Uncertain about my BTA

[drumandbassrunner]

Hi,
I've had this bubble tip anemone for about 2 weeks. I'm really unsure about what it is experiencing. It kind-of opens up at night, but the tentacles look stuck. During the day, it closes up a bit, but not totally. Its mouth is partially open during the day, although not gaping. It doesn't seem to really eat, I've tried a couple of times. It's foot seems pretty secure in the rock. It doesn't move around the tank at all. It sat on the gravel, never moved, so I moved it to rock and then it sunk in. My maroon loves it and I was concerned that perhaps she was irritating him. I have another anemone, a long tentacle, which is doing amazing. I attached four pictures with the aquarium lights off. For lights, I have two ReefLED90, set at 80% 23K at the highest point of the day. Thank you all for any knowledge you may have to share.

Here are my stats:
age: just over 1 year
pH: 8.3
Alk: 10.6
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate: 0 (not sure why nitrate keep showing up as 0?)
Phos: .5 (working on lowering; they are going down)
Salinity: 1.024
Temp: 77 - 79

I have a 55 gal display tank with 10 gal sump (Red Sea 250), protein skimmer, GFO/Carbon reactor.

 

[RC Corals]

Looks bleached out, which can be stressful.
Also, Maroons and Lightning Maroons can be rather "physical" with anemones which also could be bothering him.

He definitely looks weak.

 

[drumandbassrunner]

Looks bleached out, which can be stressful.
Also, Maroons and Lightning Maroons can be rather "physical" with anemones which also could be bothering him.

He definitely looks weak.

Thank you RC Corals. I appreciate the feedback and help!

 

[RC Corals]

Could be to much light bleached him out... what other corals are in your system at 1 year?

 

[drumandbassrunner]

I have polyps, elegance coral, and mushroom coral. They all seem to be thriving. My long tentacle is also doing really well in the tank; been there about 2 months.

 

[drumandbassrunner]

Here are some pictures from today with the lights on. I included pics of my LT and my corals. You'll notice with the BTA, the little mouth is open. It only does this during the day when the lights are on. I hope this helps with context and thank you again for reviewing and offering feedback.

 

[RC Corals]

Looks fine under the blues. You may just be encountering him in tired and sleep mode... paired with the clownfish harassing him. Doesn't look bleached under blues, so I wouldn't worry about that.

If he's puffing up decently like that it may just be a matter of "anemones are weird but awesome". You can walk by the aquarium and tick them of enough to pout sometimes.

 

[chizerbunoi]

I think you need to separate the anemone from the maroon. If the anemone doesn’t start to grow out tentacles then you will need to look at treatment. At this point, feeding small amounts of food like pellets would be my choice of option. As there are no tentacles you will have to insert it into its mouth.

I’m assuming that pic 1 and 2 are different anemones and pic 1 is the problem one?

 

[drumandbassrunner]

I think you need to separate the anemone from the maroon. If the anemone doesn’t start to grow out tentacles then you will need to look at treatment. At this point, feeding small amounts of food like pellets would be my choice of option. As there are no tentacles you will have to insert it into its mouth.

I’m assuming that pic 1 and 2 are different anemones and pic 1 is the problem one?

Thank for your feedback. Yes, two different anemones, the first one that is kind of bunched up is the problem one. I fed him earlier today with some mysis shrimp; I used a syringe with a solution of saltwater and thawed shrimp and gently injected directly into the mouth. He closed up a little after that so I'm hoping that is because he was digesting.

I was also thinking about that with the maroon, however the maroon hasn't been too crazy with the anemone. Regardless, I am able to create a mesh barrier without moving the anemone.

Thank you again for your recommendation.

 

[drumandbassrunner]

Looks fine under the blues. You may just be encountering him in tired and sleep mode... paired with the clownfish harassing him. Doesn't look bleached under blues, so I wouldn't worry about that.

If he's puffing up decently like that it may just be a matter of "anemones are weird but awesome". You can walk by the aquarium and tick them of enough to pout sometimes.

Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad to hear that he's not bleached. He's definitely odd and acts very differently from the long tentacle.

 

[dvgyfresh]

It could be chemical warfare between the anemones due to different species. I’ve lost 2 BTA because they were separate colors GBTA / rose / rainbow . The GBTA was the winner lol. Not trying to stress ya but yr anemone looks Like how mine were before they died

 

[drumandbassrunner]

It could be chemical warfare between the anemones due to different species. I’ve lost 2 BTA because they were separate colors GBTA / rose / rainbow . The GBTA was the winner lol. Not trying to stress ya but yr anemone looks Like how mine were before they died

Thanks for the insight. Hopefully I can help him recover and prevent warfare. I appreciate the heads up!

 

[dvgyfresh]

Thanks for the insight. Hopefully I can help him recover and prevent warfare. I appreciate the heads up!

Just run fresh carbon and you should be good I also think mine were wild not aqua cultured

 

[RC Corals]

I've got 3 exotic bubbletips that came in huge, and appear to be more deep water anemones. Unique, but came in very weak and are really slow gaining / adapting. But they're gaining.

 

[chizerbunoi]

It could be chemical warfare between the anemones due to different species. I’ve lost 2 BTA because they were separate colors GBTA / rose / rainbow . The GBTA was the winner lol. Not trying to stress ya but yr anemone looks Like how mine were before they died

I actually had no luck keeping green with rose as well. Now I just kept the rose variety.

 

[laverda]

Your anemone looks bleached. From what I have seen is common from LFS not keeping them under enough light. BTAs love light. They also like nitrate in the water as it is a food source for them. Your zero nitrates concerns me. You need nitrates for your other corals as well. I personally would not worry about getting your phosphates low as again almost all living creatures need phosphate. I have never dosed nitrates but if your truly at zero I think you should. If your dosing nopox to lower your phosphate than that my be why your nitrates are so low. My nitrates are 20- 25 and my BTAs love it. They do well in nitrates as high as 120 I know from past experience.

 

[drumandbassrunner]

Your anemone looks bleached. From what I have seen is common from LFS not keeping them under enough light. BTAs love light. They also like nitrate in the water as it is a food source for them. Your zero nitrates concerns me. You need nitrates for your other corals as well. I personally would not worry about getting your phosphates low as again almost all living creatures need phosphate. I have never dosed nitrates but if your truly at zero I think you should. If your dosing nopox to lower your phosphate than that my be why your nitrates are so low. My nitrates are 20- 25 and my BTAs love it. They do well in nitrates as high as 120 I know from past experience.

Thank you so much for your recommendations and insight! I really appreciate it. I'm not dosing nopox, so I know that is not the issue. However, I have been feeding a bit less to lower phosphate. It's good know that I don't really need to be concerned about it. I don't think I did enough research in advance of buying the BTA. If I would have been able to recognize some of the concerns at my LFS, I wouldn't have purchased him. At the LFS, he was sitting on top of the gravel, not attached to anything and he looked like a sushi roll. I was too distracted by other purchases that I didn't take the time to really investigate.

I'll see what I can do to get the nitrates increased. I'm also working from home and here all day, so I'm able to monitor closely. As of today, there have not really been any changes aside from the mouth being closed up more. Hopefully that's a good sign! Thank you again for your thoughtful response.

 

[laverda]

You might go back to your regular feeding and use something like bluelife phosphate control to manage the phosphates. Good luck!

 

[drumandbassrunner]

An update...I’ve been giving my anemone extra attention and it seems to be coming back. Tentacles are returning and they are getting some color.

Thanks for everyone’s feedback.