Purple Foot BTA Foot Torn???

[ThePurple12]

Hello everyone.
On Friday I got a Purple Foot BTA. It is being weird. It is halfway attached to a rock. The other half is facedown in the sandbed. It has been there since Saturday. Why isn't it moving??? IMO it doesn't look like a comfortable position for a BTA.
It looks like its foot has been split in half. Is this what a healthy BTA foot looks like? Pics attached.

Also, this is off-topic, but I have two clowns: Ocellaris (since tank was set up) and Platinum Percula (bought it in February). They are about the same size. I'm pretty sure that the ocellaris is a female, because she was by herself in the tank for a couple weeks. Ever since I put the Platinum Percula in the tank, it has been aggressively chased by the Ocellaris. In the pictures you can see that its tail has a chunk missing from Ocellaris bites. I don't have another tank, and I would rather not return one of them to the LFS. Is there anything I can do to stop the chasing?

 

[ThePurple12]

Sorry I forgot to attach pics. One more thing: At the LFS where I bought the nem, it was attached to a rock and the guy used tweezers to take it out. It took him a long time. Could that have damaged the foot?

 

[ThePurple12]

Whoops the pics are upside down for some reason

 

[aznflyfisherman]

Looks like a green bta, If they use a tweezer to remove it from the rock, i would say there is a good chance it has a few torn area. But btas usually recover pretty well.

 

[ThePurple12]

It is a purple foot bta, you can't see the purple as well in the picture. Is there anything I can do to help it?

 

[ThePurple12]

Should I move it to where it is not partly facedown on the sandbed?

 

[j.falk]

Should I move it to where it is not partly facedown on the sandbed?

The best thing is to just leave it alone. If it's healthy, it'll use it's foot move around to find the place it wants to be in your aquarium. The more you mess with it...the more you stress it out.

 

[aznflyfisherman]

If its face down then help it rightside up, does it look like the skin is melting away? Also how old is your tank n whats your parameters? From the pictures above it looks ok to me n from my experience the gbta takes longer to acclimate then rbta, if its not melting away just let it be. The more you mess with, it stresses it out more.

 

[ThePurple12]

Don't kill me for this but my tank is 3 1/2 months old. The parameters are

0 ammonia
0 nitrite
Below 5 nitrate

Melting away? Can you explain more please? Thanks for the advice!

 

[ThePurple12]

I excavated a hole under the nem. Now it is not facedown in the sand bed. Hopefully its entire foot will attach.

 

[aznflyfisherman]

Btas attach to rocks, you may need turn down or off. Your powerhead n place it on a rock or near a rock so it can attach itself to it. Post a new pic of it.

 

[ThePurple12]

Ok. I don't want to move it because it's attached to the rock. Pics coming in a few minutes

 

[ThePurple12]

The tank water is a little cloudy from moving the sand around

 

[aznflyfisherman]

I think it still look ok for now, leave it alone n let it settle and give it a few more days and see what happens.

 

[ThePurple12]

Well... my poor nem met the powerhead and thankfully lived to tell the tale. I carefully took it out of the powerhead and put it in a floating breeder box with a small piece of rock rubble. Hopefully it will survive...