major problem with my BTA

[lbaskball]

Hi everyone,
Im having a problem with my bubble tip anemone. When I first got it which was 2 weeks ago, it opened up bigger then it was when it was at the local fish store. And now, the tenticles dont open up as much and its tenticles look like its dying. Its tenticles looks like as if someone ripped it out. They are all torn looking. It still takes food in when I feed it. But the problem here is that, its tenticles seem to be dissapearing everyday and some of its tenticles you can see they look torn on its body near the mouth. It has happend all of the sudden. Its gettin enough light. And there are no long britleworms that can cause harm. I have 2 emerald crabs. (i dont think they pick on it) I also have a clownfish that hosts in it but it is smaller then the anemone. (anemone used to expand to about 7inchs in diamater. I dont know what is going on. Here are the stats of my tank..
150watt MH (tank is about 18inchs in depth) anemone sits at the bottom of the tank.
Ph. 8.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Calcium on the high end (more then 450)
Alakalinity Normal
salinity is at same level as it should be for corals.
Can anyone HELP ??????????????? Any ideas whats going on?

 

[thomas712]

Could be the clownfish itself doing the damage, for some reason once in a while a clown fish will bite, tear or rip some tenticals. I'm not sure why. Also sometimes peppermint shrimp are to blame but if your clown is in the anemone then he would chase them away.
Keep an eye on it, also check it at night with flashlight.
Thomas

 

[crox]

I have 7 Peppermint shrimp in my tank but they don't bother my BTA. :jumping: :jumping:

 

[lbaskball]

Originally Posted by Thomas712
Could be the clownfish itself doing the damage, for some reason once in a while a clown fish will bite, tear or rip some tenticals. I'm not sure why. Also sometimes peppermint shrimp are to blame but if your clown is in the anemone then he would chase them away.
Keep an eye on it, also check it at night with flashlight.
Thomas
I dont have pepermint shrimp,but the clownfish definetly sleeps inside the anemone. So maybe it is the clownfish biting on it. For some reason, my clownfish has grown twice its size and it didnt use to be aggressive and now when I try to put my hand in the water it will try ot bite. whats weird is that..there are like white stringy things that you can see thats INSIDE the tenticles of the bubble tip. And most of his tenticles look like they got bursted inside out.

 

[lbaskball]

This is an update to my BTA. It looks more horrible, and it no longer has tenticles..if it does..they are about 1mm in length compared to what it used to be (2inchs in length) I found out that my salinity might of been too low. I had it at 1.020 instead of at 1.023-1.025. My local fish store told me they need higher salinity. Maybe that might of been the cause. Does anyone know if i raise my salinity, if it will damage my corals?

 

[mr_bill]

Sounds like you have a ruff housing clown. Mine will randomly do the same thing, and I've also seen her grab a hammer coral end and tear it off on occasion. Everything is still alive and doing well though, so I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[lbaskball]

Originally Posted by Mr_Bill
Sounds like you have a ruff housing clown. Mine will randomly do the same thing, and I've also seen her grab a hammer coral end and tear it off on occasion. Everything is still alive and doing well though, so I wouldn't worry too much.
yeah this clown of mine has gotten very aggressive. I have had it for about 5months now. It didnt use to bite me but when I put my hands in the water it will bite me hard. Im just upset that I cant seem to keep anemones. The longest anemone Ive kept was a seabae anemone for 6months. The other BTA that I kept only lasted less then 2months.

 

[djmx2002]

i read somewhere that it is best to have around 1.025 to 1.027 salinity levels

 

[fishy7]

I put my long tenticle anemone in the tank and the 4 peppermint started eating it. Not cleaning-eating!

So bye bye to the shrimp. Anemone is happy once again. It took a flashlight at night to catch them. Clowns kept them away during the day hours.

 

[csupdog]

1.24-1.25 salinity
Good water flow, you need 10x tank size. eg. 20gallon needs 200gph movement inside tank. This is the minimum flow needed for anemones. Ive had great success with BTAs, in a tank with about 20x flow. 2000gph = 90 gallon tank.
I think at this point there is no return for your animal unfortunately.
I agree with all the posts about the clown being rough as well. Good luck next time! Fortunately BTAs are hardy, easy to find, and reproducing in captivity.

 

[lbaskball]

yeah I agree, my tank is a JBJ nano cube so it has plenty of water flow and I also use a external XP filstar filter that give sit more of a waterflow. I have enough lighting but I think I may have messed up on the salinity. It might of been a little low on top of the clown sucking on the tenticles. The anemone is still alive stuck to a rock and I see one of the clowns trying to hang on from his skin because the anemone has no tenticles. The salinity is now kept at 1.023 and I hope to get a good bubble tip anemone and have better luck next time. Not planning on getting another anemone for at least 8months, in the meantime I will enjoy looking at the long tenticle plate coral which my clowns have hosted in, that looks like an anemone!

 

[lbaskball]

I wanted to let EVERYONE KNOW...that I had a huge problem before of my rose bubble tip anemone loosing its tenticles. Well it lost ALL of its tenticles where it had none..but I didnt take him out of my nano tank, hoping there would be a miracle that it will still live..and guess what ????
My bubble tip has regained tenticles again...they are small but its showing signs of more and more tenticles compared to NO tenticles!! And just recently, I am starting to see some green colors on its tenticles. I am guessing it is regaining its zooaxanthelle as well! I am very happy and I am continuing to feed it.

 

[lbaskball]

Originally Posted by csupdog
1.24-1.25 salinity
Good water flow, you need 10x tank size. eg. 20gallon needs 200gph movement inside tank. This is the minimum flow needed for anemones. Ive had great success with BTAs, in a tank with about 20x flow. 2000gph = 90 gallon tank.
I think at this point there is no return for your animal unfortunately.
I agree with all the posts about the clown being rough as well. Good luck next time! Fortunately BTAs are hardy, easy to find, and reproducing in captivity.

Looks like mine might live to see another day...

 

[firedog]

As I was reading down the thread I was thinking don't give up it may come back if you fix the salinity. And congratulations since it has.
But I have an issue here. It is spelled "tentacles." Every time I had to do a double take reading this thread because I thought I saw "testicles."

 

[lbaskball]

Originally Posted by Firedog
As I was reading down the thread I was thinking don't give up it may come back if you fix the salinity. And congratulations since it has.
But I have an issue here. It is spelled "tentacles." Every time I had to do a double take reading this thread because I thought I saw "testicles."

tentacles it is..not testicles lol haha sorry

 

[lbaskball]

UPDATE OF MY ROSE BUBBLE TIP ANEMONE
04/09/06
I will soon be posting a picture from when it was dying to what it looks like now.
My anemone has grown back its tentacles and now I am starting to see pink tips growing in the center of its tentacles. THe tentacles are starting to have some light shades of green (signs of gaining back its zooaxanthalle) I thnk all of you will be amazed how it went from having no tentacles at ALL....to so many tentacles that it does now and the fact that it has gained pink tips now on its tentacles.THis has been an amazing experience for me specially because it went from healthy rose tip, 5inchs in length anemone to 1/2inchs of unhealthy dying anemone without tentacles to what it is now 3inchs in length with white bubble tips that it has now.
Check back soon for those pics. I will probably update it this evening.

 

[thomas712]

Sweet, great news, look forward to the new set of pics.
Thomas

 

[lbaskball]

HERE IS THE UPDATE FOR EVERYONE.
January 27th, 2006 -Rose Bubble Tip Anemone Bought from LFS. Very healthy, about 7inchs in diameter fully opened. Clowns started hosting after couple of hours.
IMAGE 1)First picture was taken during the first week when I bought it.

February 22nd, 2006. - The anemone has lost all of its tentacles, and the clowns are trying to bite on the anemone. It is almost literally biting on the anemones skin.
IMAGE 2)Second picture is of the clowns biting on the anemones skin, hardly any tentacles.

-Beginning of March- The anemone have completely lost its tentacles and its size has decreased to 1/2inch in diamter. The mouth is open loose. I do not have any pictures for March.

-End of March - Bubble tip is starting to gain back its tentacles. :notsure:
April 9th, 2006 - The bubble tip has gained back all of its tentacles. Also showing a light color of green as well as Pink tips!!!!!!!!!! It is eating food. And it is now 4 1/2inchs in length.

IMAGE 3) Taken today on APRIL 9th, 2006. You can see all the tentacles nicely. Also the pink tips on most of its tentacles. I can't believe that it didnt die.

IMAGE 4 & 5 -Just some more images from First Day and Today.
Hope those of you who might have a problem with your anemones to keep your hopes up because I almost threw this anemone away thinking it was dead or was going to be but decided to keep it anyway until the end. I will keep updating this thread in the future and thanks for everybodys advice throughout this thread!

My tank:
24gal JBJ nano cube
150watt MH + 36watt 50/50 CF
Ammonia: 0, Nitrate: 0, Nitrate:near 0, Ph 8.2, SALINITY 1.024-1.025

 

[lbaskball]

Originally Posted by Thomas712
Sweet, great news, look forward to the new set of pics.
Thomas
Hope you like the new pictures!

 

[jlbubbles]

:cheer: thats amazing! the likelyhood of an anemone ressurecting from the dead is pretty slie. Two thumbs up for you!!