can.

 

[jgreen1025]

Thanks guys, but I think it's a lost cause. I've tried leaving it alone and I've tried giving it a nice crevice to attach to, but it doesn't stick very well - sometimes just a little at first but it eventually lets go. It's not like it's moving around searching for a better spot, it's movement consists of kinda folding and unfolding, but it usually ends up face down on the sand. I tried feeding it a whole krill, but it shrank away from it, so I chopped the krill up and made sure some of the small pieces ended up in the tentacles, but they didn't seem to try to move it to the mouth. I also tried some brine shrimp but again I'm not sure that it tried to eat it. I've also tried dark and light, but neither seems to stimulate it. (I've got 300w over a 50g tank, so it ought to be sufficient for a BTA). I'll post something over in Dr. Ron's new forum but if I don't see any improvement in the morning I think I'll take it back to the store and see if they'll at least give me a partial credit towards another.

John

 

[finding nemo]

Sorry to hear about this anemone. Before taking it back, do a water change, 30% is what I would try.
Then see how it does.
There is always hope for it and sometimes people pester them to death.
Give that a try first and then see what it does.

 

[sarahkucera]

Re: New GBTA looks healthy but not attaching

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7659559#post7659559 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jgreen1025
I picked up a very nice BTA last night - green tentacles with a rose-colored face. I have a nice piece of LR I've been saving for it which should be ideal - nice crevice area, about 2/3 up in the tank (lighting is 2 VHO and 2 NO), and moderate flow. When I first gently placed it into the crevice (after slowly acclimating it, of course) it appeared to kinda attach parts of the base and squirmed around a bit. But when I checked on it later it looked like it was drooping out. I gently pushed it back up to the top of the rock, but when I checked on it this morning it was on the sand behind the rocks, face down.

This is the first time I've tried an anemone, and I tried to do my homework beforehand but it appears healthy - the mouth is not slack and there are no tears or apparent damage on any of the tissue. The face is more or less inflated and the "body" of it kinda slowly squirms around. But it doesn't seem to be actively moving like I imagined it would. The clownfishes haven't bothered it at all, they seem contented with their surrogate xenia. Is this normal behavior for a new anemone? Should I try feeding it? Should I just try being patient, or is there anything I can do?

John

There is no sense in trying to "save" a spot on a rock for an anemone. An anemone will wander around until it finds a spot it's happy with.
It could be in shock. You didn't mention how you acclimated your new friend. Could it be that you rushed the acclimation period and put it in the new tank water before it was ready? I did a three hour drip acclimation with mine as I think that it what is reccomended.
Reading your sig it looks like you've got a 50 gallon tank with a lot of corals already in it.
It's very likely (but I'm only theorizing here) that the anemone started to wander during the night and it ran into one of your corals and got into a little bit of warfare and because it was already sort of shocked with the transfer it lost the war. The frogspawns in particular are known to be especially vicious stingers.

Also, when I put mine in the new tank it refused food until it found a nice happy spot. Now it eats in mere seconds. I just have to wave a piece of silversides in its general direction and it's reaching out to greedily grab it and eat it up. When your anemone is ready to eat, you will be able to tell. One day you will stick your hand in there with a little piece of silversides and it will stick to the nem like velcro and disappear!

Could you try righting the anemone and placing it inside of a plastic breeder separator thing and seeing if it rebounds? Getting a new house is a difficult thing and causes a lot of stress.

 

[55semireef]

Re: Re: New GBTA looks healthy but not attaching

Re: Re: New GBTA looks healthy but not attaching

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7664617#post7664617 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sarahkucera
There is no sense in trying to "save" a spot on a rock for an anemone. An anemone will wander around until it finds a spot it's happy with.
It could be in shock. You didn't mention how you acclimated your new friend. Could it be that you rushed the acclimation period and put it in the new tank water before it was ready? I did a three hour drip acclimation with mine as I think that it what is reccomended.
Reading your sig it looks like you've got a 50 gallon tank with a lot of corals already in it.
It's very likely (but I'm only theorizing here) that the anemone started to wander during the night and it ran into one of your corals and got into a little bit of warfare and because it was already sort of shocked with the transfer it lost the war. The frogspawns in particular are known to be especially vicious stingers.

Also, when I put mine in the new tank it refused food until it found a nice happy spot. Now it eats in mere seconds. I just have to wave a piece of silversides in its general direction and it's reaching out to greedily grab it and eat it up. When your anemone is ready to eat, you will be able to tell. One day you will stick your hand in there with a little piece of silversides and it will stick to the nem like velcro and disappear!

Could you try righting the anemone and placing it inside of a plastic breeder separator thing and seeing if it rebounds? Getting a new house is a difficult thing and causes a lot of stress.

Very well said. Adding on to what he said, do you run carbon in your tank?

 

[jgreen1025]

Re: Re: New GBTA looks healthy but not attaching

Re: Re: New GBTA looks healthy but not attaching

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7664617#post7664617 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sarahkucera
There is no sense in trying to "save" a spot on a rock for an anemone. An anemone will wander around until it finds a spot it's happy with.

After all the research I did this should have been an ideal spot for it - calcerous rock, good crevices, ideal light levels, moderate flow.

It could be in shock. You didn't mention how you acclimated your new friend. Could it be that you rushed the acclimation period and put it in the new tank water before it was ready? I did a three hour drip acclimation with mine as I think that it what is reccomended.

2 hour drip acclimation.

It's very likely (but I'm only theorizing here) that the anemone started to wander during the night and it ran into one of your corals and got into a little bit of warfare and because it was already sort of shocked with the transfer it lost the war. The frogspawns in particular are known to be especially vicious stingers.

Nope. Never attached, never wandered. In retrospect, I don't think it really was healthy - it wasn't attached in the store's tank, and they'd only picked it up the prior day. It didn't even last 2 days after I got it. I should have been patient enough to put down a deposit on it and waited a week to ensure it was healthy. I've also asked Dr. Ron and he says anemones have an especially hard time with alleopathy (yes, I do have carbon that I change weekly and I do weekly water changes), so I think I'll wait till I change out some of the especially noxious soft corals in my tank before I try again - IF I try again. I'm so disappointed over this one that I think I'll just leave the clowns to the xenia they've adopted.

But thanks for all your helpful comments - I appreciate your efforts to help.

John

 

[sarahkucera]

I thought the same thing when I put my new RBTA in my tank.
It came attached to the rock that it had chosen in it's previous tank. It was a split from another reefer, so it had plenty of time to get nice and happy on the rock that it was on. I placed it in the center of the tank in moderate flow about 2/3 of the way up. It still wandered around for a couple of days.

But I'm sure that it didn't help that it wasn't a good specimen to start with.

Better luck next time.