Are Some BTA's

akabryanhall · Mar 9, 2011

Are some BTA's more aggressive to corals than others. I think I remember reading that green bta's were more aggressive as far as stinging other corals. My rainbow bta is constantly brushing against my vivid rainbow acro and nothing bad has happened.

akabryanhall · Mar 10, 2011

Bump for the evening crowd, someone must have an opinion about this!

clowns101 · Mar 10, 2011

Im honestly not even sure!But hey,you got a text!

akabryanhall · Mar 14, 2011

Lol I received a text! I heard another example of greens being more aggressive than rbta's if only I could remember where..

CJO · Mar 14, 2011

I have no idea, but I would be interested in seeing the replies. My guess would be that it varies by the individual (if clones could be said to be individual).

CJ

akabryanhall · Mar 14, 2011

Hey CJ, that is another thing that may be interesting to get some feedback on. I have a rainbow that is not aggressive, does that guarantee that all clones will behave themselves as well?

Anthony Calfo · Mar 14, 2011

its not a color or clone issue...its an anemone thing overall. They just dont tolerate others of their own kind normally unless they are clones (from the same parent). People experience different levels of suffering (not tolerance) whereby large tank volumes, better water quality, ozone use, etc can extend the seeming "tolerance" of non-clones, but long term its always bad to mix anemones. From a scientific perspective, they are chemically more noxious by far than stonies and most soft corals. Only algae are more noxious to their own kind, as a group.

CJO · Mar 14, 2011

Anthony Calfo said:
its not a color or clone issue...its an anemone thing overall. They just dont tolerate others of their own kind normally unless they are clones (from the same parent). People experience different levels of suffering (not tolerance) whereby large tank volumes, better water quality, ozone use, etc can extend the seeming "tolerance" of non-clones, but long term its always bad to mix anemones. From a scientific perspective, they are chemically more noxious by far than stonies and most soft corals. Only algae are more noxious to their own kind, as a group.

I'm guessing that's not the case for all anemones? I know of several people who keep gardens of maxi-mini anemones (Stichodactyla tapetum) without issue. One even reported a mass spawning event last week!

Back to the original question, do you have any opinions on different color anemones with regards to differing affects on corals?

Thanks,
CJ

jiffy · Mar 14, 2011

i have 2 BTAs, one green one red... ones from my LFS and the other is from my local fragger.. neither do i recall stinging or bothering anything and when they would change their positions in the tank somtimes they would end up right next to each other, seemed pretty tolerant to me.. id agree it depends on the individual anemone..

akabryanhall · Mar 14, 2011

I believe a lot of the warfare comes with adding anemones of different families together, carpet and bta for instance. I have seen bta exclusive tanks that don't seem to have issues at all.

I am still interested in bta's effects on corals though! has anyone had a bta sting a bunch of corals? Everything I read says bta's usually come out worse for wear when coming in contact with LPS.

patent · Mar 26, 2011

BTAs aren't as bad as some nems, but I still work hard to make sure they have a spot where they won't touch any corals. Sometimes not much you can do if they start to wander.

KLR · Mar 26, 2011

If some one could breed/create a very harmless stinging BTA they would be in buisness!

I have also heard like above(patent said) BTA's dont sting as bad as some anemones.

Tabasco1 · Mar 26, 2011

Really? LPS will win in a battle against BTA? I thought whenever a coral & anemone were pitted that the anemone was invariably the victor. Is that not the case? and also +1 to aka's OP ? regarding some BTA's not affecting coral. Would be interesting to hear others chime in with experience.