Sad news for my new RBTA

[kimsie]

:sad1:

Ok - so last wednesday I brought home a new RBTA - I made the decision to get one a few weeks before and had found one at one of my LFS... When I went to pick it up - it was a little smaller than I had hoped, but I decided to bring it home anyway. It was going into a tank that currently housed a GBTA and has housed other BTA's successfully in the past. My GBTA is still doing great - but that's just not been the case for my new RBTA.

Here she is the day after I brought her home - now when I bought her - I didn't get to buy her on her rock - which I like to do. I think that may have been part of the problem - but who really knows now. Anyway - I gently set her in on top of one of my live rocks. She attached right away and looked ok. Sorry - this pic is hosted on another site.



So - the 2nd night she was there - she started moving... down the front of the rock and towards the bottom of it. I knew from doing all my reading here that I should just let her go - that she needed time to get settled in her new tank. For the next few days she slowly moved (at night) to the complete bottom of that rock - hanging upside down. She would still open during the day and reach a few of her tentacles up around the rock towards the light and 2 days ago I tried to feed her a piece of krill - but after a few minutes she dropped it (it must be hard to eat upside down!).

Well - this morning it had been a week total and when I checked on her - she was all deflated (she had been doing this a LOT - way more than my others have done) and was only hanging on the rock by an edge of her foot. I decided it was time to try and move her to a better spot.

So - I picked her up and moved her back to the top of the rock - in a cave part. She didn't attach at all and after about 5 minutes fell off onto the bottom of the floor (this part of the tank has very little flow).

I decided it was time for a rescue mission. I took out a breeder net I had used for some frags once and put the piece of LR inside it and hung it on the tank. Then I gently picked her up and placed her on the rock. When I left this morning she was still on her side and not looking good at all. At this point thought I don't know that there's much more I can do. I did test my water yesterday and everything looked fine! My PH seemed a little higher than normal - but not alarming or anything. I think I might take some water into my LFS today just to have them double check my readings - but everything else in the tank - including my GBTA look great.

Here is the basket I rigged up...



And then a looking down photo of her...



Any thoughts or ideas I haven't thought of?

This is just so sad. I would be surprised to see a RBTA dying so fast - especially in a stable environment - maybe she just needs some TLC? I'm seriously hoping so.

Thanks for listening and any kind thoughts/ideas you may have...

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

for such a small bta..I would have tried smaller foods like mysis shrimp soaked in selcon. Yeah its always best to get the bta with the rock it is attached to at the lfs. Maybe it suffered from a little bit of damage being removed from the rock and is trying to recover. That would explain all the deflating and changing its water. The last picture doesn't look like its dying..it just looks deflated. Just make sure it has plenty of flow, keep your water parameters in check, and try feeding smaller foods. You could try small water changes when ever the bta deflates. I use to always do that when ever I would see my bta deflate..once it inflated it looked bigger and happier...you could try that.

I am glad to see you put it in a place where you can keep a better eye on it.

I know I am giving you advice while my sebae is trying to get settled in. I have a lot of experience with btas ..I also have experience with a dying bta and knows extactly what it looks like when its on its way out...your bta doesn't look even close to that.

 

[kimsie]

Thanks Christina! I was hoping that you'd have some good advice for me!

Good idea on the mysis soaked in selcon. I'm hoping that with keeping the RBTA in the little basket for a while - I can give it time to find a good home on this rock, and do some target feedings. I actually did a water change last night, but maybe I should try doing some small ones also when it deflates.

I'm glad you don't think it's dying! I didn't think that it was - but it scared me a bit that it was barely attached and then wouldn't attach again. I'm starting to wonder if maybe its foot got damaged when the LFS worker removed him from the tank. He had some monster fingernails!

One thing to note - Last night - when it was hanging - but open - this is really hard to describe - but it's foot looked like it had a rubber band around the middle of it... So picture a upside down RBTA - it's foot looked almost like an hour glass - cinched in the middle by a white piece of flesh - looked like a rubber band. Well - this morning - when it was barley hanging on - and I picked it up - this piece fell off!! After I got it settled - I picked this thing up from the bottom of the tank - and it was just this fleshy piece? Weird - ever seen that?

 

[kimsie]

Ok - so last night when I got home from work she had moved off the rock and onto the mesh of the basket - she then procedded to move all around the basket last night - up and down and side to side... I think that it's realized that it's in there alone vs with my other fish and is feeling a bit more comfortable. I did target feed her a bit of the smaller pieces from my rods food...

My thought was this... and please if anyone has better advice - let me know what you would do! I thought I would leave the RBTA in the basket until she attaches herself to the rock in the basket and stays there for at least a few days. I have it where it's not shadowing any of my corals so I have no problem leaving her in there for as long as she needs - what do you think? I'm a little afraid that she's going to chose a spot on the basket itself - but surely eventually she'll go to the rock, right?

Anyway - let me know what you think.

 

[MarinaP]

Perfect BTA rescue mission.

I did exactly the same for one of my RBTAs about a year ago. She was just unhappy and shrinking. Obnoxious cap clowns did not help either.

I kept on feeding her mysis thawed in saltwater every other day, and she perked up almost within a week and attached to the piece of LR in the basket. Throw a hermit in there, too. He will take care of the waste.

I transferred her to my display with 12 other RBTAs and a magnifica, once she grew to about 3" from 1".

Now I have 4 large green :eek1: BTAs with orange tips. Yes, RBTA turned green and split.

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

I would personally keep it there untill it grows a little. Once you see improvement in the anemone(growth, color, eating more) then let it go back into the tank.

green btas with orange tips..that sounds pretty

About this fleshy piece...did it come from its foot?

 

[kimsie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11737536#post11737536 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MarinaP
Perfect BTA rescue mission.

I did exactly the same for one of my RBTAs about a year ago. She was just unhappy and shrinking. Obnoxious cap clowns did not help either.

I kept on feeding her mysis thawed in saltwater every other day, and she perked up almost within a week and attached to the piece of LR in the basket. Throw a hermit in there, too. He will take care of the waste.

I transferred her to my display with 12 other RBTAs and a magnifica, once she grew to about 3" from 1".

Now I have 4 large green :eek1: BTAs with orange tips. Yes, RBTA turned green and split.

How long was it before you actually transfered her and she grew to 3 inches from 1 inch? Just wondering... I'll have to pick up some mysis... That's probably better for her than the Rods bits...

 

[kimsie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11737669#post11737669 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wicked_NaCl_h2o
I would personally keep it there untill it grows a little. Once you see improvement in the anemone(growth, color, eating more) then let it go back into the tank.

green btas with orange tips..that sounds pretty

About this fleshy piece...did it come from its foot?

Great - that's what I'll do... I'll post more picks maybe tonight or tomorrow to show how she's doing - but she was open last night while she was moving around... At first I was a little afraid that she was closer to the lights and that might be a problem since she was under the rock before - but she seems to be doing fine.

The fleshy piece did come from the foot - yes... Think maybe that was part that was damaged when they removed her from the rock @ the LFS?

 

[kimsie]

BAD NEWS...

I came home from work last night and my RBTA was barley hanging on to the basket again like she was under the rock the other day. I thought maybe it was just expelling waste or something though. Well I went out to dinner - and when I got back it was obvious it was dead. I refused to believe it though - so I went to bed - woke up early this morning knowing it wouldn't be good - and sure enough it was completely melted down and dead. I'm just so sad - All of my water is in check - everything else (including my RBTA) is doing great... So 9 days after I brought it home it died - I just didn't think they would die that fast. I do have pictures... in case someone needs or wants to see - but I didn't want to post them right away - it's sad...

 

[dc]

That's too bad, it sounded like it was going to make it.

 

[mikeandjenn99]

It's possible that it got more foot damage than you thought when it was taken off it's rock at the lfs. It's a shame that it didn't make it, and I'm sorry for your loss. Don't give up, and after a little bit, you should definitely try again.

 

[garygb]

Sorry about your anemone, you did what you could to save it, sometimes they just aren't strong enough to recover.

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

Oh no..that is sad.. I agree with garygb you did what you could. If you do decide to try again later, buy the rock the anemone is on, if the lfs refuses to let you do that. Then I wouldn't buy it no matter what. Even if the person says "oh I can get it off the rock without damaging it." We all know thats a big lie.

 

[timrandlerv10]

i hate to bring up money, but i have to ask: did you/will you get your money back? there was obviously something amok from the first day...i'm a strong believer in the market fixing things, and if the LFS doesnt have some skin in the game, they wont change their behavior (they dont pay for the nem, they dont stop pulling them off rocks...they dont pay for poor shipping nems, they keep buying them, etc)

sorry to hear about your loss,

tim