still learing but need advice-bta

[Megatrev62]

The color of my bta is good but it is shrinking-tentacles stunted.The nitrates are off the chart and am getting that taken care of through water changes. I put the nem in a 23 long with 2x96 watt pc-actinic and 10k white. Will this anemone come back to its original size and beauty. Put the nem in by itself without the percs. Should I put the percs in with the nem considering the trouble it's having? The mouth is good but as I say the nem has just shrunken away. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Bottom line is it a matter of lights and water quality at this point. By the way I thought this was splitting the other day but maybe it was dying and thats why I moved it to the 23 originally.Just want to pay attention to the nem and figure this thing out. Could I have disrupted the split by moving it to this tank ?Thanks

 

[StillerNat]

what lights did you have on the other tank? if they were greater than on the current tank then i think its looking for what it misses. most nems need good lighting to do well. i know people who have kept them under PC's but they had 3 or 4 bulbs. but most were not as powerful as your bulbs if you have 192w of lighting. so yours should be ok under the pc's. i had my rbta in a nano with pc's, but i upgraded it to a 150w MH and it doubled in size in less than a year. i would leave the percs out till it gets comfortable in its new home. leave it alone for a few days and see how it does. dont feed it cuase if it gets overfed and it might spit up all the food. best thing is time and wait it out a few days.

i believe they form a second mouth when they start to split. i could be wrong though.
my rbta spreads out funny sometimes and it looks like it is splitting but it is not.

 

[Ali :D]

From my knowledge they will split through the mouth. I had a friend who had a rose, he did a large water change and it split into five! All five are now doing great, I have one and another friend has another and the original owner has the other three. If the Anemone is still alive and looks ok it will stretch back out an look pretty again, you did well to get it out from the nitrates but make sure you know why you got the spike so it doesn't happen again.

Good luck

 

[Megatrev62]

ty people. The nitrates have been a problem -up and down. Theres a story behind this nem which is too long to go into, however the lights will be upgraded to mhs in near future not for the nem as such but for corals down the road. Stiller I have 8x54 watt in two fixtuers and the lights are crap. Another story there too. The nem at this point has a rose color and the mouth is white and puckered up? Whats that about? Thanks again

 

[davocean]

I mentioned on another post my opinion that size is not a tell all like we would normally assume by common logic.
In fact, getting bigger can mean simply stretching for more light in weak light conditions.
ANY changes can stress and induce splitting, also not a tell tale sign of sucess or failure IMO, but I usually lean towards stress as the cause more times than not.
Pics may help advice.

 

[davocean]

Oh, and work on trates, thats an issue for sure.

 

[garygb]

You have plenty of light with two 96 watt pcs. The likely issue, as you surmise, is the water quality. High nitrates are detrimental and it may take the anemone a while to rebound even when you provide it with very low/undetectable nitrate levels. Unlike another poster suggested, BTAs don't form two mouths and then assexually reproduce out from that. In fact, they split through the one mouth they have. Your removing it to another tank should not halt that process had it begun. At this point, you don't want the anemone to clone, as it would clearly be a stress induced split and a last-ditch effort to survive. I would suggest you attempt small food items. If the tentacles are stubby, it may be that the anemone is starving. Pics would be helpful possibly.