BTA Help!

[ducky]

I have never kept anemones and I got one with the new LR I recently purchased. He is still attached to the rock but his mouth looks inside out, his tentacles are green but shriveled. Is it dying or just acclimating, it looks pretty sad.
She prepared the rock in containers with new salt water but it was not heated so the BTA has had quite a shock.
I will go and test the water so I can post parameters.
My Tank: 180G DT with 3"-4" DSB roughly 200lbs of LR
2 HQI MH, 1 175W 20,000K SEMB MH, 2 36W PC actinics and 2 65W PC 10,000K
I have a sump with 20lbs of LR, macro algae, cc substrate, and ASM G-3 Skimmer. I have two magnum 350s I can run if needed with carbon or polishing filter.

 

[nietzsche]

are you sure its a bta and not a majano?

 

[ducky]

Yes I am sure it is a BTA, the body of the anemone is white, tentacles are green with pinky purple tips and the person I purchased the rock from identified it as a BTA, aside from which I have been killing of the majanos with JJ injections (maybe this is the problem?). The tentacles have partially extended. Should I try to feed it?
Water Parameters:
calc 450
pH 8.3
trite 0
trate 0
amonia 1 ppm

 

[ducky]

tried to feed brine shrimp with turkey baster but would not grab hold of anything. ??

 

[dawman]

can you post a pic ? From your description it doesn`t sound like a BTA .

 

[shrimpi]

sounds like an unhappy bta but pictures would help.
whats your temp. in your tank.
whats your specific gravity
what kind of flow is he in?
how long has he been in the tank?

 

[ducky]

pic attached. Before when it was all wilted the tentacles appeard to be lime green but now some have turned brown and the rest white.
temp 78
SG 1.0235
placement bottom under 150W 20,000K MH
Medium flow
Been in the tank for 7 days

 

[dawman]

Doesn`t look to healthy . It looks to be almost bleached .

 

[ducky]

I think this is what it is supposed to look like.

 

[dawman]

That one looks bleached also .

 

[ducky]

Well I hope it is getting better. It appears to be more inflated. While the tentacles were really deflated they were lime green with the pink/purple tips so maybe it is supposed to be green? But now the foot and some of the tentacles are turning brown, maybe it is supposed to be brown?
Can it recover from being bleached under adequate lighting? It looked like it kept a few of the mysis i squirted that way, so maybe it is eating which is a step in the right direction.

 

[dawman]

Proper lighting and feeding will bring it`s color back to normal . Don`t expect this to happen quickly .

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by ducky
Well I hope it is getting better. It appears to be more inflated. While the tentacles were really deflated they were lime green with the pink/purple tips so maybe it is supposed to be green? But now the foot and some of the tentacles are turning brown, maybe it is supposed to be brown?
Can it recover from being bleached under adequate lighting? It looked like it kept a few of the mysis i squirted that way, so maybe it is eating which is a step in the right direction.
The green you are seeing is a by product of your lighting. The anem is being flourecesed by the actinics. The brown you are noticing is the production of zooxanthellea, and that is a good thing. Keep doing what you are doing, make sure your water chemistry is spot on, and try to spot feed it every so often.

 

[ducky]

HE MOVED! I checked on him this morning and he moved to the back side of his rock a little out of the direct light, it appears as though he did not detach but actually scooted around the rock. I am not too familiar with anemones and only have this one as a result of my rock purchase so pretty much everything it does will be a surprise to me. The brown is definitely spreading.

 

[ducky]

He moved again. He placed himself directly below my 175W 20K actinic a couple of inches from the bottom. It is looking a bit better, of course I am no expert on anemones. Attached is a pic, let me know what you anemone people think...

 

[peef]

How old is your tank? He is trying to find a good home. If he is moving then there is still some good life in him I would think. Hope he settles down and becomes happy!
Hey Perfect,
You said that the green is the anemone being flourecesed from the actinics but the thing is you said that to me also, I have no actinics right now! Only a 150w 14k MH hqi. My anemone is crazy green looking and healthy as could be (as far as I can tell), what gives? Just curious, thanks!

 

[dawman]

Originally Posted by peef
How old is your tank? He is trying to find a good home. If he is moving then there is still some good life in him I would think. Hope he settles down and becomes happy!
Hey Perfect,
You said that the green is the anemone being flourecesed from the actinics but the thing is you said that to me also, I have no actinics right now! Only a 150w 14k MH hqi. My anemone is crazy green looking and healthy as could be (as far as I can tell), what gives? Just curious, thanks!

14K has some blue in it and will do the same to the anemone . It`s not a bright flourescent green is it ?

 

[ducky]

My tank is 7 years old and 6 months old. It was a 90G (or 75, I'm not sure) and then I moved it into the 180. When I moved it I sifted out the CC and then added back all of the sand. A month later the new tank had a seam failure and leaked out all over my oak floors. the rock was all moved to the sump and rubber containers until the new tank arrived. One fish survived along with my corals and inverts but all of the sand died so I replaced it with "live" aragonite and put all of my rock back in again. The tank basically sat for five months and then I found a woman on Craig's List who was tearing down her tank and purchased another 100lbs of LR with Corals and some of her fish. The BTA came in on the rock. Her tank looked really healthy but she was running VHOs so that is probably why the BTA was bleached.

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by Dawman
14K has some blue in it and will do the same to the anemone . It`s not a bright flourescent green is it ?

What he said...^^ the 14k halides have a blue'er color to them so that will draw out the floresced color in them. The anems that are bleached have nothing else to show when the blue hits them so that glowing green is really bright. But yours from what i remember is healthy, its just a regular BTA. So its primary color is brown, zooxanthellea.

 

[reefmate75]

i dont know how most BTA act mine are doing great, but one thing about them moveing, they like it at the bottom, they like to have their foot in a dark place and they can ajust the amount of light they get my makeing their stump (or foot) longer or shorter the pic of yours is a white BTA he is a tiny little guy, but they grow fast as for him haveing his mouth inside out rarely should that happen but i have seen it many times on my BTA, and my condylactice i do belive thats how they get rid of their waste, and i do not feed mine, my clowns take care of that, haveing a clown fish with them helps alot sence they will feed them for you as long as each of them has a host...i have 2 maroon clowns they dont get along to well but both of them have laied claim to 2 RBTA and if the other gets near the others BTA the fight is on hahaha they where both females when i got the second one i was told that the new one which was slightly smaller would change to male after awhile been 2 months now and they still hate each other but they dont go serching each other out so they will stay together for now ( females are LARGER ) alot larger problem isnt his mouth, its him moveing if he even grazes any coral he will kill what ever he touches in the spots he touches anyways, BTA are great anemones becuase when they find a spot and stay there they dont tend to move for a very long time.
i hope hes doing better and i hope he grows for you, hes little hehe, and watch him, they are cool guys and get a clown fish hehe