New BTA problem

[sfarid123]

Hi guys,

Yesterday I bought a new healthy GBTA for my 55 mixed reef from my LFS. He told me his salinity was 1.023 and my tank salinity was 1.025. I drip aclimated it for 1.5 hrs and then slowly introduced it into the tank. It seemed perky and happy in the begining but as time went on it deflated and slowly stared to release zooanthelle. I checked on it again around 12pm when the lights were off and it had inflated like a pancake w/my two percs sleeping in it. This morning I tried to feed it some grated shrimp but did not take it. I brought down my salinity to 1.023 and curently it is perked up w/ the mouth open a bit and maintaining a mediocer color.

My question is what should I be doing to prevent further degrdation of its health?

Here are my parameters :
SG 1.023
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, PO4 =0
Ph= stable 8.3
Ca 430 Alk 11dKH
Lights T5 SLR 4X54
Temp 82

[tkeracer619]

I think its just deflated and probably not happy about its location yet. Can you post a picture please so we know this is the case?

1.025 is fine. That swing wont hurt it especially with a drip acclimation. I doubt it would feed this soon anyways, they usually crawl away into a rock out of the light at first and then come back out when they are ready.

[sfarid123]

thanks for the reply,

I'll try to take a picture tonight. It did loose some of its dark green color, and now it is more lighter green, but not completely bleached.
I did bring down the SG to 1.023, do you think its going to stress it more?

[boomsticks]

No it probably just got ****ed off when you brought the salinity down. They don't like swings like that when they are used to a certain param.

[sfarid123]

Great :confused: , so should I keep the current salinity or slowly bring the salinity back up again ? The only reason I lowered it was to match the LFS salinity and hoping that would help.

[kwaters]

Do you have all of your intakes covered??? I found that they can move around a 55 gallon quite easily and quickly...I lost my GBTA to a power head 3 days after I got it....it was in the "moving around" period trying to find a good spot.

Kris

[::PixelFish::]

BTA's are very hardy. Mine went from 3 different tanks(moving, leaking containers, moving) in one day with different temps, salinity the works. It's big and bright pink and doing great despite it's ordeal.

Leave your parameters as is, don't change anything. Give the anemone time to adjust and if your clowns are bothering it, cover it with something like a strawberry basket or something else that lets light and current in.

Once the mouth is closed, start feeding it meaty foods like scallops and silversides soaked in selcon and it should bounce back.

[sfarid123]

Thanks for the great advices,

yes, the intakes are all covered with sponge. The porcelin crab is the only one thats attached to the BTA body. Is raw shrimp soaked in selcon OK?

[Racing1]

You can use small pices of shrimp but I would leave it alone for now. It needs to settle in and get used to your tank. What type of lighting was it under at the LFS? It may need to acclimate to your lighting. After a few days then try to feed either shrimp or silversides. I would also raise your salinity back to natural sea levels. 1.025 or .026. Good Luck

[sfarid123]

The LFS had VHO lights.
Is it normal for BTA's to loose zooanthelle when moved?
I'll bring back the salinity up again and hopfully it will not lead to more bleaching .