Exactly what I was thinking too the gentleman that sold it to me called him a lta not a bta I might just friggin put him on my live rock if all else fails. Heck a saw a post where a person suggested digging in the sand and placing a flat rock on him.. definitely not an option imo.. here's some picks after lights out.
And fortunately mines mouth is usually closed and a little puckered I know he's healthy and he wasn't attached to anything when I picked him up at the lfs.. so I really think the foot isn't damaged, but if it is am I just quarantining with antibiotics? Nothing indicates a damaged foot no stringy viscera or anything.I had a LTA act similarly and thought the foot was ok as well. Mouth open, not attaching, yeah. I took a closer look and saw a little raw area right in the middle of the “sole” of the foot. Mr. Nem went into cipro treatment for ten days. When I added it back to the tank, I dug a little pit, place a small rock at the bottom, put the nem on top of it and buried the thing in sand and left just the mouth exposed. A few hours later, I gently poofed the rest of the sand away with a turkey baster. That nem hasn’t moved, has doubled in size and I swear its mouth has never closed. He’s the one furthest to the right. I actually used that same placement technique for the other LTA and the Purple Sebae in the middle and they stayed exactly where I placed them.
Right I've been trying to dig out sand for glass to foot contact for 4 days each day trying a new spot he's not trying to move from. he's got more of a round foot it seems. Here's more pics I'm going to cut off flow again and place him simi against my live rock and on the sand. He looks as if he's digging maybe.. he's been there an hour now.
This is him in some better lighting. A good ethereal pink like a pink hammer coral.
So did note the presence of the spots up by the collar however there's no banding just a round foot looks like its meant to pinch.Here is an example of verrucae:
Yeah, I wouldn't place a rock on top either. These are sand-dwelling nems and actually pull themselves down into the sand bed when threatened. That's the point of having a firm anchor under the sand for them, whether it's the bottom glass or a rock. I like to bury mine a little bit with sand with just the mouth and a few tentacles exposed because it provides a little bit of force to drive them down onto their foot and gives them leverage to retract a bit more into the sand if they want to. Thankfully, they have zero issues un-burying themselves. In your case, I would get some cipro and hospitalize. A healthy LTA will generally try to attach to anything, at least temporarily. If it's sitting in a container for over an hour and isn't at least somewhat grabbing the bottom, it's probably sick.
Mature it's been running for longer than a year live rock is cultured well with bacterias.. preform 15-25% water changes weekly same perameters and temp. I can try getting more sand in this weekend.. he's taking food and tentacles are extended he just won't anchor.. I'll try the PVC method. Hope I'm not stressing him out too much.
Okay I'll quarantine him and treat with cypro then I'll attempt anchoring.
