Green BTA not attached after a week... Help?

[Fisker]

Alright, so, this is an incredibly long story at this point, but here's a shortened version:

I received a box of live animals on the 26th that I didn't order. There was a shipping label mix-up, the vendor apologized, and I was told to keep what I received and I got a $50 off coupon. Cool - no hard feelings, as it was handled very well.

I received a green BTA in the box, and while my tank is still rather young and small (3 month old 10 gallon), I felt rather confident that it would have died had I not gotten it out of the cold bag and into a tank pretty quickly. It shipped attached to a piece of rock, and I put that into my tank to avoid having to remove it, since it was pretty stressed already. Here's what it looked like on day 1:

Well, shortly after that picture, it deflated and began expelling zooxanthellae - not exactly unexpected. Then, it detached from the rock. I turned off all circulation and put it back up on the rockwork - only for it to inflate and fall back to the sandbed. I did this on repeat for 4 hours - gently placing it onto the rockwork, only to have to pick it up off the sandbed 45 minutes later. After 4 hours of that, I felt that I needed to turn circulation back on for the fish. I put it into a container with some rock rubble overnight, to see if it would attach that way. No dice.

In fact, it crawled out of the container the next morning. I decided to let it do it's own thing from that point on. Now, 6 days later, it's STILL not attached to anything. This is the most recent picture I've got of it - it was ticked, since I had just flipped it over, but this'll give you a good idea of how it's doing:

Here's the good news: it's eating, when offered food. It's gotten noticeably stickier over the past few days. It just won't attach!

Here's some info about my tank:

Equipment:
Standard 10 gallon
AC 30, running Fluval Clearmax (pretty much Chemipure)
Koralia Nano 425
Aqueon 50W heater, set to 81F
ABI 23W PAR 38

Livestock:
1" False Perc
1 Green BTA
1 Hammer Coral
10 or so Dwarf Ceriths
1 Scarlet Hermit
Caulerpa Prolifera
Dragon's Breath
Codium

Parameters:
Ammonia/Nitrite: 0 PPM
Nitrate: 5 PPM, maxes out around 10-15 PPM by the time I water change
Phosphate: .1 PPM
SG: 1.025
PH: 8.1
Alk: 3.5 meq/L
Ca: 430 PPM
Temp: 81

I'm working on getting nitrates and phosphates down - I don't believe a tank has to be incredibly clean to be healthy, but I do think I'm running a bit too high on phosphates for a BTA. I use my own RODI that tests 0 for TDS.

I've removed the only stressor I could find in the tank. A peppermint shrimp also came in the surprise box of goodies. I wasn't thinking of all the horror stories I've heard about them, and I put it into my tank - only to find it stealing food from the nem and the hammer. So, I caught it out with a DIY trap tonight, and plan to take it to the store tomorrow.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Scotty Buttons]

Im not a expert on nems so hopefully more will chime in, but most people don't recommend feeding them for quite a while at first. And since you don't have many other corals I would just let the nem wonder around and hopefully it'll find a spot on its own, i'f it's sticky that's a good sign. I would try to protect it the best you can from any filter intakes or power heads, if it gets stuck in one it'll probably nuke your tank. Good luck and I hope it works out.

#reefsquad

 

[Fisker]

Im not a expert on nems so hopefully more will chime in, but most people don't recommend feeding them for quite a while at first. And since you don't have many other corals I would just let the nem wonder around and hopefully it'll find a spot on its own, i'f it's sticky that's a good sign. I would try to protect it the best you can from any filter intakes or power heads, if it gets stuck in one it'll probably nuke your tank. Good luck and I hope it works out.

#reefsquad

Yeah, I've gotten a lot of mixed info on feeding unhealthy anemones. This one is bleached, and has spit up quite a bit of zoo - I've just been shooting a few mysis it's way every couple of days. If it turns out to be harmful, I'll definitely stop. I've got the filter intake covered, and the powerhead has a plastic spaghetti strainer over it, with just the output sticking out.

Thanks for the help!

 

[James M]

Definitely stop feeding it. It stresses it out when in a new surrounding. Let it find it’s comfortable spot, When it does wait a week then feed it. Overall the nem looks good

 

[Fisker]

Got the new light installed, did another 50% WC, and replaced my Clearmax today. Don't know if the BTA actually attached, but it's wedged between the sandbed and a rock, is open, and seems to have a grip on something. It's in a relatively turbulent area, and isn't moving around too much. Maybe it's finally found it's spot!

Ignore the color in this picture - the picture I posted yesterday had colors closer to reality.

 

[James M]

Looks good !

 

[Captain Quint]

I'm sure it was a surprise seeing that beauty by mistake versus your order.

I'm sorry, I missed what lighting system you have. Do you have one strong enough to keep the anemone happy?

Let us know how it goes, please.

 

[Fisker]

Currently, I'm using a 24W PAR 38 from ABI. The spread isn't amazing - I installed after-market lenses, and even still, there's a spotlight effect in the tank. That said, I feel as if the light is more than strong enough to support the BTA. I don't have a PAR meter, sadly.

If I do see signs of the BTA not getting enough light, I'll take it to a store that can take care of it. I'd love to keep it, but I don't want to have something that's not going to thrive in my tank.

 

[Fisker]

Here's what it looked like yesterday:

Today, it's flipped it's foot around and attached to the rock beside it. Finally!

 

[davocean]

Well, tough of course in this fresh of a set up, but understandably not something intentional, hopefully you get lucky.

It looks ok as is right now, and I'd guess if light was not strong enough it will probably move up.

I also agree leave alone and not feed when new.

That new of a tank and that small might be kinda tough to keep stable, just watch your params and stay on WC's best as you can trying to match existing params

 

[davocean]

Well, tough of course in this fresh of a set up, but understandably not something intentional, hopefully you get lucky.

It looks ok as is right now, and I'd guess if light was not strong enough it will probably move up.

I also agree leave alone and not feed when new.

That new of a tank and that small might be kinda tough to keep stable, just watch your params and stay on WC's best as you can trying to match existing params

 

[Fisker]

Time for a little bit of an update.

The anemone eventually attached onto a rock, and hasn't moved since. It's been about 3 weeks, if I remember correctly.

It did attach near the sandbed, and doesn't seem to reach for light, so I don't think lighting is currently an issue - I could be completely wrong, but from what I've read, a BTA will stretch and move if they aren't happy with lighting and flow.

One concerning thing is that it's beginning to change color - from the almost mint green that it was originally, to an extremely pale green on the tentacles and a pale red on the disc. I've read that green is actually a stress color for a lot of nems, and that healthy green BTA's are hard to find. Is that true? Should this guy be changing color?

Lastly, it's tentacles are still short. I wouldn't say that they're shorter than they were when it arrived, and it hasn't shed any, but they don't seem to be getting any longer. Is that just going to take a long time to correct, or am I still doing something wrong? I haven't fed it since the last time I posted here.

That picture isn't entirely accurate, but it's as close as I can get. The tentacles are a bit more green than what they look like in the picture, and the disc is much less purple and much lighter than what it looks like as well.

Also, excuse the algae - I'm fighting a bit of brown hair algae, but have installed a DIY skimmer and have upped my water changes to 20% weekly.

 

[McFly]

It looks like it needs more light. My green BTA is about half way up my tank vertically and I think it could still go higher. I have a SPS (red planet) right next to my BTA that is growing well, to give you an idea of how much light they can handle.

 

[Fisker]

You think so? I do have another PAR 38 I could add (it's a whiter spectrum than what I have), and that'd at least double my PAR.

 

[James M]

If it wants more light it will move to the top and/or stretch. IMO I would leave everything the same

 

[Fisker]

Anyone else got any opinions?

 

[adam finley]

I agree with James above. Even though they are simple minded creatures they are also survivors so they’ll move to what’s best for them. Even if you tried to relocate it higher odds are you would only stress it more, and it would probably move on it’s own again anyways. Just keep things stable and it should be fine. My first bta moved for 2 weeks before it finally found a spot. I actually just got a new one 2 weeks ago and it took only a day before it settled. Good luck

 

[davocean]

I don't know where you are getting your info outside of here, but green is not a stress color, and healthy BTA's are not that hard to find, really the opposite, why they are most common.
It looks fine from last pic posted.

 

[Fisker]

I don't know where you are getting your info outside of here, but green is not a stress color, and healthy BTA's are not that hard to find, really the opposite, why they are most common.
It looks fine from last pic posted.

I don't believe I ever said that unhealthy BTAs are hard to find - if I came across that way, it was a mistake.

As far as the stress color, I read that anemones without a large colony of zooxanthellae can appear to be a very light green (like mine was), and as they regain zoo and become healthier, they tend to shift to a much darker, vibrant green, or even a brownish green. Not sure how much truth there is behind that, but it SOUNDS reasonable - although that doesn't always make it true.

As far as it being healthy, the short tentacles and light color don't concern you? I've heard from multiple sources (some of them on R2R) that short tentacles can mean a BTA is starving (when they're as short as these), and that a color shift can either mean that the nem is recovering it's zoo, or that it's not happy and is beginning to "brown out".

I'm definitely not trying to be rude or reject your info, but I'm just wondering if you've had experience with nems like this one, or why exactly you wouldn't be worried about it.

Thanks for the help, regardless!

 

[James M]

If I’m not mistaken Anemone with large amounts of zoo will appear brown and bleached nems with very little zoo appear lighter in color.