Trouble with BTA?

[entacmaea]

Hi there,

My BTA appears to be struggling. It seems to fluctuate in health, with it being small with its mouth open at times and large and healthy at others. I just did a big water change and thought that would help but it didn't seem to do much. I'm noticing that it is more unhealthy more often than not now and worry it will not survive if I can't figure out what is going on. My tank is a mature system (over 3 years old), but has had persistent phosphate issues for a long time. I'm using phosphate minus to help with this. My clownfish are hosting it so the physical stress from this could be a contributing factor. However, I've noticed that when the anemone has its mouth open and is struggling, the clownfish aren't interested in it. Is that normal? Could they be stressing it out repeatedly when it recovers? I really don't want to lose this anemone, as it was difficult to find a green bubble tip anemone and I love the color contrast of the green against the orange of the clownfish. I have an image that was taken earlier today of when the anemone was in good health and the clownfish were hosting it actively.

 

[KrisReef]

Yeah, It doesn't look healthy.
Sometimes folks use antibiotics to treat nems with gaping, but i wouldn't know where to start in this case.

My limited success in these cases indicates to me that as long as the fish are tending it has a chance, a good chance since they are natural care takers of their hosts. Bump for better ideas.

@OrionN - ??