Help with BTA’s!

[BaileyB]

So I’ve had BTA’s a few times in the past, green one, and rose’s 2 different times. The green eventually shriveled up to nothing over the course of 6+ months and disappeared, same with the first rose bubble tip, second one lost in a tank crash so didn’t have it long. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? I can keep any LPS or softy, don’t do SPS. Everything does fine besides the nems. I just got about 60 black widow bubble tips from a break down and want to make a tank for them. They are currently sitting in my 33g sump to my low boy system. I have a standard 55g tank I was going to hang 2 black boxes over and blast them with the blue channel. Advice?????
Should I just pack the tank full of as much established rock and sand as I can? Are they going to die in a new system? What other stuff should I really worry about besides bright light? Since I’ll have a tank of 60+.. thanks guys I really want to make this anemone thing work out they are my favorite but just can’t seem to keep them. Thank you

 

[blaxsun]

Make sure they get some supplemental feeding like brine or mysis. Mine seem to best in low to medium flow with around 100-125 PAR, but I'm by no means a BTA expert (I currently have 6 in my display that are thriving despite the best efforts of my clownfish).

 

[BaileyB]

Make sure they get some supplemental feeding like brine or mysis. Mine seem to best in low to medium flow with around 100-125 PAR, but I'm by no means a BTA expert (I currently have 6 in my display that are thriving despite the best efforts of my clownfish).

Appreciate your response! Hopefully I’ll hear from others!

 

[Porpoise Hork]

My BTA's definitely love higher PAR levels in the 2-300 range, but I also have one that's much lower in the tank in the 100 PAR range but that one expands to 3 times the size of the others.

Much like hammers and torches don't like direct flow, but do well in mild turbulent flow patterns with alternating flow directions. As for feeding I give mine small pieces of scallops or silver sides that I cut into smaller steaks and feed once every 7-10 days. They also do not like high nutrient levels at all and can cause them to fade in color.

The only BTA I had a hard time with was a green one. It was just really sensitive to light/feeding/flow. Any change and it would lose color and almost bleach itself. Even when I'd clean the pumps and the flow increased in the tank it got fussy. I ended up pulling it out.

 

[jp415]

I have about 15+ shermans in mine and they react well to low flow and moderate lighting around the 200 - 250 range.

Digging the BW nems let me know if you decide to part with any after they start splitting.

 

[UnderseaOddities]

No sand,crushed coral or rocky substrate if u gonna go substrate

Also alot of rock and rubble

I would reccomend feeding the system 2 x daily spirulina an mysis once in morning after lights are on for an hour and they first open the oral disc widen the plate and then right before lights out when they start to hunt in the wild it's also crucial to cut all flow when feeding
Target feeding target feed 1x a week on water change day a half hour before wc


Also make sure u have guards on weir and wavemakers that way a nem cant get cut up and spike the n and p and die and get that rotten fishy potato vomit reek goin on and cloud up the water and pee off the other nems for a couple days

Wc 35% weekly,25% 2x weekly, 10% a day depend on size of system and where numberscare at

Mag 1200 to 1400 below they'll start to get transparent and be susceptible to bacteria

To high mag theyll green out and get like this weird bannay foxtail and close up and not eat then move on u

Next when dealing with so many nems in a closed environment u might be better off running a drain to waste style system and have it set up where u can do 10% change daily to keep up on waste as they can eat alot

In order to prevent bacteria from spreading dont propigate in same tank have a seperate tank for propigation as once a nem is cut it is more prone to damage and is more supspiciptable, it is crucial to iodine dip after cutting and iodine dip if them appears to be in compromised health

Alway use clean utensil when cutting never use glue have rubble in basket for foot to re attach

Clean utensil with water and then 91%isopropyl alcohol dry put away

If its transparent and looks like its healthy still it could be low mag and dkh and u can fix the correlation and adjust before it's to late

If its bacterial or pathogenic it may be to later can try cipro dip if it's a shriveled foot of a nem and stick it under a rock for a few days and cut the light for a couple days and see if it comes bk

Also target feed krill or calamari chopped or freeze dried jumbo brine and mix it with something like benepets or coral FRENZY powder or goniopower (which ever u prefer are better for things like gonis nems sps bc u can feed more regular than reefroids not spike phosphate and all three have probiotic enriched formula)

This will keep it nice and round and robust if kept in moderate par

To low par and too much flow the rbta can become less bulbous and stretchy and look completley different

Sometimes they go through weirdness were they look mad even though everything's on point theis usually means they're either gonna move soon or lacerated off a pup or two from the foot and walk and leave 2 babies

If u want feed amino an hour before target feeding to get the other coral happy and target feed them too

I heard somewhere that there was something in amino that get snail crabs shrimp and worm an intoxicating affect and makes them almost drunk so they get very hungry very fast bc they normally have a very slow metabolism being saltwater creatures and all

Hope this helps

 

[UnderseaOddities]

My BTA's definitely love higher PAR levels in the 2-300 range, but I also have one that's much lower in the tank in the 100 PAR range but that one expands to 3 times the size of the others.

Much like hammers and torches don't like direct flow, but do well in mild turbulent flow patterns with alternating flow directions. As for feeding I give mine small pieces of scallops or silver sides that I cut into smaller steaks and feed once every 7-10 days. They also do not like high nutrient levels at all and can cause them to fade in color.

The only BTA I had a hard time with was a green one. It was just really sensitive to light/feeding/flow. Any change and it would lose color and almost bleach itself. Even when I'd clean the pumps and the flow increased in the tank it got fussy. I ended up pulling it out.

Right it's a hard battle sometimes honestly I'd say its 50/ 50 with the nemsclike u said u can put em in the high par high flow and that's where they really color up but dont grow a whole lot

But in the middle of the tank were the water colum is deeper that specimen is recieving a more diffused spread compared to were the nems uptop are blasted with shortwave actinic blues to make the color pop

The more even diffused spread a few inches below contains more whites and blues together get growth just not the same color

 

[UnderseaOddities]

It's always my favorite ones that get hit by some charlie sheen @#$$ incurable and die a week or a few months later

It's a love hate,once they're marked for death tho u can feel it in you're gut ur like man I'm abou to loose this thing what a ***** really anenome ur gonna do me like this I thought we were pall what gives I target feed ur &$$ u popped babies off last week, oh I see u nem it was all good a week ago...



That's the reefing life tho cant win all the time