HELP! ROSE BTA

[chinaman34cents]

I just got a rose bubble tip anemone last Thursday and I don’t know what’s wrong with it. Everyday for a couple hours during the day and most of the night it deflates it self and looks like its going to die, then its back to normal again. Only thing is that I’ve never seen it fully open with bubble tip. The tips are usually stringy like normal anemone. It opens about 7 inches when its inflated. I have a maroon clown and it hates it when the BTA gets like this. I fed it some shrimp the first night and I feed the fish brine shrimp every day and every other day Mystic shrimp and frozen krill chopped up. Also on Friday the bta released this whitish fluid on and off for about 3 hours. All the rest of the fish were swimming around it cause they thought it was food.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks
-david

 

[Anonymous]

An anemone inflating and deflating is perfectly normal. An anemone such as this in a system your size likely isn't going to do well in the long term, though.

I have to tell you that it's incredibly disheartening to try to help someone who won't listen to a single thing posted. I honestly don't think anyone can help you at this point. I've told you that you're grossly overstocked. I've told you that you're going way too quickly in your stocking. I've told you that you have animals that are not at all well-suited to your system, all to no avail.

Let's look at your current list:

29G REEF
maroon clown
pearly jawfish
purple headed wrasse (pariotfish)
one blue chromes
cleaner shrimp
Singapore angel
35lb of LR
9 corals
one feather duster
5 blue legged hermits.

It pains me to think that you're buying fish so enthusiastically, but not taking care to research first so as to avoid continuing to kill animals.

You're keeping the Singapore angel it appears, even though I and others have told you that it's going to soon outgrow this tank. You're keeping the maroon, even though I and others have told you that it will become aggressive towards the other fish in your tank. You've got a jawfish of a type that should only be kept by advanced aquarists, and a number of hermit crabs that your system will be hard-pressed to support. If you're now calling your "purple headed wrasse" a parrotfish, it's even more painful knowing that you have what I can only assume are stony corals in this 29 gallon system.

You are using brine shrimp, an incredibly deficit food source, as a staple, intermixed with lesser amounts of more appropriate foodstuffs. Brine shrimp is about as good for the fish to live on as potato chips are for us to live on. And no fish in your system feeds on one specific food in nature ever, they must have a variety. Your system is so new, there's no way it can be stable and producing the micro-organisms that animals like the feather duster and jawfish should like to feed on. That means that it's up to you to provide this variety. I can't emphasize strongly enough that your system really needs to be stable and well-established before you add specimens like anemones and jawfishes.

PLEASE don't mix anemones with sessile invertebrates (animals that can't move)! Please stop putting anything into this tank until you've A: made some important changes in the stock load, and B: waited for the system to stabilize! PLEASE start researching FIRST, instead of waiting until a creature is on its way out to post that you're having trouble! We're here to help, and you are not letting us do that.

 

[chinaman34cents]

Look....I’m doing the best I know how. Please have some confidence in me.

As far as the Singapore whore. I’ve tried to catch him. but much easier said than done.
The jawfish, there are many members on this forum that have been able to keep them and sometimes in smaller tanks.

You should see the conditions at the fish store I got them at. The pearly jaws that I bought, they were in a tank with a hundred some shrimps with out and place to hide. I only wanted one, but since the other one kept getting picked on by this shrimp I had to buy them both. You make me sound like a dick who buys fish to kill. I don’t appreciate it at all. I did my research on everything except that damn angel. But, I’m here because I need help, not criticism. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DaisyPolyp]

If you're intent on saving this system you have to start at the top: Food. You've got a lot of mouths to feed in there and you need a variety of foods to feed them all. I have not seen it mentioned yet, but do you have a sump? if not, you need to get a big one. When you get it, you need to turn it into a refugium to start churning out as full a food chain as possible. There is a lot of good reading on this site about how to setup/stock a refugium.

Focus on that first, then we can move on with other things to help.

 

[Unarce]

SM has done nothing but provide you with sound advice on previous threads. You seem to have difficulty distinguishing advice from criticism, so here's a sample. Noting the conditions of a LFS is an extremely poor excuse for overstocking, and a noobie one at that. Their livestock has a turnover rate and are not intended to be permanant residents.

The future of your tank is dismal at best. You really need to do more research then what you have done up until the Singapore Angel. The advice given to you should be taken at heart and if you only wish to be told what you want to hear, than a psychic hotline would be more suitable for you.

 

[chinaman34cents]

The advice given to you should be taken at heart and if you only wish to be told what you want to hear, than a psychic hotline would be more suitable for you.

:twisted:

 

[chinaman34cents]

Thanks to all those whos intent is helping.


This is what i'm running

Red sea prism skimmer
CPR bio filter/ skimmer system
Coralife power compacts at 130watts
Bunch of algae pads in the CPR
Two 250gph powerheads (1 top left, 1bottom right)


Water conditions:
Ph - 8.2
Calcium - 550
Nitrites - 0
Nitrate - 0
Ammonia - 0
I don’t have phosphate test
Salinity – 1.023


As far as feeding is concerned i feed them brine in the morning flakes in the afternoon and mystic shrimp at night. Some times krill or squid instead of mystic shrimp.

 

[chinaman34cents]

If you're intent on saving this system you have to start at the top: Food. You've got a lot of mouths to feed in there and you need a variety of foods to feed them all. I have not seen it mentioned yet, but do you have a sump? if not, you need to get a big one. When you get it, you need to turn it into a refugium to start churning out as full a food chain as possible. There is a lot of good reading on this site about how to setup/stock a refugium.

Focus on that first, then we can move on with other things to help.

Thanks for you post. What else should i feed? Also my main question is the Bubble tip. Is it normal and what i should do? Are the BTA all like this?This is the sole purpose of my post.

 

[K9coral]

Im not even reading the entire post but M*F*r give the dude a break, if he tells you he's doing his best then let it be.

 

[Unarce]

Im not even reading the entire post but M*F*r give the dude a break, if he tells you he's doing his best then let it be.

I don't care if he says he's doing his best. If "his best" is ignoring the advice he receives on RDO, how does it make sense in your mind to defend that? Perhaps pre-judging when you even admitted to not reading the entire thread isn't the smartest move either. You're just adding to a problem that a lot of people here would take seriously.

 

[K9coral]

RN, dont take your s.p. syndrome problems out on me. The advice given here is not ALWAYS the best. Maybe he isnt the smartest person in the world but that doesnt mean you take him out back and put him down!

 

[Unarce]

RN, dont take your s.p. syndrome problems out on me. The advice given here is not ALWAYS the best. Maybe he isnt the smartest person in the world but that doesnt mean you take him out back and put him down!

I agree, there's some crappy advice that goes through here sometimes. But, it's not going to come from SM. I didn't put him down personally. What we're reading here is troubling. Along with the excuses are hostilities towards a fish ("Singapore whore, damn angel") that he erroneously bought.

What the hell is s.p. syndrome?

 

[K9coral]

LOL,,, you dont wanna know!

I take it back anyway.

 

[Unarce]

That's a riot if it's anything like mmm....t....mmm....tourette's, you ball hair. :lol:

 

[K9coral]

Oh BTW, I wasnt trying to say anything about SM's advice or even YOUR advice.... lol... both have always been helpful to me. But some people, OMG, dont know their ass from a hole in the wall.

 

[tangir1]

>... Calcium - 550

With reading that high, you better check you alk., buddy.

 

[Anonymous]

I can't resist. I like to play devil's advocate too much.

I regularly ignore advice I get here, even thought I do consider RDO the best source to ask (or mine for) information. Sometimes I get a 2nd opinion, or sometimes the advice given isn't very practical. Also, I think many are far too serious about chewing out a reefer for doing something kinda whack, but that's just me.

A lot of the advice I ignore is the "idealist party line" ... have you ever asked a question and gotten an answer that made you think or say, "Oh that WOULD be sweet but it's NEVER gonna happen." ... when you give someone advice or answer a question, people usually speak towards an ideal solution. Example: What I would do, If it were mine, If you have the money do this, etc. ... Unfortunately the most ideal solution isn't always the most practical, or even possible. For me, a quarantine tank is out of the question. I don't have the space or time to maintaint yet another volume of water that will be used only rarely. Please don't start a QT argument here. That was just my example and if I could have one I totally would, but I can't.

Lastly, I would probably be a little offended if I asked a very narrow question about a rose BTA and then everyone used it as an excuse to say "YOUR SETUP SUX AND UR DUMB NEWB!" ... I realize we do need to look at the big picture of his tank and why things might not be doing well (notice the crab population seemed to be decreasing as well...) but still, he was asking about it's behavior and appearance.

 

[Anonymous]

I can't resist. I like to play devil's advocate too much.

Neither can I. Okay advocate, meet devil .

I regularly ignore advice I get here, even thought I do consider RDO the best source to ask (or mine for) information. Sometimes I get a 2nd opinion, or sometimes the advice given isn't very practical. Also, I think many are far too serious about chewing out a reefer for doing something kinda whack, but that's just me.

A lot of the advice I ignore is the "idealist party line" ... have you ever asked a question and gotten an answer that made you think or say, "Oh that WOULD be sweet but it's NEVER gonna happen." ... when you give someone advice or answer a question, people usually speak towards an ideal solution. Example: What I would do, If it were mine, If you have the money do this, etc. ... Unfortunately the most ideal solution isn't always the most practical, or even possible. For me, a quarantine tank is out of the question. I don't have the space or time to maintaint yet another volume of water that will be used only rarely. Please don't start a QT argument here. That was just my example and if I could have one I totally would, but I can't.

Excellent points Hwarang, especially with regard to the "ideal" vs "practical".

Lastly, I would probably be a little offended if I asked a very narrow question about a rose BTA and then everyone used it as an excuse to say "YOUR SETUP SUX AND UR DUMB NEWB!" ... I realize we do need to look at the big picture of his tank and why things might not be doing well (notice the crab population seemed to be decreasing as well...) but still, he was asking about it's behavior and appearance.

The original question might appear to be narrow, but it isn't one with a simple answer. Tankmates, water conditions, etc. would influence any advice or conclusion so questions about his setup are appropriate.

I really don't see where everyone flamed the original poster. SM gave a long, well thought out reply. 34cents got defensive (right or wrong I'm not judging), then others jumped in and the mud flinging began. Reminds me of a sump debate :lol:

 

[Unarce]

I undertand where you're getting at. Some of my ideals go against the grain, but I've never really been much of a follower. Although some can take it too seriously, you have to subject yourself to that when asking for advice on a public forum. I do believe SM was in the right for drawing a line at some point. You recall a certain 14 year-old, Mr. 20 questions. There were plenty of lines drawn in that thread. How else are you going to get through to a person before they have to realize it on their own.

Although you might think that the question was narrow, the problem his BTA might be having could be in direct correlation with what was being pointed out.

 

[Anonymous]

Good points, reefnutz. I agree. When you post something public, especially when soliciting advice, you're going to get criticism. SM's advice was great, but worded sharply. Her frustrations were showing, etc ... that's all.