BTA Trouble

[greasemonkey]

I have had a green bta in my 20 gal for almost a year, doing well, eating silversides, krill, and brine from feeding the fish. About 3 months ago it stopped accepteing food altogether, I believe because of stress caused by my cleaner shrimp. The shrimp is now in another tank and my anemone will still not shrink and is showing signs of starvation. I have spent the last 3 days looking for info on getting it to eat but I cant find anything but habitat info.

My water parameter are as follows- ph 8.1, ammo, nitrite 0, nitrate 10ppm, . I am not sure what other param. to post so ask if interested. This is in a 29 gal, with 1, 175 w 20k xm. Temp stays between 76-80, and salinity is 1.022

Thanks for any advice

greasemonkey

[Polkster13]

BTA get most of their food from the symbotic algae that lives in the tissue of this organism. It "catches" food with its tentacles to supplement its diet. As long as the BTA is not bleached out, it should be fine.

[Polkster13]

btw, I have a BTA that is six years old and it currently under a pair if T5 bulbs (use to be under a PC lamp). I feed it a shrimp about once every three or four weeks. It has divided 8 times. The last two babies are in my 135 gallon tank and doing well (also under T5 bulbs).

[Reef69]

Im looking for one..lol..

Polkster is right, they feed off the algea that is symbiotic with the anemone, i wouldnt worry about it, unless its starts expelling the algea..therefor..bleaches...

[eric]

Not sure what signs of starvation on a BTA would be. Agreed if it still has it's color, I wouldn't worry.

[greasemonkey]

I did a search on google for bta's and read several different pages talking about the tentacles on a starved anemone being short, almost bumps on the disc, and that is what it is doing. I have tried target feeding and turning off pumps so the food can settle but the food doesnt stick. I also read about the anemone decaying while still alive. I havent seen signs of decay but I am not able to see anything but the disc, and the tentacles are all but gone. I hope I am worrying for nothing, but I just hate to lose anything.

[JimD]

hhmmm,,, can you get a pic up? Maybe a before and after? Sounds a little concerning to me.

[greasemonkey]

I dont have my camera or I would. A friend is in the Bahamas (lucky bas@#$%) and will be back Monday. If he is dying, how do I remove him. He has not detached from the rock and Im begining to wonder if he will detach. I ask because he is starting to look real bad and amphipods are begining to crawl all over it ( makes me think it dying).

Thanks for yalls help so far

greasemonkey

[Ram_Puppy]

have you tried feeding something other than silversides?

My personal reccomendation for almost every problem in a reef tank: Change water, change some more water, and then, change some more. Perhaps there is something you can't test for in your water that is stressing this animal?

I think my BTA is toast personally, when the tank overheated it expelled most but not all it's algae, got it in the new tank and it seemed to be doing better, but then it divided, one of the 3 divisions seems primed to die, (hasn't inflated in 3 days) the other two look ready to eat, Gonna feed them tomorrow. I can only hope the algae repopulates the anemone, I have no idea what the timetable is for this however.

Anyhow, I would try some different foods and see if you can get a response out of it, mine likes mysis cubes, and prime reef cubes, along with uncooked table shrimp infact, it has eaten everything I have thrown at it except squid, which it rejects every time.

[Richard]

How old is your 175watt xm bulb?

[Ram_Puppy]

good point, and raising your salinity might help.

[Tim Marvin]

I'd say, good bulb (less than year), change water, raise salinity to 1.024-1.026...IMO

[Ram_Puppy]

then I guess it's only a matter of time for my little anemones... **** the heat.

[greasemonkey]

My bulb is 4 months old and ive been able to keep the temp under 81. I have been doing 3 gal changes every 2 weeks, and will be doing one today. As for salinity, I seem to remeber some people saying that may not be such a good idea, so additional input on this would be great.

I woke this morning to a big diatom bloom and a really fleshy and disentigrating anemone. He is still attached to the rock so anyone know how to remove them. I am callin time of death, 12:10 pm.