Need Some BTA Advice

[Tomnerr]

Hey all. I am getting concerned with my rainbow BTA. For the last week or 2 it has looked brown, doesn’t really inflate that often and has it’s mouth gaping at times. The foot still seems firmly attached. I got it on 02/01. Looked great the first day where I put it moved to the back of the rock work and still looked great for a week. Since then it moved a couple more times and is now attached upside down in a cave and has been there for about 2 weeks looking as described above. I feel like it’s dying, but I have no idea why. Everything else in the tank, including 5 rock flower nems are looking great. My params are stable and have been testing before and after my weekly 8 gal WC(IM fusion 40).

Amm 0
Trite 0
Trate 0
Sal 1.025
pH 7.96
Phos 0
Calcium 432
Mag 1440
Alk 8.8

I am torn on what I should do. Any advice or previous experiences would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Evan28395950]

How old is the tank?

 

[happyhourhero]

What are your lights and what is your flow like?

 

[Tomnerr]

How old is the tank?

Tank is 3-4 months old

 

[Tomnerr]

What are your lights and what is your flow like?

2 AI primes about 12 inches from surface. Max intensity is 75%. Flow is just from the return pump, Tunze silence 1073.040 (790gph), maxed out and attached to 2 AI spinstreams.

 

[Gonebad395]

Tank is way to young but that’s usually a ignored suggestion because of patience. As asked what lights, temp, flow etc.

 

[Gonebad395]

Sorry you posted while I was typing what light schedule are you running? How long? Do you have pictures of it when bought and now?

 

[Gonebad395]

I had one move to a cave in my tank upside down and it started falling apart. Luckily I caught it before it fouled my tank keep a eye on it your doesn’t sound like it’s doing very well.

 

[OREGONIC]

I had a BTA go upside down on a rock for 3-4 weeks shrunk way down the. One day walked back up to top of a rock and started to grow and color up again. Not sure what caused him to do it. He was less then half the size when he started to heal up. You may want to raise your nitrates and phosphates up to a detectable level. Tank may be young to easily keep a BTA too.

 

[OREGONIC]

+ 1 to what @Gonebad395 said keep a close eye on it.

 

[Tomnerr]

Sorry you posted while I was typing what light schedule are you running? How long? Do you have pictures of it when bought and now?

Lights run for 12 hours, ramping up then down. Ill try to get a current pick tomorrow, but here’s a day 1 pic (02/01) and below it is on Feb 16. This is the current location it is in and has not looked good like that since the pic.

 

[Tomnerr]

Sorry you posted while I was typing what light schedule are you running? How long? Do you have pictures of it when bought and now?

 

[Tomnerr]

I had one move to a cave in my tank upside down and it started falling apart. Luckily I caught it before it fouled my tank keep a eye on it your doesn’t sound like it’s doing very well.

Definitely. Ive been checking on it multiple times a day!

 

[OREGONIC]

How about a current pic. Doesn’t look bad in the second pic you posted.

 

[Gonebad395]

It doesn’t look bad agree color change but not bad. Do you by chance know what lights it was under when and where you bought it?

 

[Tomnerr]

I had a BTA go upside down on a rock for 3-4 weeks shrunk way down the. One day walked back up to top of a rock and started to grow and color up again. Not sure what caused him to do it. He was less then half the size when he started to heal up. You may want to raise your nitrates and phosphates up to a detectable level. Tank may be young to easily keep a BTA too.

Ya Ive been trying to get them up a bit by feeding a little more but don’t want to go too crazy because everything else has looked awesome.

 

[Tomnerr]

How about a current pic. Doesn’t look bad in the second pic you posted.

Sorry, but Ill post a current pic tomorrow. It looks brown now and has not inflated like that since that day. I wish it still looked like that at least!

 

[Tomnerr]

It doesn’t look bad agree color change but not bad. Do you by chance know what lights it was under when and where you bought it?

I think it was under one of the small kessils in a smaller tank at the LFS

 

[OREGONIC]

I have a rainbow BTA that has split several times and not all are the same exact color. One is way more vibrant the the 4 other splits in the tank. Among the ones that are not as vibrant there is slight color variations.

 

[Gonebad395]

You might be giving it to much light try to find out what they had it under for sure