BTA dying or splitting?

Kristophf · Mar 20, 2019

Hi guys, had this bta for about 3 months. Was running it in a 100l nano with a few fish and other lps ( hammers, zoas, shrooms and galaxea) under low led lighting. I didnt realise how little par i had but was recently given a seneye and the par readings were around 20. Everything else is doing fine but about a week ago i found him looking very shrivelled and sickly and the tanks nitrates had suddenly risen up to about 20+ ppm. Also i have 2 clowns, the larger dominant one would be in there alot and may have contributed to his stress.

A week before i had just set up a QT tank with rock and sand from the existing tank and better lighting and moved him to there by himself where i have been performing frequent water changes and watching him. He seemed to react well to the new lighting at first, but was still releasing toxins i think as i have been fighting high nitrates in the QT tank now. Hes also had alot of stringy looking mucus hanging off of him which i manually suck out with tubing. The other night it looked like he was splitting into 2, but in general he just looks very sick to me. Ive never kept a nem before and am doing my best to try and save this one.

Any tips on what i should/shouldnt do and if he is likely to make it or not would be great. Have attatched pics. Thanks!

PursuitOfHappiness · Mar 20, 2019

Kristophf said:
Hi guys, had this bta for about 3 months. Was running it in a 100l nano with a few fish and other lps ( hammers, zoas, shrooms and galaxea) under low led lighting. I didnt realise how little par i had but was recently given a seneye and the par readings were around 20. Everything else is doing fine but about a week ago i found him looking very shrivelled and sickly and the tanks nitrates had suddenly risen up to about 20+ ppm. Also i have 2 clowns, the larger dominant one would be in there alot and may have contributed to his stress.

A week before i had just set up a QT tank with rock and sand from the existing tank and better lighting and moved him to there by himself where i have been performing frequent water changes and watching him. He seemed to react well to the new lighting at first, but was still releasing toxins i think as i have been fighting high nitrates in the QT tank now. Hes also had alot of stringy looking mucus hanging off of him which i manually suck out with tubing. The other night it looked like he was splitting into 2, but in general he just looks very sick to me. Ive never kept a nem before and am doing my best to try and save this one.

Any tips on what i should/shouldnt do and if he is likely to make it or not would be great. Have attatched pics. Thanks!

Its attached at least and not just floating around. Make sure the nitrates are low. Small pieces of unshelled UNcooked (raw) table shrimp will help it. Remove anything it doesn't eat.

PursuitOfHappiness · Mar 20, 2019

Kristophf said:
Hi guys, had this bta for about 3 months. Was running it in a 100l nano with a few fish and other lps ( hammers, zoas, shrooms and galaxea) under low led lighting. I didnt realise how little par i had but was recently given a seneye and the par readings were around 20. Everything else is doing fine but about a week ago i found him looking very shrivelled and sickly and the tanks nitrates had suddenly risen up to about 20+ ppm. Also i have 2 clowns, the larger dominant one would be in there alot and may have contributed to his stress.

A week before i had just set up a QT tank with rock and sand from the existing tank and better lighting and moved him to there by himself where i have been performing frequent water changes and watching him. He seemed to react well to the new lighting at first, but was still releasing toxins i think as i have been fighting high nitrates in the QT tank now. Hes also had alot of stringy looking mucus hanging off of him which i manually suck out with tubing. The other night it looked like he was splitting into 2, but in general he just looks very sick to me. Ive never kept a nem before and am doing my best to try and save this one.

Any tips on what i should/shouldnt do and if he is likely to make it or not would be great. Have attatched pics. Thanks!

Its quite bleached. The tentacles are shrinking badly. If you can post tank parameters.

Kristophf · Mar 20, 2019

Bleached as in not enough light?

My params

Ph - 8.2
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10 (been doing 10-20% water changes every 2 days to keep it lower than 20)
Kh - 9
Phosphate - <.25
Calcium - 450

Kristophf · Mar 20, 2019

Also tried feeding a nem pellet the other day and it didnt respond to it so i took it out. Its moved up the rock either closer to a flow pump or maybe higher for more light?

Kristophf · Mar 21, 2019

Kristophf said:
Bleached as in not enough light?

My params

Ph - 8.2
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10 (been doing 10-20% water changes every 2 days to keep it lower than 20)
Kh - 9
Phosphate - <.25
Calcium - 450

PursuitOfHappiness said:
Its quite bleached. The tentacles are shrinking badly. If you can post tank parameters.

All params in the new and old tank were quite stable, it gets hot here in Oz summer so there were a few days over 27 but never let it get over 28 celcius. My salinity is always sitting around 1.025. The QT tank has only been running about 2 weeks but was well seeded from my other tank so therr wasnt really much of a cycle just a bit of diatoms. I think its getting about 50 par right now under the new lights cause i didny want to shock it, should i slowly turn it up?

My light is an aqualina xp pro

reef lover · Mar 21, 2019

It is severely bleached ...could have been too much or too little at one time.
Best is to slowly increase the light source and feed small.amounts often to help regrow his strength.

Kristophf · Mar 21, 2019

reef lover said:
It is severely bleached ...could have been too much or too little at one time.
Best is to slowly increase the light source and feed small.amounts often to help regrow his strength.

Will do def was not gettin enough light with my other tank. Ill keep nursing him and hopefully hes able to make a full recovery

Kristophf · Mar 21, 2019

PursuitOfHappiness said:
Its attached at least and not just floating around. Make sure the nitrates are low. Small pieces of unshelled UNcooked (raw) table shrimp will help it. Remove anything it doesn't eat.

Hmm lights just went out and i went to check on him and hes fallen off the rocks and is sitting face down on the sand bed... is this bad?

reef lover · Mar 21, 2019

Yes not good :(. Is he still sticky

PursuitOfHappiness · Mar 21, 2019

Kristophf said:
Hmm lights just went out and i went to check on him and hes fallen off the rocks and is sitting face down on the sand bed... is this bad?

If you have a clean container and some pieces of rubble rocks you may be able to get it reatached but it doesnt look good. Bare minimum flip it mouth side up. Try to get it on a rock and feed it.

Kristophf · Mar 21, 2019

reef lover said:
Yes not good :(. Is he still sticky

PursuitOfHappiness said:
If you have a clean container and some pieces of rubble rocks you may be able to get it reatached but it doesnt look good. Bare minimum flip it mouth side up. Try to get it on a rock and feed it.

It was late in the night so i just gently placed him back on the rockwork and hoped for the best. This morning i was half expecting to see a rotten mess but got up to find he had re-attatched and is looking more or less the same but not dead. I fed him a small pellet and turned my lights down a little.

P.s this bta was white when i bought him at my lfs, he had a few white and purple tips for sale. Were these already bleached or is that just the natural colour of this species?

reef lover · Mar 21, 2019

He was already bleached. He might need a cipro treatment to recover.

PursuitOfHappiness · Mar 21, 2019

Kristophf said:
It was late in the night so i just gently placed him back on the rockwork and hoped for the best. This morning i was half expecting to see a rotten mess but got up to find he had re-attatched and is looking more or less the same but not dead. I fed him a small pellet and turned my lights down a little.

P.s this bta was white when i bought him at my lfs, he had a few white and purple tips for sale. Were these already bleached or is that just the natural colour of this species?

Already bleached. Sucks a store would willingly sell a unhealthy nem

cracker · Mar 21, 2019

There are no white nems in nature ,right?
Kristophf, Sorry for you troubles.

Kristophf · Mar 21, 2019

Not sure but i had seen similair looking ones sold online in other parts of australia. What colour was this bta supposed to be then? It had a slight green shade when i first got it

reef lover · Mar 22, 2019

Should be a fluorescent green...

Kristophf · Mar 22, 2019

Seems a little better today and nitrates are stabilizing, if his health doesnt start to improve in the next week i might look into cipro. Hopefully i can get his green colour back! Thanks everyone for your help [emoji111]