Baby BTA's?

[RonMidtownStomp]

It was either take them or they were going to get thrown away, so now I have an interesting task of trying to get these things to grow up. We went to buy some lights that we found on Craigslist and wound up getting quite a bit more than we wanted. Call it "saving" the livestock. At any rate, I'm sure you don't want to listen to me talk about how great of a deal we got, so I'll get to the question at hand:

http://www.midtownstomp.com/images/Baby%20Anemone%201.jpg

http://www.midtownstomp.com/images/Baby%20Anomone%202.jpg

All three of them were free, and I have no idea how to get it to grow up enough to eat meat, or eat at all for that matter. The first one disappeared during the night, unfortunately. It was attached to the base of the Kenya Tree and so I left it there. Who knows if that one will turn back up again. The other two have now attached to the same piece of coral in the Tupperware container that I have them in.

I don't want to lose them, but if I had enough people tell me to let them find their own way around in the tank, I'd go that route.
They're in the Tuperware locked in with cheesecloth ruberbanded around the container.

Since the container is full of water, I can lift the container to the surface without disturbing them, so I could feed them if anyone has any advice on how/when/what.

I have scallops and silversides and krill and could cut off small pieces and try to feed them, or I can just give them lots of light and see if they grow. I would imagine they'd be dead already if they didn't have the symbiotic bacteria?

Is the one that was attached to the Kenya base hazardous enough if it dusts to warrant sending out the K9 patrol? I could find it, but it'd upset everything. The whole aquarium looks like this:

http://www.midtownstomp.com/images/New%20Tank.jpg

I have the Coralia 4 or whatever it was called covered and rubberbanded so it won't eat anything. You can see the two Tupperware containers and the flower anemone and the two Kenya trees. The guy also threw in a watermelon Wrasse and a Clown. We'll be monitoring all of the water parameters daily and doing water changed frequently since this tank probably wasn't ready for this much load.

Quarantine wasn't an issue since it'd been running with just live rock and live sand for a while, but probably not long enough.

I'm only running a CPR BakPak skimmer and the surround on the powerhead. I'll bag the powerhead and replace the surround when it has filtered enough material to warrant the change. I have a canister filter I can add to this tank if needed. I figure we'll log the water parameters for a couple of days first.

Thanks,
Ron

[garygb]

Asking specific, brief questions is probably the best way for readers to help you out. Also, if you could provide your water parameters, that would be helpful.

[RonMidtownStomp]

Specific brief question: How do I keep from killing the baby bubble tip anemones? What do I feed them?

Update: I found the one that ran away. He's in the back corner out of the light attached to a rock.

[RonMidtownStomp]

Water parameters - a little bit of ammonia (.25ppm), no nitrites, <10 Nitrates. I can do a 10 gallon water change today and test again tomorrow and see if those improve. I've got ~40 gallons of salt water mixed in a 60 gallon tank in the garage with heaters in it ready to go.

[RonMidtownStomp]

Weird, I would have expected someone to be able to tell me what to do to keep these guys going. It's been a week and all 3 appears to be doing fine. One of the ones in the tupperware grew noticably and they both appear to have stopped moving around. The other one is on a rock kind of mostly in the shade in the tank. I've tried to feed them a little tiny bit of scallop with tweezers and they don't seem interested. Will they sustain and grow without meat?

[Lmecher]

I have a question for you. Why are you keeping them in the container?

[Lmecher]

You want to know what to do to keep these anemones from dying? First of all they need a cycled tank. You should add livestock slowly, you have caused your tank to go through a mini cycle. Don't feed them it will add to the bioload and keep driving your amonia up. As long as they have adequate lighting they will be ok for a while till your tank stabilizes. I would not feed anything for a day or so. Everytime you add food your producing more amonia. I know you want to keep these anemones but they are very delicate and require pristine conditions. If you insist on keeping them you a going to have to monitor your water amonia will kill them.
When you feed your fish, give them just a little food and if any is uneaten remove it.

[Lmecher]

I found this thread with basic anemone keeping information.
http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=153667
I am honestly concerned because it dose not look good. You could take them to a friend with a cycled tank or a LFS, that would give them a much better chance. Good luck and do post updates.

[RonMidtownStomp]

All three appear to be growing and they all ate today. I gave them little tiny bits of scallop and they all three swallowed the meat within about a minute.

To answer a question from above as to why they're in the Tupperware, the idea was so that I could keep track of them and have access to them. I put enough scraps of rock in there that the one was able to get a little bit of shade.

You may or may not like this part, but I'm able to bring the Tupperware up to the surface so that I can feed them. They don't really move relative to their surroundings and it doesn't seem to bother them. They ate after having been moved and now they're chillin' back at the bottom again.

Would they eat if they were stressed by the move, or do you figure they're unable to tell what's happening?

The one that was not in the Tupperware migrated over the span of the last 3 days up towards the surface from being inaccessible and out of the light to being in the light and so that I was able to feed him.

Ammonia tests 0 today. I'd say eating and growing would indicate they're doing alright. I don't really "insist" on keeping them as mentioned above, but they seem to be doing just fine.

Ron