I need help with my BTA

[demeyer2]

Hi, I have a BTA in a 40 Gallon H, I have two 295 Maxijet Powerheads to give an nice flow. There is about 40 # of live rock. I bought him and it took him about a day to find his place in a crevice. For lighting I have a PC, it has two 96-watt lights in it (one actnic and one 12000 K). I've tried feeding him Krill and Silver-sides. Most of the time he holds on to it and lets it go. I've seen him eat Krill once in the past week and a half. Is this ok? Is the light setup enough for him? Also, I run my lights for 10.5 hours a day, he is always open before I turn my lights on and about 1 hour before I turn them off he is already shrivled up. Can someone give me some ensight about what is going on? Thanks a lot. PH and salinity is always normal and I keep my tank between 78-80 degrees.

 

[DragonForce]

I would provide the experts with the following;


How long have you had the tank?

Exact readings, including nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, phosphates(if you have a kit)
exacty salinity, and exact ph.

Do you feed the other tank mates? Type of food you feed them?

anything else useful.

 

[seaham358]

Are you feeding it every day? They only need to get food a couple of times a month and they will be fine.

 

[Fluff]

I agree seaham. First, you need to give him time to get settled in, a day is not nearly long enough, some anemones take weeks before settling. Forcing food at it will only stress it and cause the decline of your anemone. Feeding is not really necessary anyway since they get alot of their nutrition from your lights (which are fine by the way for this type anemone). They will also catch food when you are feeding the tank. I would give it a week, even two to fully acclimate to your tank before offering it food again. Then, as seaham has mentioned, only offer food once a week at most and only small pieces. To large of pieces will cause the anemone to regurgitate. Give him some time and just observe it's behavior.
Posting your exact numbers and info for the things listed by dragonforce would be helpful as well, just in case there may be other things going on.

 

[macman7010]

Your salinity needs to be at reef levels that is density of around 1.026 or a little more or less. For anemones calcium, strot. and iodine levels all need to be tested and appropriate. In addition to that sometimes BTA's will react badly to lighting. If it is more intense than what they are accustom to they will crawl under a rock and hide most of the time. These animals will lose size at night but should not totally shrivel up. Also they totally deflate to pass waste to see the anemone totally deflated with a big your know what coming out of its mouth is not uncommon. It must suck having the same port for eating and expelling waste.

Like Seaham said they only need fed several times a month if at all. I had my best success with BTA's not feeding them at all letting them capture whatever left over food they could. Again though I supplemented my tank regualary with Zooplankton.