BTA - Is this normal?

[Jrdn0508]

Hi there,

Got a BTA and had it for one week. It quickly set its foot and stayed there until last night and has been moving all day. Also, it has been blown up like a balloon and I am not sure if this is normal. Tank has been running for 2 years. Thank you!

Water Parameters:
Salinity - 1.024
PH - 8.10
Temp - 78
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 0.25
Alkalinity - 8 dkh

 

[Jrdn0508]

Forgot to add that I've found it a couple times upside down in the sand. It immediately grabs onto the rock when I move it from being face down.

 

[bvanfish]

maybe too low of nutrients? change of flow or lights?

 

[Sir Bubb]

What kind of lighting and flow do you have on/in your tank? Are there any fish or inverts that could be picking at it? This inflating or ballooning behavior is what they will do when such conditions are unfavorable, attempting to get the currents to hopefully carry them to a more appropriate spot.

One thing that you can do while he is exhibiting this behavior is to make sure any power heads and or intakes are covered so it won’t find its way into one, if you haven’t done so already.

 

[Jrdn0508]

It's a 65 gallon tank. I'm running the Cobalt Cray led light. I have a Nero 3 on one side on the low end of the tank and a nero 5 on the other side towards the upper half of the tank. Running the neros at roughly 20%. The BTA seems to have settled under my rocks so maybe too much light?

 

[Sir Bubb]

From the pics, the anemone looks to be in good shape, but does appear to have lost some zoox. Maybe from stressors somewhere along the supply chain, or adjusting to new tank conditions? Btas will move around until they find their happy place if the spot selected for them isn’t to their liking.

As for the lighting, I’m a MH guy, and am not real familiar with most types of LED’s. I did a quick search on C-ray lighting, and it seems like a good light, and fine for a bta. Hopefully someone with more LED experience than I have will chime in here. The nem likely just needs a little time to adjust to it.

I noticed that you keep your specific gravity at 1.024. Maybe raising that up a little would help. I like to keep my reefs at 1.026, although I’m sure some other ppl have had luck at lower levels.

 

[Sir Bubb]

Forgot to add, as bvanfish mentioned, anemones do benefit from a little nutrients in the water. Couldn’t hurt to raise your nitrate levels a bit.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

An inflated foot usually just means it's walking. I don't see anything here that is to be concerned with other than the light color of the animal.

Zero Nitrates will not work for this. Then need them or the health will very quickly deteriorate.

 

[radfly]

Zero nitrate is a concern.

 

[xiongsy]

I've heard you need nitrates and phosphates for the nems, especially to grow and multiply.

 

[bvanfish]

My nitrates are like 20 and my phosphates are like .2 and my sps / lps and anemone are growing and look extremely happy which I heard these numbers are too high but they work for me