Oh my goodness!!!!!!!

[eejay3]

This morning my BTA was open and eating (krill). I went to my in-laws for the afternoon and when I got home it looks like this.

It that its mouth that wide open???? :scared:
Should I take him out immediately or is there any hope for this guy?
Oh - he also changed spots this morning.
Water parameters are:
Nitrate 30 (I'm working on it - more frequent water changes etc.)
Nitrite 0
Alk 300
pH 7.8 (working on that too)
Temp 78-80 always
1 perc
2 green chromis
1 sixline wrasse
1 scarlet hermit
1 turbo grazer snail
1 cleaner shrimp
no other inverts
150W PC
:help:

 

[eejay3]

Oh yeah - forgot to mention 25g
Sorry

 

[a. clarkii]

Going from that picture it looks horrible. Your nitrates are high and you have a really small cleanup crew. Why is this in the "Reef Tanks" forum and not in the "Anemones and Clownfish" forum? You will get more members there more dedicated to anemones and clownfish
Give it some time and see if it comes back to life. Only take it out if its falling apart. Try placing a small piece of fish or shrimp on the mouth and see if it eats. To come back from a state like this, it needs energy.

 

[drewsta]

What is your ammonia level? It doesn't look good I would probably pull it out i don't see it coming back sorry

 

[poniegirl]

Your nitrates aren't awful at 30..the PH would be more of an issue at this point. Also wonder about your ammonia level?

 

[fishy7]

How long has your tank been set up?

 

[promisetbg]

Originally Posted by PonieGirl
Your nitrates aren't awful at 30..the PH would be more of an issue at this point. Also wonder about your ammonia level?
No way an anemone can withstand nitrates at 30 for long. How long has this tank been set up?

 

[eejay3]

Ammonia level is 0. I checked that right away because that's what I wondered too.
Tank was upgraded from a smaller one about a month and a half ago. Other tank was about 4 months.
After I posted the pic I noticed that it seems that his "intestines" were starting to fall out of his mouth, so I moved him to my QT tank just to pull out all hope. Today he is looking better! :joy: Still not fully inflated, but mouth is back to normal size. I am taking my DT water in to have it tested at the LFS. QT tank is seperate water supply. Thanks for the input!!

 

[candycane]

Well I do know that when they have just been fed or are hungry, their "stomach" appears to be falling out and they do deflate. I can't really tell the extent of it from that pic though. I know I have 3 of them and they do it all the time. I would still keep an eye on him though. Google "deflated BTA" or something.

 

[a. clarkii]

Originally Posted by PonieGirl
Your nitrates aren't awful at 30..the PH would be more of an issue at this point. Also wonder about your ammonia level?
Have never heard of anyone successfully keeping an anemone with nitrates of 30. Remember, anemones live decades in the wild and they never come into contact with dirty water. We should emulate their habitat as best as possible. I prefer 0 nitrates for obvious reasons.

 

[mudplayerx]

Anemones do wierd and horrible-looking shape changes all time. Sometimes they even open so wide that they seem to turn inside-out just to clean their gut out after a meal. Make sure that you don't manually remove your anemone from its perch, as that is really bad. Try instead to move the whole rock it is on.
BTW, an anemone dying in your tank is no more harmful than a fish dying in your tank. The notion among aquarists that a dead anemone will poison a whole tank is false. Also, you aneome isn't dying unless parts of it start to disintegrate. Many a healthy anemone has been discarded due to shape changing.
A ph of 7.8 isn't horrible as long as it is consistantly 7.8. The nitrates at 30 should be remedied if possible though.
ps- how large is your tank? 150watts of pc lighting isn't much for an anemone.

 

[a. clarkii]

Originally Posted by mudplayerx
Anemones do wierd and horrible-looking shape changes all time. Sometimes they even open so wide that they seem to turn inside-out just to clean their gut out after a meal. Make sure that you don't manually remove your anemone from its perch, as that is really bad. Try instead to move the whole rock it is on.
BTW, an anemone dying in your tank is no more harmful than a fish dying in your tank. The notion among aquarists that a dead anemone will poison a whole tank is false. Also, you aneome isn't dying unless parts of it start to disintegrate. Many a healthy anemone has been discarded due to shape changing.
A ph of 7.8 isn't horrible as long as it is consistantly 7.8. The nitrates at 30 should be remedied if possible though.
ps- how large is your tank? 150watts of pc lighting isn't much for an anemone.
I have never seen my anemones once turn inside-out or even open its mouth to clean itself. They just shrivel up.
I have read many threads where anemones have died and killed off many of the tank inhabitants. An anemone is actually way more harmful than a fish dying in a tank. Anemones decompose rather much more quickly than any fish thus the ammonia level spikes up much quicker. With a fish it usually takes a lot longer and plus a cleanup crew will clean up your dead fish.
I would rather have two fish die on me overnight than one anemone.

 

[reef diver]

Mine does that all the time when he is pooping, especially aftrer a rather large meal. Mine turned really far inside out when he did that because he had some shrimp meat stuck way down. It looks like mine when mine poops. Man i wanna get home....

 

[eejay3]

Reef!
Well, I got my water tested at LFS tonight and they said the same thing since my levels were not too bad. However, my calcium was at 260 (I think it should be around 400?)
They sold me "Kent's Nano Reef" to put in the water to up the calcium. Anyone ever tried this?
BTW anemone looking pretty good in QT now. But I was waiting on LFS check until I add back in. Now I guess I'll wait until Ca up too.

 

[a. clarkii]

Originally Posted by eejay3

Reef!
Well, I got my water tested at LFS tonight and they said the same thing since my levels were not too bad. However, my calcium was at 260 (I think it should be around 400?)
They sold me "Kent's Nano Reef" to put in the water to up the calcium. Anyone ever tried this?
BTW anemone looking pretty good in QT now. But I was waiting on LFS check until I add back in. Now I guess I'll wait until Ca up too.
There are a lot better products than Kent.