Shrinking BTA

[sfarid123]

Hi,

I 've had a green BTA for the past year that has pretty much turn very light green and has significantly reduced in size. I do feed it once a week 1/4 shrimp and maintain weekly water changes (6 gallon). I have 55-gallon reef SPS 2X 65-watt dual daylights & 2X 65 dual actinic.
My parameters are 0 nitrates 0 nitrites 0 ammonia. Additives include Kent Iodine;
Kent Strontium; Kent Coral Vite.

Do you think the shrinking reason might be due to the Strontium or bad lighting?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
shawn

 

[racrumrine]

Welcome to Reef Central.

Before you move to change the lighting, why don't you try feeding 2 or 3 times a week.

My BTA's are in the middle of a 180 with 400W SE MH lights on either side.

Best of luck,

Roy

 

[Reef Sponger]

I have 6x BTAs in a tank and feed them every 2-3 days for 5 months now, they just keep growing. Lighting is probably fine, how old are your bulbs though?

 

[sfarid123]

Thanks again for your reply guys,

I have tried feeding it more often, but it will expell the food. My PC lights are new, bought them 2 months ago. I have heard from many sources that BTA will only thrive w/ MH but some claim they have done it w/ PC??

thanks,
shawn.

 

[Wryknow]

My RBTA has split and grown under T5s and there wa a TOM that someone centered around RBTAs that used PC lighting only so lighting other than MH can be OK. How big of a chunk of shrimp are you giving them? My RBTAs do much better with smaller, more frequent feedings (a couple of krill or 1/2 of a silverside.) Big chunks of food tend to stick in their guts and cause problems sometimes IMHO.

 

[sfarid123]

I feed it 1/4" size shrimp and weekly DT Phytoplankton. I heard shrimp is a better protein source than krill. I'm not sure if I can retrofit to T5 lights with my current setup.

Is the shrinking and bleaching process Irreversible?
I'm thinking of not adding any strontium to my tank; one of the threads mentioned it is a pollutant for anemones, but not sure if stopping it will hurt my mushrooms.

 

[Wryknow]

I wouldn't recommend supplementing strontium but I doubt that it is a problem if its dosed according to the manufacturers recommendation. I wouldn't hurt to give it a try though (My only supplements are Kalkwasser, calcium, and iron (occassionally))

If the anemone has been healthy and maintained good coloration for a year and your system maintenance hasn't changed significantly then there may not be a problem at all. It might just be getting ready to split. I had a similar experience that had me really worried until I finally saw what was happeneing.


I had my RBTA for about 4 months, looking good, eating well, and then one day it suddenly started loosing color and stopped eating for no apparent reason. About a 2 - 3 weeks after the change in color, I noticed a small tear forming in the middle of the anemone. It finally completed a split after around four weeks of looking absolutley awful (I thought it was dying for sure.) Immediately after splitting, it started coloring up again and started eating again about two weeks after that. I now have two healthy clones. The whole process took a good two months. I can't say for sure that this is what's happening to your anemone but it could be the case.

 

[cschweitzer]

You don't need phyto feedings for it. If feeding shrimp, freeze it, grate it with a cheese grater, add selcon and garlic, and refreeze until feeding. This will help with their digestion.

This process of making food works on just about anything. Personally, I have found that my BTA's have a love for squid, although they will eat just about anything. Scallops are a good choice because they are meaty and easy to grate. I like a whole range of food, just anything without bones...personal opinion on invertabrates as my food sources for anems. It is not irreversible and BTA's are one of the easier anems to reverse it, but it is still not easy. Feeding is the most important part. Make sure your food source is not contaminated, make sure it is small enough for the BTA...at least three times a week for a bleached/bleaching anem...I like 5-7 times per week to regain health.

 

[sfarid123]

Great advice!
Thanks again for all the feedback; I bought the anemone last year summer and the bleaching started within couple weeks after purchase. Originally it was the size of a tennis ball, now it’s the size of a golf ball. I'll try the garlic + grating approach, hopefully that helps.

 

[traveller7]

In my experience, additives and anemones are not good friends. Based on the posted information, I would suspect either diet, predation, or chemical induced stress; a picture would be helpful.

My BTAs grow and divide quicker when fed softside fish, I prefer to lancefish over silversides when I can. The anemones eat what mysis and brine they can from feeding the fish.

BTAs are quite flexible in regard to lighting, have mine under 3x28wtPC up to 400wt 10K MH.

 

[rogart]

Anemones shrink when not fed enough, lighting issues usually surface in color change, not size. Anemones have a big apetite, much like some LPS.

Of my BTAs two eat twice as much as the others and do not grow, while the others continue to double in size and split.

Lighting is for BTAs is usually only an issue when they are low in the tank (if it is reasonable).

 

[55semireef]

I remember I when I first got into anemones, my Condy shrunk under the PC lighting I had. I upgraded to T5s and what a difference did it make. Came back to life.

 

[sfarid123]

Hi guys,

Just to update, the BTA has been doing much better. It has grown more than twice its original size. For the past few days I fed it grated shrimp. The color is slowly turning back to light green from bleached white. It does tend to hide underneath rocks for a few days after feeding, but comes out again when its hungry. Also its still pretty slow in taking in the food and the stickness of the tenticles are not very stong yet.

Is there any thing else I should be doing?
Thanks again for all your help

 

[RedSonja]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9652401#post9652401 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sfarid123
Hi guys,

Just to update, the BTA has been doing much better. It has grown more than twice its original size. For the past few days I fed it grated shrimp. The color is slowly turning back to light green from bleached white. It does tend to hide underneath rocks for a few days after feeding, but comes out again when its hungry. Also its still pretty slow in taking in the food and the stickness of the tenticles are not very stong yet.

Is there any thing else I should be doing?
Thanks again for all your help

Sounds like you're doing good, the more frequent and smaller size food is probably the best thing for it.

-Sonja

 

[cschweitzer]

Yep...sounds like it'll be perking up...BTA's will take a long time to get fully recovered, but you will see small improvements. If it doesn't occur overnight, don't get discouraged.

I'm gonna post a few pictures so you can see the route my anem took(not knowing anything to starting to get better to fully recovered). Here they are:

Originally

After first split

The first clone

After splitting again(starting to show unhealthy signs)

 

[cschweitzer]

And the road to recovery

About as small and bleached as it can get

And after feeding it for a while and having it get back to health

And another one of the clones recovery

to this(same clownfish that have been growing too, but the anem seemed to grow a little faster)

 

[sfarid123]

Great !,
I'll post some pics when it gets more healthy; would feeding it every day pose any stess on the BTA?