what is up with my bta - please help

[krazekajin]

I have a bta in my 29gallon. It is under 305w of light (175w 20K MH and 2 65w PC). I have had it since the first of January in which it has grown almost triple its size. It was about 8inchs across. I feed it about once a week krill.
These are the paremters that I know of.
Amm, nitrite, nitrite is all 0
PH is 8.1
At the beginning of this saga, the SG was 1.022. I know have it at 1.025 (over two days to raise.)
Anyway here is a progression of pictures. this has been going on since Saturday. I thought it was trying to split, but now I am thinking that is dying. I don't know what would cause it to die or be wounded like this. The anemone has stayed in this spot since I bought it. it might move up the rock or down the rock a couple of inches, but it does not wander.

 

[krazekajin]

more pics

 

[krazekajin]

I also have posted a thread in the clownfish and anemones forum where several have helped. Please check that out and see what is going on in that forum./

 

[misfit]

looks to me like it is definately splitting.I have heard when they do this, they dont look so good for a little while.keep us posted :happyfish

 

[krazekajin]

I have heard that too, but Thomas, the resident anemone expert, has said that his split in one night, not over the course of three days.
Has anybody had one take three days to split?

 

[misfit]

I have heard that they sometimes dont look good before and after the split.I have also heard that it happens quickly mabey yours just isnt.But i wouldnt say its dying.But I would keep a close eye on your water parm.

 

[krazekajin]

what things should I test for, besides ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph.
Calcium, Alk? does any of that matter with an anemone.

 

[thomas712]

You can test for all that just so you know where you stand with your water chemsitry. Just try to keep things stable if you can.
Thomas

 

[krazekajin]

I tested again.
My ammonia is 0
My nitrates - 0
My nitrites - 10 (I get my nitries and nitrates mixed up. It is the last test that comes back at 10)
my ph is 8.1(but this is my normal ph, so there has not been any wild ph swings
my SG is 1.026 but I am slowly getting it back to 1.025.
I can't test for the others yet, becuase myLFS that I go to does not test for anything else. I know that I need to buy a test kit, but right now I don't have one.
My LFS looked at it as well and he said that it looked healty (other than the stretching/splittingpart) and because it was still very firmly attached, he said just leavve it alone and it would be fix itself. Right now I am just watching my ammonia to make sure that it is not decaying.

 

[krazekajin]

I need help. I have posted a similar thread with more pics in the Clownfish/anemone forum.
Can somebody please advise me on what to do. As of two days ago, there was no ammonia. I don't want to give up on this anemone, but I also don't want to lose others because of an ammonia spike.
Here are the latest pics. Two of the pics is of the lower half of the anemone that shows white spagetti like things that I think are the anemones' guts. Not a good sign I think.

 

[misfit]

cant really tell from these pictures, strip still left does look thinner(good thing)I have seen dead and dying anenomedoesnt look like that. Check ammonia and wait that is all you can do :thinking:

 

[zedx6]

I would double check your nitrates, I had a similar problem about 2 months ago, nitrates spiked a bit, ended up doing 10% water changes for 4-5 days in a row.

 

[clown123]

didnt u put this in the clownfish section just keep the post there a bta isnt really a coral!lol but yea that is VERY VERY wierd wat it is doing!

 

[krazekajin]

I only put it here to get more views. My tank is a reef tank, so I figured this would be the catch all place. So far no definite answers. i am just playing the waiting game.

 

[zedx6]

Do not know if you double checked nitrates , think you said they were 10 which does not seem that bad but like I said I had a nitrate spike and my 2 anemones looked like i was going to loose them. My Heteractis Crispa actually released some of it's zooxanthellate, the bubble tip strecthed out like it was going to split very similar to yours. After the water changes they have returned to normal, the bubble tips base/foot as well. Looked like the rest of your numbers were ok so!

 

[krazekajin]

I have double checked my nitrates. They went to 20, but I did a water change of five gallons in my 29 gallon tank. I am going right now to check my cal and alk.
I was looking at my anemone last night and I touched the thin flap of flesh that has been seperating the two pieces. Anyway, I gently pulled on the flap to see if how attached the anemone was since the bottom half looked dead to me. When I gently (allow me to stress the word gently) pulled, the flap of skin seperated. Thus I now had two pieces of anemone. I looked at my tank today and the bottom anemone looked very much dead. It has not started melting, but I could see its guts and its tenticles were hanging straight down. But the top anemone tenticles are bubbled. So something is okay there. I am going to see if I can save the top one and the bottom one I have removed from my tank.

 

[misfit]

Thats a shame that you lost the one

on the bright side ,you didnt lose both

the whole thing was really weird.Good luck

 

[krazekajin]

Are you ready for the kicker . . .
I went to my favorite LFS today. it is the fartherest away from me, but I like them alot. They have $19.99 frags that other stores sell for 60 bucks. Anyway. I was going to test for alk/cal, etc.
The first thing is that they did not have any cal tests left. So I bought myself a test kit. Yayyy... Haven't used it, but I know have it.
They tested my salinity. It was at 1.30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought it was at 1.025. Turns out my hydrometer is shot. I bought a new one. This must mean that while I was thinking my tank was at 1.022, it might have been at 1.026 and then when I raised my tank to what I thought was 1.025 it went to 1.030. Yikes.
Anyway, I am doing several waterchanges to slowly bring my salinity to normal levels. So, this might have hurt my anemone. Who knows how long my hydrometer was bad. Next thing is my PH. It has always been around 8.0. So, I am using kents buffer. But the LFS says when they run into a tank that is hard to buffer, they take pieces of dead coral skeletons and put them in thier sump or canister. i have a flugal 304, so I am going to put some of these pieces in my can and see if that helps. I also have some idodine that I am going to be dosing with. The top anemone is starting to look right. I will have to get some pics and show you the progress now.