My slowly shrinking anemone...help!

[blaze422]

I have a large GTA sitting at the bottom of y tankfor past 3 months .692watts in a 120 gallon tank. Too much live rock...not alot of space on the bottom to stretch out. 2 mated perculas. In the past 2 weeks the clowns have allowed the anaenome to go into a caveloke area and it has gotten smaller and more recessed daily. an't get it out. Reading the FAQ's I'm thinking of shooting water with a powerhead from the side and hope it moves back out. (Hope it works) Bigger question is why it isn't happy. If it wanted more light wouldn't it move up towards light? If water circulation isn't strong enouogh in the "cave" wouldn't it move towards the current? This is the 2nd GTA that has acted this way/ what am I missing? TIA!
All paramters are WNL....

[finding nemo]

You say large anemone, how large is it? How large and what kind of clowns do you have with it? Are you feeding it silversides or meety foods? Water quality?

[blaze422]

All water parameters are good. GTA was 5 inches across. Mated perculas are 3 &2 inches long. I occaisionally feed it krill, but was advised that feeding is not necessary. I feed my other fish, some pellets and seaweed...

[cabin]

According to Joyce Wilkerson's book, Clownfishes, and other material I have read, anemones most definitely need to be fed.

[traveller7]

Shrinking is likely starvation in this case.

What is a "GTA" ?

Some sand living anemones will not climb rocks.

[finding nemo]

Originally posted by blaze422
All water parameters are good. GTA was 5 inches across. Mated perculas are 3 &2 inches long. I occaisionally feed it krill, but was advised that feeding is not necessary. I feed my other fish, some pellets and seaweed...
He is starving most likely, I cringe when people say they were told not to feed them. They cant live on light alone and wont for long, they will shrink to nothing and devour themselves to stay allive. Short tenticles is a sign of starving.Your BTA is way to small for the clowns you have and they are pestering it to death literally. And not feeding it is adding to the problem, Hope you looked at my site?
karen

[NH_Reef]

Just my 2 cents, but before I changed from my 55 to my 230, I had one BTA that I feed once or twice a week. It soon turned into a BTA crowd of 7 and attacked everything in their path. I stopped feeding them, sold most to my LFS, and kept 2 which are now 3 and I still do not feed them. One has a pair of Ocillerus, one just a single Ocillerus and the third is by itself. I think they are pretty happy getting what they catch in the water during the one or two tank feedings a day. Granted, they are not as long as they used to be, but they look all healthy. Good water conditions, light and an established reef seems to be the baseline for happy BTAs.
If you use a filter in your system, maybe they can't grab any of the free stuff floating around.