Another BTA Quetion

[Flyboy450r]

I know everyone gets tired of BTA questions but Im kinda worried about mine. It will eat silver sides. It grabs them with its tentacles puts it in its mouth and eats it. But the next day it spits it back out. Somewhat dissolved but for the most part together. I defrost the food before I feed it to him but my silver sides are getting a little freezer burnt would that make it so he would reject the food. Its color seems good and he is under a MH light. He contracts a few times a day I would say maybe twice sometimes once. And its tentacles are not bubbles they are more long and stringy. All though once on a while he will have slight bubbles. I feed him twice a week or so. And all my water perimeters are in check. Ill post a pic when i get home around 5 just looking for ideas thanks mike.

[twisted]

hey mike! i can help with the bubble part, this is a long debated question. mine moved into very strong constant flow and only shows the bubble tips when the power heads are off for spot feeding. as soon as the pheads go back on the bubbles are gone....my thoughts are flow but there are lots of thoughts on it...lol.....as to the spitting food back out, maybe th pieces are too large? i cut the heads off and cut the body down to 1/2" pieces. when ive given it bigger pieces it did the same thing, spit them the next day. ive also noticed that when my roon has chased fish he didnt like into the nem, they were partially eaten when it spit them back outthe next day.....try smaller pieces

[Original Fin]

Mike,

I've had the same experiences with my BTA. At one point, I was feeding whole silversides, up to 3". More often than not though, it would come back up only partially digested. Smaller sizes did the trick for me too. I also spread out the feeding frequency to once every 5-7 days and that seems to have helped too. I had been doing every three days in an effort to bring him back to health from his sorry state from the LFS.

Mine bubbles at the very end of the tips once in a while, but they are no where near as pronounced as they were when I first got it. The tentacles seem to get longer and longer the older he gets.

hey mike! i can help with the bubble part, this is a long debated question. mine moved into very strong constant flow and only shows the bubble tips when the power heads are off for spot feeding. as soon as the pheads go back on the bubbles are gone....my thoughts are flow but there are lots of thoughts on it...lol.....as to the spitting food back out, maybe th pieces are too large? i cut the heads off and cut the body down to 1/2" pieces. when ive given it bigger pieces it did the same thing, spit them the next day. ive also noticed that when my roon has chased fish he didnt like into the nem, they were partially eaten when it spit them back outthe next day.....try smaller pieces

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

As long as its accepting foods, its mouth isn't gaping and it hasn't lost its color, I wouldn't worry too much for now. Sticky tenticles are a good sign too. Devinately feed foods no larger than the size of its mouth. Mine rejected a few pieces of silverside a couple of days ago but that's because I fed it a Christmas dinner sized portion. I say keep doing what you're doing and monitor it closely until you're sure its healthy. I hear BTA's can go south on you pretty quick. I've even read of dying BTA's that still have their foot attached to the rock.I've given up on trying to figure out the the whole bubble or not to bubble ordeal. I do know that the bubble tips do not indicate a healthy/ sick anemone.

[Flyboy450r]

Well guys woke up this morning and it doesn't look good at all. Its mouth is wide open and gaping. My question today is when do you call it. I mean i cant check for a pulse. I don't want it to pollute my tank and kill everything but yet i don't want to flush a live/ sick animal. I'm pretty torn. Im going to wait till i get home to decided. If it perks up when the lights come on should i be worried still of is it just being a anemone. Well ill keep you posted mike

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

If it were mine, I would continue to try to nurse it back to health while making sure its not you or you're environment that's not causing it's health to decline. I'm not saying its you or your tank's fault. But every possibility has to be taken into account.
I would continue feeding small amounts daily or every other day and keeping the water conditions as optimal as possible. If it starts to fall apart or turn inside out, its a goner.
You might want to pick up additional test kits to ensure you're measurements are accurate. Post the actual perameters you have now. Maybe someone will see something out of whack.
I'm no expert and my experience with anemones is limited. Hopefully, if any of the information I have given is wrong, someone will chime in and steer you on the right path.
P.S. if it does die and starts disintegrating, you'll probably have to siphon out the remains because it will most likely turn to mush if you touch it. Also, its a good idea to keep enough fresh saltwater on hand to do a huge (over 80%) water change so that youre ready if it does die. Good luck.

[Flyboy450r]

well im home his mouth is gaping going to do test ill let you know what i find out. it doesn't look good. looks like something is sticking out but its not food/ poop i have no idea what it is.