BTA problems

[Sandry75]

Hello all,
I have a GBTA that I purchased about 4 months ago. It was placed right In front on a piece of live rock where it could sink it's foot into the rock and get a nice amount of light. After several days the BTA was wide open and looking great! Both clowns were in it all day long. It was a wonderful addition to the tank.

About two weeks later it moved to the underside of my live rock in the back of my tank and has stayed there ever since. I can only see it by looking through the side of the tank up under the rock work. It still appears to be healthy - both clowns (percula) still hang out in it periodically, but it is only opened a little bit and it gets very little light.

I would love to get it out in the open again where it was beautiful but I cannot reach it without taking the rock work completely apart. Can I persuade it to move with direct water flow or some other means??

Any suggestions would be great. I hate having such a wonderful invert and never having anyone see it - including ME!

Thanks in advance,
Sandry75

 

[mikem]

If you point a power head at it, it will mostlikely move again.

 

[Phyl]

Holding ice on it or flow directly at it might make it move, but unfortunately, if you can't get to it you're not really going to get ice near it. Pulling rock might be the best defense, but if it is hiding because the light is too intense then moving it out isn't going to last long. Moving the rock, pulling him out, and lessinging the light might help you encourage him slowly, over time, to stay out in the open.

Good luck!

 

[Sandry75]

Thanx for the suggestions!

The tank is lit with 2 65W PC's so I don't think it is too much light. I'll have to try the direct water flow option and see what happens.

 

[Sandry75]

ps - I haven't visited in a while and I just wanted to say that the site upgrades look great !!! Well done to whomever is setting it up!
;D

 

[Subliminal]

I wouldn't think that'd be too much light for it either.

Did you feed it regularly?

They say they just want the right amount of 3 things: food, light, flow. If they move it's because of one of the three.

Or so they say.

 

[mladencovic]

Unfortunately there are so many things that could be wrong:

For example, the place where you intended it to sit might have wrong flow. Either too strong or too slow for its needs and likes.

Then, the light could have been too weak to start with, the anemone moved and tried to find a better light and now it is either in a state of weakness and/or shock from malnutrition and is unable to search for the path to better light more optimally.

The fact that clowns accepted the anemone, does not automatically mean that it accepted them. Is it possible that they were a bit too rough with it? Did the clowns compete over anemone, and are they the proper symbiotic species for bubble tip.

And a big question is, is your water quality right? Right pH, nitrates and the rest of it.

Are there any other species that might be picking on it (shrimps, crabs or fish)? Or trying to steal the food from it that, presumably, you are target feeding.

Are there any other corals that might release the toxins down the stream. Anemones are supposed to be stronger stingers then many corals but you might have something that might just annoy the anemone if not outright hurt it.

Finally, just because you like the spot, that doesn't mean that it will like it too. The fact is that anemones are known to move around until THEY are satisfied with the place. The methods described before (ice and strong waterflow) should be used only as temporarily "nudging" method and not as a permanent "coralling" tool.

Maybe if you provide us with a few more details, we could try to narrow things down a bit.

Unfortunately many of our tanks are not suited for anemones one way or the other, which I have personally found out the wrong way :'(

 

[Phyl]

The 2@65w PCs might not be enough light for it. Like Mladen said, it may be weak from not getting enough light and is disappearing off. If it is still opening great, but when/if it stops opening, that's usually a bad sign.

I had a bta that was too small for the clown that was trying to host in it and it all but disappeared from the stress of being "attacked" by the clown. In the end it didn't make it.

Mladen, great job with the nerd goggles

And Sandry thanks for the compliment! We've worked hard to get it here and the appreciation make it worth it!