calling BTA Experts.. need your opinion

[Reef1589]

SO.. some may know i bought a purple base/green tipped BTA not too long ago..
here's a questions its in a tank with 2 (now 3) medium sized RBTA's that are doing fine, super sticky, eating, healthy.. (its only a temporary tank its a 10gallon (i know small dont flame i keep up on daily water changes... and constantly am checking parameters, its an emergency temporary setup i had to do)

so im not getting the 3 RBTA's are perfect... and this GBTA ... is just idk bi-polar.. Constantly deflating, inflating, i really thought it was gonna come threw.. but now im thinking its on its last wish.. here's my issue

it had 2 sets of siphonglyphs when it arrived at my house so i thought ti would split fairly soon... but it hanst yet, but what ive noticed is its foot tissue ...tears by itself.. ? is this normal? or an attempt at splitting?

it seems to fully inflate to move.. and walk around, but once it finds it spot it just deflates..until it wants to move again, and today, this morning, looking i couldnt find it at all in my tank.. moved a couple rocks, and it was sitting under a rock on a rock shelf.. completely deflating, mouth open (looked really bad) ... took the rock off it, bout an hour later, it inflated... and after the whole day has gone by it looks like its making a way to the bottom of all the rocks, and gonna attempt to hide under the base rock..

now my questions is.. is it attempting to split? or is it attempting to find its spot where it wants to die? ... all my RBTA's have ever split, right out in the open..so im not use to this behavior.

**woohoo my 400th post! **

[phender]

IME, BTAs don't always get along together, especially in close quarters. I don't know why but I have kept different color morphs together and everything was great and other times one or both individuals would not thrive. The problem was always solved by giving the anemones their own tank.

I know that your GBTA has been having troubles anyway, but I would set up another simple tank if I were you, or see if someone would like to babysit the anemone for a while until you get things set up like you want.

[Reef1589]

haha ouch.. :( im just not having the anemone luck, first mixed haddoni with my BTA's, then learned i shouldnt of done that, so made this emergency tank for the BTA's to find GBTA/RBTA might now mix well haha

thanks for the respond, i shall do just that to see if it helps..

[2Addicted]

Is it usually moving to the shade? If so, do you move it back out into direct light?

[Reef1589]

i dont physically touch it, but it started at the top of the rockwork, and has moved its way down under rocks, and i had taken the rocks on top(it crawled under) off it...

here it is now, at the bottom of the rockwork... and this is what i mean when i say its foot rips by itself..

http://i51.*******.com/16bzua1.jpg

as you can see its heading into the shade, and probably under that rock, where i will probably leave it for awhile and see what it does..

[Genin]

woah that does look nasty! is there a possibility that it was damaged somehow? was it ripped when you first got it and possibly didn't notice?

[Reef1589]

Nope, foot was fine when it arrived to me, everything was fine..

to me its almost like he's attempting to split...then stops... and these rip's tears..seem to come out of no where

[Reef1589]

update...after a couple of hours..

http://i56.*******.com/2rfuc92.jpg

[Catchoftheday]

Oh wow that does not look good at all . if it looks like its splitting and has not completed its split have you ever gave it any thought of doing it yourself ?

[Reef1589]

i've thought about it, but would be too afraid of royally screwing it up...

now that i left it under the shade and what not its starting to look more like its trying to split in peace... in the shade... maybe since there is less flow under the rock?... idk.. sloppyest split ive ever seen if thats the case.. my RBTA's have always split and been done in like 10-15 minutes haha

[TheFishTeen]

My GBTA is acting bi-polar too, but not this bad. For the first month I owned it, every morning it was shrunken up and his tentacles looked like strings of cheese. Then in the late afternoon all the way through the night it is totally open and the clownfish was having the time of his life. Yesterday I was cleaning the tank and bumped the rock it was on, and it let go and moved under a rock in the darkest spot in my tank. Now it is shrunken up for most of the day and opens at night. Is this normal?

[Reef1589]

idk but im starting to realize GBTA's are more difficult than RBTA's (if thats possible?) ... my haddoni is easier to keep then this thing ha

[SkullV]

idk but im starting to realize GBTA's are more difficult than RBTA's (if thats possible?) ... my haddoni is easier to keep then this thing ha

My Haddoni :hmm5:!

[Reef1589]

My Haddoni :hmm5:!

soon :beer:

[Catchoftheday]

i've thought about it, but would be too afraid of royally screwing it up...

now that i left it under the shade and what not its starting to look more like its trying to split in peace... in the shade... maybe since there is less flow under the rock?... idk.. sloppyest split ive ever seen if thats the case.. my RBTA's have always split and been done in like 10-15 minutes haha


Well I can say is that if it is splitting and it takes to long it may become stressed out and die if it gets to a point where it won't split all the way I would take a razor blade and help the split but be sure to run some carbon and also do a water change after . I hope your BTA pulls threw

[Reef1589]

i need/want more peoples opinionnnn before i think about doing that..

[Reef1589]

should i call it dead? ... (it was partially inflated last nite).. its in the back of the tank now..

should i throw in the towel?... should i help it along and cut it? just let it keep doing its own thing? (im afraid of it dieing and polluting the tank if i dont get it out in time)

http://i53.*******.com/vn1p4j.jpg

http://i51.*******.com/11grr4j.jpg

trying to show the tear on the bottom of the foot (self inflicted)

http://i53.*******.com/23wpr8g.jpg

[cet98]

Robbie...that GBTA looks awful (sorry)
I would seriously consider removing it...I would also hope you are running a skimmer in that 10gal as well as carbon...

wouldn't want to hear anything bad happening to the RBTAs in that tank too :(

BTW, are the RBTAs clones of each other or bought separately from different places? This coud be a case of "chemical warfare" between the RBTAs and the GBTA :sad2:

[Reef1589]

those are all the original clones out of the 75g.. and yes.. Carbon, skimmer, and water changes..

[Reef1589]

upon finding it, and adjusting flow a tad bit... in a matter of what? and hour... its starting to close up, and inflate.. (idk if i should done that or just let it do its own thing)

this BTA's alot like my GF.. i just cant read it :( whyyyyy

http://i52.*******.com/35cmxol.jpg (far away shot best i could get, viewing the tank long ways)

and here's a somewhat upclose
http://i56.*******.com/2d779n4.jpg

[hypnoj]

my guess is that thing is on it's way out. Even though it was put into a tank with only BTA's, chemical warfare can still take place. I think he's losing the war.

[Reef1589]

1 last pic of the underside...

(the mouth is pretty much closed and tentacles are starting to reinflate, im assuming its gonna try and move again since i redirected the flow) there is a full hole there

http://i56.*******.com/27yydlh.jpg

like hynoj said im guessing its pretty much done... and on its way out but just thought id get as many pictures for people as i could...

[Whip316]

gbta and rbta will get along. i have a few together in my tank and they are happy.
mine sonetimes look like that if they split to soon and the last part of the split doesnt get enough parts from the split to make itself whole again. thats my thinking.

i would toss it. once the foot becomes really perforated like that it opens itself for disease and its just gonna die. sorry to tell ya, but i would remove it and and toss it respectfully in the toilet.

[Catchoftheday]

I think it is time for you to Splitt it your self and just keep an eye on it . Plase dont just give up on it .