Think my bubble tip is dying :-( need help im a noob

[T3hPwn]

Hey guys haven't been in the fish scene too long maybe 4 months at best and need help just came home from work to see my bubble tip looking ugly usually he gets this way for a few hours maybe once a week and then goes back to his happy self but today i'm a lil worried i tried looking for similar posts before asking but hope someone can help is my anemone splitting or dying? i'm confused i read when they're dying they don't stick but he looks like hes grabbing on nicely to my rock. Please let me know asap in-case i need to save my tank from this beast! below are the pics of what he looks like now and below what he usually looks like.

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[Mike]

The gaping mouth looks bad. It might be helpful if you gave some tank details and water parameters. What type of lights?

[T3hPwn]

ohh sorry i have a coralife fixture with a 50/50 bulb my salt is a little higher than my normal 1.023 right now its at 1.025 temperature is 79.6 nitrates at 0 Alkalinity is at 200 maybe and ph is8.4

[allan]

Do you feed the nem?

I've always compared my nem to a kid. Always ready to eat, but afterwards they want to throw up because they ate too much.

If, and only if, you are feeding you way want to stop. Mine used to do that to try to expel their waste product completely. Let the clowns and lights do the job of feeding it.

Of course, if you have a condy in there you may have to fee it as it's not got the right makeup for light induced nutrition.

Also, and just my little opinion, four months is a bit early for an anemone, especially for what looks like three nems.

Give me a call if you want to talk nems, but I'm not really an expert either. 616 one one 69. If I don't answer i will call back when I can.

[Cammed_02]

Thats a pretty young tank for a bta, they are pretty sensitive as it is. With all the changes a tank inside of 6-8 months goes through, you may not be able to house one until a few more months.

[clownfishgems]

have you checked all your levels?? ammonia ,nitrate,nitrite??

[T3hPwn]

hey guys thanks yup my levels all look good and i didn't find out about the anemones needing a established tank of a year until after i had already bought them :-( when i started my tank initially my friend had gave me a nice big bucket of his water from his 1 year tank that he had me cycle in my tank for a week before i put anything in it then about a month after that i introduced the purple tip about 3 weeks after that i figured hey hes doing good so i got the bubble tip and the past 3months they have been real good. Today i became worried when i saw it the way it is some people are saying its prob going poop but to keep an eye on it. IF it survives should i just see if they make it? i mean they have for the last 3 months.... or should i get rid of them?

[Bill S]

BTAs generally survive fine on what they happen to catch. They are primarily photosynthetic. I've had dozens of splits, and rarely are mine fed.

Yours doesn't look so good...

[allan]

I think, you're already in. Stay the course and try to keep everything as stable as possible.

If it's already stressed then moving it will stress it further.

[T3hPwn]

ok thanks guys and Allen i meant to call you but i was making dinner for my girl and the kids. so i have been checking back every now and then. BTW i think hes getting better. ill keep you guys posted thanks for the info.

[Mike]

The condy is non photosynthetic, so needs to be fed. Not sure if the 50/50 bulbs are sufficient for the BTA.

[T3hPwn]

Woo hoo looks like its alive again sorry for crying wolf but i was worried but here is some progress.1352813529

[kkiel02]

I would still be worried with the mouth gaping like that. It is probably fighting with your bleached (Im guessing as I cant really tell from the pic) Sebae? I would look into at least a t5 fixture for keeping nems. Welcome to maast though and glad you asked this question.

[Zack]

Do you feed the nem?

I've always compared my nem to a kid. Always ready to eat, but afterwards they want to throw up because they ate too much.


I never knew that about nems haha, just curious though, is the sign of an open (not gaping but open mouth) usually a bad thing?

[Kristy]

A healthy and happy nem will have either a closed mouth or look like it's puckered up for a kiss, but gaping and open is generally no bueno.

[Zack]

During the time they expel waste is it open? And if so, when they are finished removing the waste how long does it take to close?

[allan]

Every time they open up like that. I've seen mine wide open for a day or so. Kind of like they are trying to rid themselves of every last vestige of food stuff... Which at that point can be considered poo.

If you're really intent on feeding your nem, the BTA, just squirt a small amount of fish food at it. Just a little. It will shrink as it pulls it in and if it's a small enough amount it will digest it a lot better and not do that whole big gaping mouth thing.

If that's a seabae, I hear they're difficult to keep. I've seen experienced reefers lose them.

Hands down, you need better lights to keep the bta. It needs a lot of light and a PC... Well, I wouldn't feel comfortable keeping nems with a PC.

[BBQHILLBILLY]

Im not an expert. But if you see body pieces falling off it may be time to get him out. I have never had long term success with anemones.

If someone has had success keeping for more than a year or 2 or more please post. tank size, lighting, food

I have had carpet and btas and they do great for a couple of months and then they start to die off.

[T3hPwn]

Thanks Allen is there a certain kelvin temp you recommend for the nems? ill definitely be investing in new lighting, as for the seabea do you know whats difficult about it? i only ask because that's my favorite :-D and id like to keep him around as long as possible I have had him for a little over a week and i have fed him shrimp and he loved took it like a champ but i'm sure hes still getting used to my tank. I try to feed all my nems every Wednesday I generally feed them guppies from my turtle tank since i have about 80+ in there. I think I'll try squirting food into his mouth sounds like a better and cleaner solution for my tank just hate the **** clown fish pecking at me every time I get near it. ohh and as for waste my nems generally have an open mouth expelling waste for 20-40minutes and then they are good again my bubble tip stayed at it for about 4 hours prior to me posting up and took a total of about 6-7 hours to go back to normal thats the longest i have seen it do that but i must say this bubble tip has been growing bigger and bigger and im really considering taking it out of my tank because of that. How big do these guys get? he was at least 43% smaller when i got him. i just want to thank you guys for your advise never been on a forum where they dont flame you 100 times for asking a question. :-)

[allan]

Kelvin?

43% smaller?

Either you're an engineer or an oddball like me. :)

Not sure what the kelvin is, mine is 78-81. At the top end my chiller, chills. At the lower end I have a vastly underpowered heater to help. But I kind of rely on the instrumentation within the tank to assist in heating it.

Not sure about the seabae, but one of the members here on MAAST had one a couple years ago and she mentioned that she knew they were difficult. Her seabae died. To me she's the experienced one so I've left them alone.

My daughter's GBTA is about two and a half years old. It REALLY loves where it's at. He's about six inches across when fully expanded. I don't believe that they get much bigger than that. It has never split.

I have a rose tip bubble anenome, put it in at the six month mark almost three years ago. Since then I've moved it to a bigger tank, taken it out of that tank, when tiling the library, and just recently taken it out again when redoing everything in my tank. She's split about six times, most recently leaving me with three nems.
She get's about the size of a football during the day. Maybe a little bigger. Long flowing tentacles, it's only bubble tipped after some idiotic move on my part like taking it out of the tank or moving the rocks around.

I started in month two or three with a condylactus (spelling?), and lost it a few months later. One of the cats above is correct, if it starts falling apart take it out. Mine started rolling around. I reached in to help it adhere to a rock and parts started sloughing off. Talk about a mad rush to get those pieces out. But I finally got it out and nothing suffered for it.

I would really stop feeding the BTA (the only one I feel qualified to offer advice on). But really you need more light. Not sure if the PC will sustain it. You will have to continue to feed the condy. The seabae... no idea.

All said and done, the BTA is a relatively easy creature to house. You shouldn't have any issues, and if the gaping maw is disturbing stop feeding it. It will get morsals from the water column or even your clowns. The majority of it's sustenance will be from the light and byproduct of the zooanthella (right, guys?).

Last of all, no worries about flaming you for learning. No one here will do this. If some of the advice seems harsh, just let us know and we will soften our approach. Most of us, if not all, mean nothing more than assisting you in your hobby.

Good luck and welcome to MAAST!

[Bill S]

As noted before, I've had the same RBTAs for at least 6 years. They've split many, many times, and there are tons of MAASTards with my clones.

I currently have 2 in a 6 gallon nano (don't try this at home), along with some LPS and 2 clowns. They split about every 6 months or so, and do very, very well. They are under a 75w MH, but I've kept them successfully under T5s as well - and of course for the few years I had my 215 as a reef tank.

These anemones are VERY happy, and eat very infrequently. They only get what the fish get - that's all. For at least the last year, the only food they have gotten is Spectrum pellets that the clowns don't manage to steal from them. I almost never target feed them. They DO depend upon photosynthesis, and as Allan says, lighting can be critical - I believe it's been critical to my success. I've not been insanely successful in much over the many years of reefkeeping - but this particular animal has been, far and away, my most successful.

[jroescher]

What Bill said...

Mine is about seven years old now. When I first started I fed mine also and had problems similar to what you are having.

The only time I feed mine is to show someone how it reacts to food, and that is rare. It has grown huge over the years. It occasionally gets some flakes or pellets.

120 gallon tank with 2 250 MH's. 10,000 or 14,000K

[Mike]

I have heard it is not a good idea to feed live freshwater fish to saltwater fish. Not nutritionally sound or something.

[rrasco]

I have heard it is not a good idea to feed live freshwater fish to saltwater fish. Not nutritionally sound or something.

I can't remember which way it was, but I heard something contrary. Either feeding FW fish to SW is okay, or SW to FW is okay. I think it was SW to FW because I was reading about feeding my Mobas live fish. It was because a FW fish is less likely to be a host candidate for SW parasites.

FWIW, I had a condy in my tank, healthy as can be, but once he started moving around and threatening my other more expensive animals I yanked him out and chunked him. He was moving closer to my corals very quickly. I have never slept as soundly as after that.