is my bta dead?!? *PIC* - Page 2

JPReef · #26 10/26/2007, 02:46 AM

that was yesterday

kar93 · #27 10/26/2007, 06:23 AM

www.karensroseanemones.com

this is a good website that tels you just about everything you need to know

xxpipedreamxx · #28 10/26/2007, 07:20 AM

I am going to add my two cents here... That anemone does NOT need any clowns hosting it. Especially Tomato complex clowns as they are very large and rough. They would finish it off for sure. It does not look normal IMO at all. BTA's do not live on the sand. They find a spot in the rockwork and hide their foot down inside of a crevice. No one has mentioned flow which is odd. Anemones do best with plenty of flow. The tentacles should never stop moving. The tank is way too young to support an anemone. I never reccomend anyone get one for at least a year, although most say six months. The BTA needs to be fed thawed out Krill, Silversides, Mysis, large meaty plankton, ect soaked in a vitamin supplement such as Selcon. It only needs to be fed at the most every 3 days in that condition. Never try to feed it when it is deflated either as mentioned previously.

xxpipedreamxx · #29 10/26/2007, 07:24 AM

Also, new saltwater should never be added to a tank with anemones until it has been mixed and running with a powerhead for 48 hours. The nitrate should never be aloud to reach 20 ppm in a newer tank that has an anemone either.

Thinslis · #30 10/26/2007, 08:35 AM

Get a fuge and some cheato to suck up those Nitrates, I didn't see any in the pictures you provided.

I am in the same boat. My tank has been up for almost two months and I ended up winning a BTA from local reef club raffle. He spent a few days moving around my tank but has been settled in a spot for about a week fully inflated with nice color. He put himself in a high flow section in the middle of the tank. His foot is under a flat rock and he is extended out into the light. I have only once seen him sucked in and that was one night when all the lights were off.

You can see some pictures in my build thread here: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...7#post11035837

Good luck with your BTA, I hope he comes around for you.

mskohl · #31 10/26/2007, 02:34 PM

You have high nitrates because you have no place for your denitrifying bacteria. These bacteria are anaerobic and can live deep within pourous rock or deep sand beds. You don't have a deep sand bed either in the tank or in a refugium.

If you want to get your nitrates down, add a refugium, 4-6" of sand and some macro algae.

your anemone looks better today. I would say that he is stressed. You can go ahead and move him to the top of your rocks with some nice flow. But, he will probably move around until he finds his own happy place.

He is small and somewhat bleached right now, so feed him small bits of food daily or every other day. Once he regains his color, you can drop back to weekly to not at all if you have a clown hosting. The color is the zoanthelle and it receives nutrients from them and food passing by in the water column.

On tomato clowns, I like them, but they are exceptionally aggressive. I have a female and she is 3+" and can really beat the crap out of the anemone. Thankfully, she and the anemone have grown up together and it is able to tolerate her whipping it.

petoonia · #32 10/26/2007, 04:08 PM

Those shrimp you pictured are not raw. Raw shrimp has a grayish color. I would not feed those to the anemone.

Any of the foods xxpipedreamxx listed are great. When the anemone is ready to eat I would chop the food up really small, and soak it in the selcon, or vita chem. Then carefully feed it with a turkey baster. This way the anemone doesn't have to work to hard to eat the food. Also feed it a variety of foods, the more varieties the more nutrition the anemone will get. Be careful not to over feed it.

xxpipedreamxx · #33 10/26/2007, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by petoonia
Be careful not to over feed it.

Exactly. I saw that some people said to feed it daily, but until it remains inflated, that is a big NO NO. It will stress the anemone out horribly.

petoonia · #34 10/26/2007, 09:41 PM

Another thing is I disagree with moving the anemone unless it is in danger. Touching it, or moving it around really stresses them out. Leave it alone when it moves, unless it is in danger of getting harmed by something in the tank. Once it gets its footing it will wander to wherever makes it happy.

rcerulli · #35 10/26/2007, 10:05 PM

clarkii clowns are basically insta-hosters as well. i have two and they nearly killed eachother the first day i got the anemone to host in it

SquidHC · #36 10/26/2007, 11:02 PM

I feed my RBTA silversides and oysters every 2-3 days. He is doing very well. Those cocktail shrimp you showed are human food, not anenome food. Do it, and yourself a favor and get something more appropriate for it to eat. I would definetely watch it, looked a lot better in the second pic. If you do feel that it is dead at some point, get it out of your tank IMMEDIATELY. Its kinda like setting off a stink grenade in your fish tank.

JPReef · #37 10/27/2007, 01:29 AM

ok well im gonna work on a refuge but what kind of sand should i use for the deep sand bed? also, im not sure how im going to implement it yet as far as hooking it up to the sump.

heres the bta today, hes been settled there most of the day today but what confuses me is that its not a high flow area. so i dunno

SquidHC · #38 10/27/2007, 01:44 AM

My RBTA doesn't like a lot of flow. It found a nice spot on the rock that it gets burst of flow every 20 seconds or so. That spot looks much better than on the sand. Give it time, and from the way it looks Id feed it. On a side note, my RBTA now looks like a red LTA. Whats with the bubbles going away?

Eklikewhoa · #39 10/27/2007, 01:46 AM

Looks a whole lot better then what it did....what did you do to correct it?

JPReef · #40 10/27/2007, 02:15 AM

i dunno, hes just stayed like that for awhile. i did a water change today im going to check nitrates again and see what they are, ill post info in a bit.

Lotus99 · #41 10/27/2007, 01:17 PM

When I added my anemone, he wasn't happy for about a month. One tip I read was to put some PolyFilter in the filter, which did perk him up. I guess there was something in my water that I couldn't test for that was bothering him.

Also, don't feed pieces of seafood larger than about 1/4 inch. It can harm them if the piece is too large.

The site linked above has a lot of great info.

kuoka · #42 10/27/2007, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JPReef
ive got a pair of false percs im trying to get to host him. but nothing has happened yet. im trying the picture approach. with the picture facing the inside of the tank with a clown hosting a bta. supposed to work but its been on for about a day now and nothings happened. im thinking the health of the bta is affecting the hosting process.

I know a nit but clowns don't host. Rather, the anemone hosts the clown. But back to your challenge, give the clowns time. I've heard of the picture thing working too and I tried it for about a day but it freaked out my other fish. LOL The bottom line is that your clowns may or may not take to the anemone. Most will but it may take a LONG time (longer if they've already taken to another host.. e.g. another coral, LR, etc). My paired percs were hosted by a frog spawn and it look over a month for them to even recognize the BTA - now you can't get them out of it. Good luck.

JPReef · #43 10/27/2007, 02:33 PM

ok, well heres what he looks like today right after the lights came on, pics are blurry as heck cause i couldn't get a good angle on him.

his mouth is gigantic and his tentacles are really small.

i just wanna know what is a dead giveaway sign that a bta is dead. just for future info. i just don't want the rest of my tank dead too if he goes bye bye

kuoka · #44 10/27/2007, 03:06 PM

Yup doesn't look too good. Sorry.

xxpipedreamxx · #45 10/27/2007, 03:19 PM

If you touch it and it falls apart, then you need to scoop it out and throw it away.

I am notmeaning to sound rude here, but you need to do LOTS of research and have a very stable tank for an anemone. I would advise that you let the tank mature for a while longer and then attempt it again after researching plenty. You should always know as much about anything you buy as you can.

JPReef · #46 10/27/2007, 11:05 PM

i understand your trying to help but i bought this before i did research, just dont play captain obvious please.

heres what he looks like tonight. he looks a little better and im going to try to feed him raw shrimp tnite. see what happens

waterpologirl · #47 10/27/2007, 11:15 PM

Good luck!

xxpipedreamxx · #48 10/28/2007, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JPReef
just dont play captain obvious please.

[/IMG]

Well before I excuse myself from this thread...

My apologies for helping. I will remember not to next time.

ReefGirlSara · #49 10/28/2007, 01:14 AM

My GBTA just went through almost the exact same thing. It shriveled up, it's mouth was gaping open, the color was dark and it was kinda wrinkly. Some peope told me it was doing its own internal water change. I was pretty worried about it, I almost took it out, but now it looks great. My tank is a 54 gallon, I did a 13 gallon water shange, and as soon as it inflated I gave it a couple small pieces of lance fish- which are pretty much the same as silverside. It has been fine for about 5 days now, and seems to be doing better than ever actually.

I have 2 false percs- like you, and they used to love my candy cane corals. I was sad that they wouldn't make the GBTA their home, and just when I had practically given up on them, the male started to get closer and closer to the nem, and now it is a great host to them. So much actually that the female has become insanely territorial, and bites me everyt ime I put my finger in any part of the tank...

also, xxpipedreamxx was right, he wasn't trying to be "captain obvious," I had a long tip nem that died, and that was exactly how I was able to tell it was dead. It was soft, mushy, the tentacles were no longer sticky, and when I touched it, it fell apart. I had to get the net and scoop it out.

I don't think yours is dying, IMO, but younever know. They are very sensitive, and I would definitely not feed it any more cooked shrimp. Even raw shrimp, I don't think they are very nutritious, so maybe it would be good to alternate some of the foods previousy mentioned in this thread, and the vitamin solution is a greta suggestion.

My trates were high too, so maybe that's why our nems were suffering, but I got them way down now.

JPReef · #50 10/28/2007, 01:38 AM

im gonna be working on a fuge VERY soon and buying some cheato with a dsb. hopefully this helps with the nitrates.

and for the bta, he ate a piece of raw shrimp tnite, not a very big piece but its a start. i picked up some raw shrimp from the store tonight just to try some kind of food again but im picking up some freeze dried krill and some vitamin solution tomorrow at the LFS.

thanks for you info though, it gives me more hope.

and pipedream i wasn't trying to be mean, i just don't like being talked to like im oblivious to whats going on, im trying my best to do what i can with what i've got to work with. please don't take offense to what i said earlier.