Clownfish Loved RBTA to Death?!

[Brit’s Fish]

So I had this big beautiful Rainbow RBTA & my MochaVinci clowns only took about 3 minutes before they started hosting it. It was approximately 5-6” at first.
After a couple weeks in the tank, it split. The two halves were doing great for a couple months and now they’ve recently not inflated as much. I suspect the halves were a little too small for my clowns. The clowns are still constantly in them and in the last week or two, they just look beat up and barely inflate, if at all. The clowns will really rub themselves around in them and kinda dive into them. I feel like they’re loving them to death.
This leads me to my actual question... I noticed that one of the two nems was in the move today and I was able to gently catch it and get it into an anemone cup in the tank. I’m hoping the fish will leave this one alone in there.
From these pictures, is this guy completely beyond saving?
The attached pics show the progression from the beginning to now. the picture where it’s half inflated is from about 2 weeks ago.

 

[I’m Batman]

Water parameters?

 

[JGT]

Thinking something with your water params ain’t right. May be able to salvage if you can determine what needs fixing.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

*facepalm* here are my params, but this is from a few days ago:
Nitrates: 10ish
Phosphates: 0.02
Magnesium: 1350
calcium: 450
Kh: 7
Ph: 8.0
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78

 

[Brit’s Fish]

I noticed it was moving during a water change today, so I’m going to retest in a couple hours & I’ll see where I’m at.

 

[I’m Batman]

How long have you had them?

 

[Tamberav]

My clowns live in two nems smaller than yours and basically lay on them all day without issue.

I have heard of clowns loving nems too much but it was large clowns like a maroon that may pluck tentacles off and very small nems.

Are you using stock lighting on a fluval or such?

 

[Brit’s Fish]

How long have you had them?

About 4 months

 

[Brit’s Fish]

My clowns live in two nems smaller than yours and basically lay on them all day without issue.

I have heard of clowns loving nems too much but it was large clowns like a maroon that may pluck tentacles off and very small nems.

Are you using stock lighting on a fluval or such?

It is the stock lighting on the Fluval evo

 

[Brit’s Fish]

How long have you had them?

And I’ve had the clowns a little over 6 months. They were babies and hosting the return & I wanted to give them something a little more natural to host in.

 

[RedFrog211]

I’ve had mine for 5 months- one day I woke up to it all deflated with its mouth wide open. I was concerned, but didn’t know what to do. By morning, it’s mouth was at least closed, and by mid day it was back to normal. Not sure what caused this behavior, but hopefully yours bounces back!

 

[Brit’s Fish]

I’ve had mine for 5 months- one day I woke up to it all deflated with its mouth wide open. I was concerned, but didn’t know what to do. By morning, it’s mouth was at least closed, and by mid day it was back to normal. Not sure what caused this behavior, but hopefully yours bounces back!

I’m happy to see yours bounced back!! I hope mine does the same.
I see you have a very pretty GBTA in the background too! Do they ever bother each other?

 

[RedFrog211]

I’m happy to see yours bounced back!! I hope mine does the same.
I see you have a very pretty GBTA in the background too! Do they ever bother each other?

They don’t interact with each other! I purchased the GBTA about two weeks before this happened, because my clowns were being rough with the rainbow. Then, the day the RBTA deflated, I noticed the GBTA split (hard to tell from pic) so it lead me to believe it was something in the water, but I have no evidence, aside from the anemone’s reactions. No other coral were acting up, and they’re all healthy now! So I chalked it up to my RBTA being dramatic. I will say, my anemone has the crevice to hide in when it’s sick of the clowns. Did yours have this? This might’ve allowed mine to hide before it was too injured.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

They don’t interact with each other! I purchased the GBTA about two weeks before this happened, because my clowns were being rough with the rainbow. Then, the day the RBTA deflated, I noticed the GBTA split (hard to tell from pic) so it lead me to believe it was something in the water, but I have no evidence, aside from the anemone’s reactions. No other coral were acting up, and they’re all healthy now! So I chalked it up to my RBTA being dramatic. I will say, my anemone has the crevice to hide in when it’s sick of the clowns. Did yours have this? This might’ve allowed mine to hide before it was too injured.

Mine have a rock that is very oddly shaped with deep crevices but not really a hole to retreat into. When I first placed it in my tank, I actually put it in a hole I thought would be perfect for it, but you know how nems are!

 

[RedFrog211]

Mine have a rock that is very oddly shaped with deep crevices but not really a hole to retreat into. When I first placed it in my tank, I actually put it in a hole I thought would be perfect for it, but you know how nems are!

Yeah, I was very surprised by both of mine being content where I put them! None have moved yet (fingers crossed)

 

[RedFrog211]

If yours doesn’t make it, I might be able to send you one of the GBTA’s! I certainly don’t need 3 BTA’s in a 16g tank— the GBTA has a marbled foot and some yellow specs. Haven’t really be able to get a good pic of it though. Picked it up from a LFS for free after it got sucked into a powerhead!

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Update: this is how it looks a few hours after the water change and being protected in the nem cup. Starting to puff up again... not looking great, but certainly better!

 

[RedFrog211]

Update: this is how it looks a few hours after the water change and being protected in the nem cup. Starting to puff up again... not looking great, but certainly better!

Definitely looking better than before! I think it’ll pull through they’re somehow delicate yet also very resilient

 

[RedFrog211]

Any update on the BTA? How’s it looking now?

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Any update on the BTA? How’s it looking now?

Looking a little better. It ate today so that’s gotta be a good sign!