[chugga]

Hi, I upgraded my 10 gal nano on Sunday, I've had a 40 gal tank cycling for around a month, nitrite had dropped to zero, so I drained 10 gals and added everything from the nano, including the bta, which was still stuck to it's favorite piece of liverock. before the move it was quite big, and always "opened up", but since the move it has been mostly "closed up" and very small. It was open this morning, but not as big as it normally is, but fully closed this afternoon.
I checked the water parameters again yesterday, and I'm getting a very small amount of nitrite showing (half way between the "zero" colour and the 0.25 colour). Will it survive? I did a small water change last night, around 5 gals, and fed it a piece of fish today, which it ate. What are the warning signs to look for if it's dying? The only other thing in the tank is a tiny piece of torchlight coral and a blue damsel, which both seem to be doing ok. I am using 2 powerheads, a small hob filter and about 16 lbs of liverock, plus an air driven skimmer. Lighting atm is a temporary set-up, single fluro tube, but I have a twin tube light set-up plus mh straight after Christmas. Should I panic yet?? lol

[BubbaWPB]

How's your BTA doing, chugga? I don't know if anyone is real good at predicting what individual critters will survive what range of conditions.... there are way too many variables. Maybe that's why no one answered your post.

[dave00gt]

maybe your bta is like mine

my bta was new for 4 days , then one morning i thought my bta was dead because it shrunk and and looke real stringy, i asked about this and somebody told me it is probably secreting the LFS water and sucking up my water, well sure enough thats exactly what it did and it took a whole after noon to do that

[chugga]

Thanks for the replys guys, I haven't been on here much, due to Christmas and all, so I've only just come across them. I upgraded my lighting today, with a twin PC set-up, both the anemone and the torchlight coral have responded almost instantly! I put the new light on this morning, went out for most of the day, and when I got home they were both looking better than ever! I've attached a couple of pics so you can see for yourselves....

[Reefland]

Looks nice! Be sure to feed that Anemone well.

[chugga]

Originally Posted by Reefland

Looks nice! Be sure to feed that Anemone well.

That's another question I have - How often should I feed it, and how much? Can you overfeed them? So far I've been feeding it fresh fish every 3rd day or so, just small pieces. Is that enough? Or too much? It's very hard to tell with these things!

[BubbaWPB]

Originally Posted by chugga

That's another question I have - How often should I feed it, and how much? Can you overfeed them? So far I've been feeding it fresh fish every 3rd day or so, just small pieces. Is that enough? Or too much? It's very hard to tell with these things!

What you're feeding sounds fine. Twice a week is usually just fine. It is generally felt that some variety is better nutritionally - I feed mine a variety of a fish (usually silversides), shrimp, scallops, and squid... they also get some pellet food that lands on them once in a while.

Bubba

[johnny gray]

some times they close up to take in the neutrinos in the water

[chugga]

OK, just as I thought things were starting to run smoothly in my new tank I've had a disasterous weekend

Firstly, I introduced a false gamma to the tank on Wednesday last week, only to find crabs eating it the next morning. I wasn't sure if the fish just died or if the crab got it in the middle of the night, or whether the damsel I had in there killed it. Friday I got 2 Occelaris clowns and put in there, Sat morning they looked sick, had bits of fins missing (I assumed from the damsel), and 1 was white and "fuzzy" looking. I treated the water with some Bactonex (Used it before in my nano tank with no probs) and removed the damsel. Fish were swimming normally all day, but both were dead within 5 hours of turning the lights off last night.

Now the anemone is looking very ordinary - it has gotten the smallest I've ever seen it and gone green. I've attatched a pic, what do you think? Could all this be somehow related?

I'm using NSW, tests are:Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
PH 8.2
Nitrate 10
sg 1.024

[Reefland]

Perhaps a reaction to the medicine you used, I've never heard of it but that's not a bad thing necessarily; I stay far away from any types of medication. What are the ingredients of it?

[chugga]

The Boctonex label says:
"A preperation which assists in the prevention of bacterial, fungal and protozoal diseases in fresh and saltwater fish. Active constituents: Each ml of solution contains 1.66 mg aminacrine hydrochloride and 0.025 mg methylene blue". I used it once before in my old nano tank to combat an ich outbreak with no probs. Anemone hasn't really changed much this morning.

Any ideas on what might have happened to the clowns??

[BubbaWPB]

Sorry to hear about your problems. My guess is that something was chomping on your clowns, and it wasn't your anemone.

It's possible that the anemone absorbed the methylene blue to cause the color change. On the other hand, it's color now is also pretty common for a BTA. In fact, it looks pretty much like mine does all the time.


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Bubba

[chugga]

The plot thickens! I have had a clicking sound coming from the tank for quite a while now - I did a lot of enquiries, and came up with the conclusion it was a pistol shrimp, rather than a mantis. I tried to catch whatever it was, numerous times, with no luck at all. I will have another attempt at it tonight, maybe I'll try the turkey baster/fresh water technique.

The damsel I had in there was nipping at them at first, and I removed him the next morning, which is when i noticed they weren't doing too well. When I removed their bodies from the tank on NYE I didn't notice any major damage, maybe they just got stressed out at the damsel smashing them - nice and easy if that's all it was. I just don't want to go putting more in there to suffer the same fate
Thanks again

[BubbaWPB]

Although I don't have experience with pistol shrimp, I've read that they are capable of killing fish...

[chugga]

That could explain a lot - the only fish to survive in there has been the damsel - possibly He's more alert at night than the others? I'll definately try and remove the source of the clicking, whether it be pistol or mantis.

The anemone seems to be returning back to normal, it's lost the green colour and is opening up again now, all within 20 mins of turning the light on. Wow, this s/w thing is a steep learning curve!
Thanks again

[chugga]

Well, I changed 20% of the water, gave the tank a quick tidy up, tested everything and added 2 blue-green chromis. They are doing great, bta is back to normal, but I still can't catch whatever it is that's clicking. Tried everything last night, got no sleep, up and down all night, saw nothing, even tried baiting him out from his hiding place. Then as soon as I called it a night and went to bed the clicking noises started! But at least the fish are doing well. Fingers crossed

[yap haimeng]

be alert to the fast growing of anemone.Its will attack you corals.

[chugga]

I only have 1 small peice of coral, haven't got the lighting for anything else. I really only wanted the tank for clowns and a host anemone, but that doesn't seem to be happening. I jumped in a bit too fast with the anemone, but my main problem at the moment is whatever it is that is doing the clicking...I think