BTA Emergency Help

[DaringDiabetic]

Hi All,

I started keeping a healthy little green BTA in my 5 gallon pico reef about two months ago,
I have a small ocellaris and wanted to give him something to host with, with the plan being to move the BTA to my larger tank when he outgrew the pico.
He was fine and I got him to host with my clown well enough,
But he suddenly moved himself one day while I was at work to the back of the tank, sandwiching himself between to rocks and the glass at the back of the rock structure. He did fine there for awhile, and I’ve been running his tank parameters pretty consistent,
A 34 on the salinity,
74° F,
And the flow he’s getting is not too much, not too little,
But suddenly he’s taken a turn for the worst,
And there doesn’t seem to be much I can do to remedy it.
He’s gone through several periods where he’s lost color and then gotten it back, he’s let out some slime, but he’s stayed relatively inflated the whole time. I just can’t work out what to do here and don’t want to wait too long for the sake of the rest of the tank, but don’t want to call it too early if he can be saved.

He’s my first anemone and I really appreciate any help.

 

[fishguy242]

First ,is he in the larger tank now? 2nd lets call some help, #reefsqaud ,and finally,
hi welcome to the reef going to love it here!
lots of fun/info/fun/help/fun!!!
best wishes with your nem

 

[OrionN]

You may want to pull him out and treat him with antibiotic. There is a write up on how to treat sick anemone with antibiotic thread sticky on top of this forum.
good luck with him.
temperature is a little too low. Consider bring it up to at least 78, maybe 80 degree.
make sure parameter are stable.

 

[Mical]

I agree on temp being low, bring it up slowly and give it plenty of light.

 

[DaringDiabetic]

Hi All,

I started keeping a healthy little green BTA in my 5 gallon pico reef about two months ago,
I have a small ocellaris and wanted to give him something to host with, with the plan being to move the BTA to my larger tank when he outgrew the pico.
He was fine and I got him to host with my clown well enough,
But he suddenly moved himself one day while I was at work to the back of the tank, sandwiching himself between to rocks and the glass at the back of the rock structure. He did fine there for awhile, and I’ve been running his tank parameters pretty consistent,
A 34 on the salinity,
74° F,
And the flow he’s getting is not too much, not too little,
But suddenly he’s taken a turn for the worst,
And there doesn’t seem to be much I can do to remedy it.
He’s gone through several periods where he’s lost color and then gotten it back, he’s let out some slime, but he’s stayed relatively inflated the whole time. I just can’t work out what to do here and don’t want to wait too long for the sake of the rest of the tank, but don’t want to call it too early if he can be saved.

He’s my first anemone and I really appreciate any help.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for helping,
I started feeling real overwhelmed by this guy;
Like I said, I don’t want him (or anything else in the tank to die.
@fishguy242 - He’s still in the smaller tank for now. He’s smaller than my palm even when he’s healthy, so the plan was to eventually move him when he got bigger.
@OrionN - I usually keep it higher but I think as the house has gotten colder now that summer is over it dropped a bit; we turned the heater on last night and the tank is at 77° now

As a quick update:
Last night I checked all of my parameters again and I’m operating good and normal, pH solid, and salinity good. Like I mentioned, the temp has started to come back up now that we’ve readjusted the temperature in the house.
Also last night, shortly after posting,
I got him to eat some mysis shrimp after leaving the flow off for longer than I usually do, and I noticed that my light was running slightly more dim than usual, so I went and made a hefty light replacement today for a much better quality one.
I’m not sure which, if not all of those things affected him, but he’s looking slightly better today at least than he was yesterday, and his foot appears more secure as well.
He’s still pale and his tentacles don’t all look great, and his mouth is still open, but he’s at least extended more for the new light.
Thank you for all of your help so far;
I look forward to talking some more with everyone here, albeit hopefully under better circumstances!

 

[OrionN]

Do you dose two parts, three parts or Kalk? Anemone are very sensitive to quick increase in pH. Need to drip the high pH solution slow or it will stress all the anemones.

 

[Spieg]

You already addressed my 2 ideas - light and food. Hope it gets better.