Green BTA ?'s

[edwar050]

I am totally new to anenomes and picked up this large Green BTA. Ok, I have 3 very large turbos that I don't want to loose. There appears to be something coming out of the anenome attempting to get into the snails shell, is it the tounge? Its about five in. long estimated. The turbos dont look very happy and my quarantine has a coral banded shrimp that has a taste for turbos as well. granted these snails are the large turbos and the anenome is nearly the size of my head. Need to know asap so I can take them to my LFS or give them to a friend. Do I just need to feed it? What else might it try to eat?

 

[thegrog]

Sounds very strange. Can you get a pic of this "thing" that is attacking your turbos? It does not sound like an anemone but more like a worm. Anemones don't have tongues and I have never heard of one attacking a snail.

 

[edwar050]

Its very crazy, the large 2 in turbo is dead I believe. I have two more and I have never heard/seen anything like this before. Could it have been a hitchicker on the anenome? It is from what I believe a deep water anenome and my best guess is that it may use this to caputre its food- has anyone had any similar experiences? I have a couple of very experienced reefer friends looking in to this as well and they are stumped. I dont have a digital camera but am looking into borrowing one for the night. This is my 2nd day with the anenome and I am already contemplating feeding it a small piece of shrimp. I am actually wondering whether this GBTA is reef safe :sleepy:

 

[edwar050]

the protracted area of the GBTA that was attacking the snail had small needle like protrusions much like a brittle stars brittles, it reacted to my flashlight when I shined it on it and is the same color as the anenome. It also appeared to be coming out of the anenome. Still wondering what to do with the turbos.

 

[thegrog]

Sounds like a hitchiker of some sort. One that uses an anemone as a "host" to attack prey is unusual to say the least. This goes way beyond my experience......in life or in reading.
Try and get a pic of this thing and post it. May be able to ID it from a pic.

 

[thomas712]

Make the call... Is or isn't this "thing" coming out of the mouth of the anemone?
Or just from the same rock.
What you decribe sounds something like a bristle worm.
Thomas

 

[edwar050]

I do believe that It may have been a bristle worm, I can't figure anything else until I see it happen again-:thinking: