Is my BTA done for? And if so, what do I do?

[KorD]

Incidentally @KorD I can't tell you if THOSE are sticky on the lil guy but his tentacles are lightly sticky, lol

dang auto correct is at it again!! [emoji23]
Sticky tentacles is a good thing!
Then again you sometimes have to grab the coral by the balls and tell them they will live another day [emoji23]

 

[chopdrop]

I never mentioned that I have a nem crab but I sure do! Anyway, he has been venturing further and further afield from the nem. The nem has been basically looking like it has been though last night I thought a couple of the tentacles looked bubbly again, however now I can see neither hide nor hair of the nem, which is a change since usually its at least inflated enough to catch some glimpse of it from its hidden location.

Is this... real bad? What's going on? Is the crab a canary in a coalmine?

 

[chopdrop]

Well, I called it a day on the poor little thing. Still not really sure what went wrong. Pretty disappointed in myself.

 

[Todd Kellley]

Thank you so much, everyone! I definitely wasn't trying to be snarky about the conflicting advice, I'm aware that so much of this stuff is anecdotal and there just isn't a big enough sample size in this hobby to create any hard and fast rules! That's both the exciting and frustrating thing about reefing as far as I can tell, especially since so many of these animals are, let's be honest, effectively space aliens.

I have to agree with you on the advice, I have read a ton of great advice in forums and at times you get "Mr Armchair Marine Biologist" that will says things like "its a gonner! get it out of there!" If I had listen to that advice I would have thrown my nems out every time they looked rough which they tend to do on their own at random times. We all must remember we are trying to help each other with the sincerest intent as we all love our marine life right down to that purple algae. I truly believe everyone here is trying to give each other sincere advise. Not like Facebook!

So with that said I think what ChopDrop was really saying is conflicting is the same conflicting advise I find over and over and the same advise I need. The debate to feed or not to feed when they do get like this? I have heard many people say feeding them will make them less likely to balloon up because they do not need to produce their own food, causing them to shrink or have stringy testicles. I have a carpet that I feed several times a week and it thrives. Seems when I feed my BTA's and RBTA they shrink for a few days to even a week.

So does anyone have the right answer based on experience with both situations? I have two now I feel I was feeding too much so have stopped but they are still shrunk looking, yet 2 others I also stopped feeding and they look like they always have. Or are these just creatures being creatures and there is no sure answer as to why? I could understand if they were all bad looking.