LTA tentacles not sticky wont eat

fustilarian · 08/03/2017, 06:17 PM

Pictures:
https://goo.gl/photos/qhnfQkpBZEzH1gP98

Please help me. I've always wanted an anemone but I rarely ever try to keep them because I've always had such poor luck. I tried twice in my pre-hurricane sandy 75 gallon (damn you sandy!) and again in my current 120. They were BTA's and all three did the same thing; quickly shrank (within a couple weeks), never accepted food, tentacles never sticky, slowly withered away and disappeared. Sometimes they moved around, sometimes not, clowns never hosted.

This time around I decided to try my luck with an LTA because i read that they were pretty much on the same level as BTA and needed a DSB, which i have. I waited patiently until i could get a good one and when i had time to devote to it. I settled on this anemone from divers den that looked great and I already had the day off work so I pulled the trigger. It looked good when it came in. I drip acclimated slowly it ALL DAY because i wanted the move to be as stress free as possible. I did have a bit of trouble getting it to stay put as most people do but after pinning it between some rocks with only the return pump running for a day or so it finally settled in and then i removed the rocks and filled in around it with sand. Pictures of this whole process in the link above. The problem now is that it wont eat or even try to catch food. Today it looks visibly smaller and I'm pretty scared that it will do the same thing the others did.

I've only tried feeding it rods food thus far. If you click the link above there is a video where i had a piece of i guess krill just sitting on it for a while. The vid is 2 minutes but the food was actually there for quite a bit longer and when i turned the pumps back on the food just blew away. I've tried the rods food a couple more times since then with similar results but I never left the pumps off that long again just used the feed button which think is 10 mins. I'm about to give it some chopped raw shrimp because thats what LA said they were feeding it. They always say that, 'feeding well on a mixture of mysis and finely chopped raw shrimp' but in my tank they never eat. Anyways, if this doesn't work, I'll try to get silversides because i've read people have good luck feeding them to anemones but beyond that I'm not sure what else to do.

Tank specs: 120 gallon display, 25g refuge, 225 total system volume, SRO 3000 skimmer with a Swabbie, DIY LED's with 2 100w COB and 1 50w COB 'dream chips', 2 Jebao Rw-15 turned down low on pulse mode, 2 Jebao RW-8 turned down on else mode, 200 micron filter socks, marine pure media, float switch gravity fed ATO with RO water

Maintenance: dosing NO3PO4X 16 ml a day via dosing pump, normally I do a 20-25 gallon weekly waterchange with coralife salt but I didn't want to stress the anemone so i skipped doing that, filter socks swapped out 2-3 times a week, heavy feeding of rods food, sparing feeding omega one and spirulina, home-brew algae cultures and live rotifer cultures

Tests: 9/27/2016 - NH3 0, NO2 0, 7/24/2017 - NO3 5 ppm, Phosphorus 28 ppb (ULR), 7/16/2017 - alk 12 dkh, ca 500, mg 1400, K 374, Fe .03, I .025

Inhabitants: acros and monits, elegance, acans, frogspawn, duncan, cyphastrea, war coral, pocillopora, porites w/ worms, zoas, sympodium, 2 ocellaris, foxface lo, whitetail tang, 4 barrier reef chromis, firefish, sleeper goby, harlequin shrimp pair, tube anemone, sponges, halloween urchin

I had really old expired test kits for base elements that, for instance, calcium tested 320 with the old kit and the new kit tested 500, caused me to not know that my levels were running away. I have since discontinued all 2-part dosing until they return to normal, plus the bottles ran out so.. anyways maybe i should do a few waterchanges to lower the levels? Nothing else seems stressed from it and I probably should test them again.

Please help me out, I don't know what to do. I've been having saltwater tanks for years but every time i try to keep an anemone they just shrink up and die and nothing else was ever stressed or dying or showing signs anything was wrong. Its so mysterious and disappointing because they are really fascinating creatures and I love to watch clownfish swim in them. If this one doesn't make it, I think that's it i wont try an anemone again because they deserve better treatment than shrinking and dying in my tank.

Lance M. · 08/03/2017, 07:49 PM

It looks healthy. I did notice this one on DD.

How long have you had it?

I would give it a week or two before feeding for it to adjust to the new environment. Also, see if you can get your water tested at a lfs as well as order new test kits and check yourself. If its condition changes. give LA a call before the first two weeks? are up and they can extend the warranty another two weeks if the condition becomes worse. They did this for me when I was losing a bta. I do currently have two other bta's from them that are doing well.

I feed my bta's mysis, rod's fish eggs, dry fish pellets, and raw smashed pieces of shrimp whenever I eat shrimp. About 3 times a week.

pfan151 · 08/03/2017, 09:05 PM

Looks fine in the pics. I wouldn't worry about it not eating. They don't need to be fed. It's pretty normal for some anemones to puff up oversized initially and then settle in to their actual size. If it is attatched to the bottom and not deflating you are probably fine.

Seahorsechick · 08/05/2017, 10:12 PM

Looks healthy and happy to me. Whenever I get a new anemone I don't bother feeding it for the first month

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

fustilarian · 08/06/2017, 12:59 PM

Thanks for the replies and the vote of confidence guys and gals.

It did accept a couple dime sized pieces of fresh shrimp that day after i started this thread. I added a video of it that i recorded earlier to the album that i linked to in my first post. It was fully inflated, looked nice and happy. yay!

aznflyfisherman · 08/06/2017, 11:50 PM

Very nice, i've been looking for the purple or green LTA, in my area i only see the white lta.

Lance M. · 08/07/2017, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aznflyfisherman

Very nice, i've been looking for the purple or green LTA, in my area i only see the white lta.

White? Tan? Likely bleached.

08/03/2017, 06:17 PM	#1
fustilarian Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: East Meadow, NY Posts: 33	LTA tentacles not sticky wont eat Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/qhnfQkpBZEzH1gP98 Please help me. I've always wanted an anemone but I rarely ever try to keep them because I've always had such poor luck. I tried twice in my pre-hurricane sandy 75 gallon (damn you sandy!) and again in my current 120. They were BTA's and all three did the same thing; quickly shrank (within a couple weeks), never accepted food, tentacles never sticky, slowly withered away and disappeared. Sometimes they moved around, sometimes not, clowns never hosted. This time around I decided to try my luck with an LTA because i read that they were pretty much on the same level as BTA and needed a DSB, which i have. I waited patiently until i could get a good one and when i had time to devote to it. I settled on this anemone from divers den that looked great and I already had the day off work so I pulled the trigger. It looked good when it came in. I drip acclimated slowly it ALL DAY because i wanted the move to be as stress free as possible. I did have a bit of trouble getting it to stay put as most people do but after pinning it between some rocks with only the return pump running for a day or so it finally settled in and then i removed the rocks and filled in around it with sand. Pictures of this whole process in the link above. The problem now is that it wont eat or even try to catch food. Today it looks visibly smaller and I'm pretty scared that it will do the same thing the others did. I've only tried feeding it rods food thus far. If you click the link above there is a video where i had a piece of i guess krill just sitting on it for a while. The vid is 2 minutes but the food was actually there for quite a bit longer and when i turned the pumps back on the food just blew away. I've tried the rods food a couple more times since then with similar results but I never left the pumps off that long again just used the feed button which think is 10 mins. I'm about to give it some chopped raw shrimp because thats what LA said they were feeding it. They always say that, 'feeding well on a mixture of mysis and finely chopped raw shrimp' but in my tank they never eat. Anyways, if this doesn't work, I'll try to get silversides because i've read people have good luck feeding them to anemones but beyond that I'm not sure what else to do. Tank specs: 120 gallon display, 25g refuge, 225 total system volume, SRO 3000 skimmer with a Swabbie, DIY LED's with 2 100w COB and 1 50w COB 'dream chips', 2 Jebao Rw-15 turned down low on pulse mode, 2 Jebao RW-8 turned down on else mode, 200 micron filter socks, marine pure media, float switch gravity fed ATO with RO water Maintenance: dosing NO3PO4X 16 ml a day via dosing pump, normally I do a 20-25 gallon weekly waterchange with coralife salt but I didn't want to stress the anemone so i skipped doing that, filter socks swapped out 2-3 times a week, heavy feeding of rods food, sparing feeding omega one and spirulina, home-brew algae cultures and live rotifer cultures Tests: 9/27/2016 - NH3 0, NO2 0, 7/24/2017 - NO3 5 ppm, Phosphorus 28 ppb (ULR), 7/16/2017 - alk 12 dkh, ca 500, mg 1400, K 374, Fe .03, I .025 Inhabitants: acros and monits, elegance, acans, frogspawn, duncan, cyphastrea, war coral, pocillopora, porites w/ worms, zoas, sympodium, 2 ocellaris, foxface lo, whitetail tang, 4 barrier reef chromis, firefish, sleeper goby, harlequin shrimp pair, tube anemone, sponges, halloween urchin I had really old expired test kits for base elements that, for instance, calcium tested 320 with the old kit and the new kit tested 500, caused me to not know that my levels were running away. I have since discontinued all 2-part dosing until they return to normal, plus the bottles ran out so.. anyways maybe i should do a few waterchanges to lower the levels? Nothing else seems stressed from it and I probably should test them again. Please help me out, I don't know what to do. I've been having saltwater tanks for years but every time i try to keep an anemone they just shrink up and die and nothing else was ever stressed or dying or showing signs anything was wrong. Its so mysterious and disappointing because they are really fascinating creatures and I love to watch clownfish swim in them. If this one doesn't make it, I think that's it i wont try an anemone again because they deserve better treatment than shrinking and dying in my tank. __________________ A fusty nut with no kernel. Current Tank Info: 4 foot 120, lots of DIY, Years in the making .. click my homepage for all the photos and videos . .

08/06/2017, 12:59 PM	#5
fustilarian Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: East Meadow, NY Posts: 33	Thanks for the replies and the vote of confidence guys and gals. It did accept a couple dime sized pieces of fresh shrimp that day after i started this thread. I added a video of it that i recorded earlier to the album that i linked to in my first post. It was fully inflated, looked nice and happy. yay! __________________ A fusty nut with no kernel. Current Tank Info: 4 foot 120, lots of DIY, Years in the making .. click my homepage for all the photos and videos . .

08/03/2017, 07:49 PM	#2
Lance M. Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Charleston, SC Posts: 910	It looks healthy. I did notice this one on DD. How long have you had it? I would give it a week or two before feeding for it to adjust to the new environment. Also, see if you can get your water tested at a lfs as well as order new test kits and check yourself. If its condition changes. give LA a call before the first two weeks? are up and they can extend the warranty another two weeks if the condition becomes worse. They did this for me when I was losing a bta. I do currently have two other bta's from them that are doing well. I feed my bta's mysis, rod's fish eggs, dry fish pellets, and raw smashed pieces of shrimp whenever I eat shrimp. About 3 times a week.

08/03/2017, 09:05 PM	#3
pfan151 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: FL Posts: 1,897	Looks fine in the pics. I wouldn't worry about it not eating. They don't need to be fed. It's pretty normal for some anemones to puff up oversized initially and then settle in to their actual size. If it is attatched to the bottom and not deflating you are probably fine.

08/05/2017, 10:12 PM	#4
Seahorsechick Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2017 Location: Canada Posts: 34	Looks healthy and happy to me. Whenever I get a new anemone I don't bother feeding it for the first month Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

08/06/2017, 11:50 PM	#6
aznflyfisherman Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2015 Posts: 957	Very nice, i've been looking for the purple or green LTA, in my area i only see the white lta.