Why is my BTA refusing food

[HIpposReef]

I got my BTA when my tank was four months old.. the tank water is fine, flow is awesome, two wavemakers and one hang-back filter. light is 165 watts hangover by WILLS its an LED, I turned down the light for it because I thought it was too much.. but its not helping so I turned it back up to normal settings they recommended to me.

it was fine for 2 weeks before it started to turn into nubs and shrivel up all the time, refusing to eat. I give thawed-out shrimp cubes with a mixture of the shrimps they can eat. I even tried bloodworms! it just quit eating and chooses to try to die. I got 4 fish in the tank, plus two hermits.. the clownfish even ignore it or try to help but it just won't stop trying to die. Am I missing something? Do I need to add in AB more often? today its really fighting to die but Ive tried everything.

I am getting anemone pellets this weekend to maybe see if they will eat that when I have money, But I do not think it will last. I wonder if my tank is just not ready for nem or if I picked the wrong one to start with.. any answers for this?

 

[tbrown]

I know lots of people do, but I don't feed my Anemones. There's a possibility you're irritating it when you're attempting to feed it.

 

[HIpposReef]

I know lots of people do, but I don't feed my Anemones. There's a possibility you're irritating it when you're attempting to feed it.

I think I figured it out.. light was too low of setting changed it and now its opening up already. but good idea maybe I need to learn when to feed it and when not to.

 

[jmcdona6]

I got my BTA when my tank was four months old.. the tank water is fine, flow is awesome, two wavemakers and one hang-back filter. light is 165 watts hangover by WILLS its an LED, I turned down the light for it because I thought it was too much.. but its not helping so I turned it back up to normal settings they recommended to me.

it was fine for 2 weeks before it started to turn into nubs and shrivel up all the time, refusing to eat. I give thawed-out shrimp cubes with a mixture of the shrimps they can eat. I even tried bloodworms! it just quit eating and chooses to try to die. I got 4 fish in the tank, plus two hermits.. the clownfish even ignore it or try to help but it just won't stop trying to die. Am I missing something? Do I need to add in AB more often? today its really fighting to die but Ive tried everything.

I am getting anemone pellets this weekend to maybe see if they will eat that when I have money, But I do not think it will last. I wonder if my tank is just not ready for nem or if I picked the wrong one to start with.. any answers for this?

Anemone's do not need to eat so I echo tbrown's sentiment above. If its not doing well I can almost 100% guarantee its not because it is starving of solid food. It is one of 5 things:

(1) Its not actually dying and you are over reacting. No pictures but I will take your word for it.
(2) It is being irritated where it is at. This could be by you attempting to feed it when it doesn't want to be fed, but I would say I have never seen an otherwise healthy nem refuse food. It will at least take it and spit it back out. Could be another coral, nem, aptasia, hermit...the list goes on and on.
(3) Its not getting enough light. Could also be too much light but very hard to give a nem too much light without really blasting it...doubt your light is capable of it.
(4) It doesn't like the flow.
(5) Poor water parameters.

My bet is on #3.

 

[HIpposReef]

Anemone's do not need to eat so I echo tbrown's sentiment above. If its not doing well I can almost 100% guarantee its not because it is starving of solid food. It is one of 5 things:

(1) Its not actually dying and you are over reacting. No pictures but I will take your word for it.
(2) It is being irritated where it is at. This could be by you attempting to feed it when it doesn't want to be fed, but I would say I have never seen an otherwise healthy nem refuse food. It will at least take it and spit it back out. Could be another coral, nem, aptasia, hermit...the list goes on and on.
(3) Its not getting enough light. Could also be too much light but very hard to give a nem too much light without really blasting it...doubt your light is capable of it.
(4) It doesn't like the flow.
(5) Poor water parameters.

My bet is on #3.

your bet seems right I change the lighting to higher since I didn't notice it was on lowest setting and now its opening up and showing off again, slowly. guess its just upset and I need to respect its choices for food. ( it does take the food it spits it our normally)

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

I don’t ever feed my bubble tips. Started with one and now up to six. All happy. Anemones like light and it sounds like you figured that out. You may be able to increase intensity even more over time.

 

[jmcdona6]

your bet seems right I change the lighting to higher since I didn't notice it was on lowest setting and now its opening up and showing off again, slowly. guess its just upset and I need to respect its choices for food. ( it does take the food it spits it our normally)

They can be very light sensitive. I've had some happy and healthy in a relatively dimly lit corner of a tank. My current nem was unhappy and walked the tank until it got to the very top of my rockwork inconveniently where my acros were. Upgraded my lighting (which wasn't what I would consider underpowered to begin with) and now it is happy right off the bottom on the rock island I intended it to be on.

 

[bluemon]

The only time I feed my BTAs is when I broadcast feed and the food gets to them, or, when one of my clownfish hosts grabs a food that is too big for them, carries it back to the host BTA, fails to eat it and just gives it to the BTA.

Can be frustrating when you want to curb down on anemones getting food to prevent more splits

 

[winxp_man]

I don’t ever feed my bubble tips. Started with one and now up to six. All happy. Anemones like light and it sounds like you figured that out. You may be able to increase intensity even more over time.

Technically they split when something of off. Happy is when they get to 12” in size. Had one RBTA at 9” and nitrates flopped being I was running my tank fallow for a velvet outbreak. And boom split. One side was still good the other side couldn’t heal from the split.

I feed mine silver sides once in a while. They love them. Have 10 in my 150g DT and 2 in a 25 lagoon. They haven’t split or attempted to in a while.