BTA Sucked Pulled into Powerhead

[Chrysus]

We recently exchanged our LTA for a BTA, and I’m now really wishing we hadn’t. The new BTA was purchased last Thursday, and really hasn’t looked very good since. Today it decided that sitting on the powerhead was probably the best option, and partially shredded its tentacles. It already seemed to be missing the tentacles on one half (see picture from yesterday), and had started gaping shortly after being added to the tank and then again two days ago, at which point we gave it some food, which it seemed to take. Generally just not thriving in general, and I’m sure this hasn’t helped. What are the odds of survival? Is it worth leaving in the tank?

Picture of how it looked yesterday, note that it seemed to already be missing tentacles on the bottom half...

 

[Hitman]

@Amoo
Let me get you help from one of the many Anemone guru's.
#reefsquad

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

@Amoo
Let me get you help from one of the many Anemone guru's.
#reefsquad

doesn’t look too bad just keep an eye on it. btas are pretty resilient when it comes to tissue trauma.

 

[HotRocks]

@Amoo
@AcroNem
@davocean

 

[Chrysus]

doesn’t look too bad just keep an eye on it. btas are pretty resilient when it comes to tissue trauma.

Sorry that picture was yesterday, I didn’t get a picture of it after the incident. It was pretty much completely closed with some white shredded tentacles.

 

[davocean]

As long as the foot and mouth are intact it can survive, and it may even split.
Just keep an eye open, if it starts to mush you want to pull it and qt or just remove so you don't foul tank.

FWIW though, I've seen some terrible BTA mishaps that looked gawd awful that survived.

Sidenote, curious why you got rid of the LTA, much easier to contain in sand bed and keep away from corals and PH's

 

[Chrysus]

Sidenote, curious why you got rid of the LTA, much easier to contain in sand bed and keep away from corals and PH's

Sounds good, I’ll keep an eye on it.

As for the LTA, although the top half seemed happy enough it never attached to anything with its foot, and I had it for quite a few months. I think our sand bed isn’t deep enough and/or too fine for it to really be happy, unfortunately. It recently started to shrink a bit and wouldn’t take food last time it was offered, so I didn’t want it to suffer. It did walk across the tank once, but definitely stayed away from the walls!

 

[davocean]

What do you feed?
Sometimes too big or wrong things can actually stress them, and really light is their main source of energy.

Given good stable params and good lighting you could actually never spot feed any anemone and they'd be fine, unless they are bleached.

 

[Chrysus]

It was a piece of krill, and the nem was fairly large. I’ll admit we don’t offer food often haha. The concern was mostly that it never held on to anything.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Sorry to hear about your nem. But as mentioned they are pretty resilient animals. I always recommend mesh or foam powerhead covers when I rehome our nems to their new owners. It kind of like child proofing your tank. The last two I donated I forgot to mention it and they were not as lucky as yours.

 

[davocean]

It was a piece of krill, and the nem was fairly large. I’ll admit we don’t offer food often haha. The concern was mostly that it never held on to anything.

Oh that's fine, just making sure no silversides, it was probably shallow sand bed, they do need at least 3-4" to really be happy.

 

[rkpetersen]

I always recommend mesh or foam powerhead covers when I rehome our nems to their new owners.

This will help for acute events although it's still like sucking jello through a straw; if you keep at it long enough, it'll come through. Somewhat better if you have a pump like a gyre that you can program to periodically reverse direction of flow, back and forth, although mesh covers are still needed with it.

 

[AcroNem]

Sorry to hear about your nem, they can be dumber than a couch sometimes.

But if the mouth and foot remain undamaged it has a very good chance, I've had some nasty stuff happen to E. quadricolor in the past and they can come back from a lot of trauma. Try to get it footed down and stabilized and it should pull through.

 

[Chrysus]

Well it’s got some weird gaping going on but the foot and mouth were not damaged so I’ve tucked it into a rock and I guess we’ll see in the morning! Thanks guys.