BTA Help?

[MarbleShark]

Ok.. here is what I am asking.. my water parameters are good… the BTA I got is nice and inflated… she moved all around the tank the first night.. even hooking onto a Mexican Turbo and going for a ride around the tank on his back.. then she settled in a location that she seems to like and I can still view her which is cool.. I have had her now for almost 2 weeks and she is not really eating. I was told you target feed silversides to BTA and I have tried that but she does not seem to accept them.. I am putting Marine Snow in the tank like I have been told and I am sure some mysis fall on her when I feed to the others..

Any ideas or suggestions on what she might like and how to feed her?

[sasquatch]

Norm my guess is at 2 weeks its still getting used to your tank, if your feeding the tank ,should be ok, have a look after lights out and see if its opening real big, if so save a bit of food back and feed then.Steve

[charlir1954]

I have had my green BTA for 3 1/2 months and while he's growing, I actually still have to usually finger feed him or the food falls to the bottom of the tank. I went to the market and bought a 1/2 lb of raw tiger shrimp. I place the shrimp into individual sandwich baggies inside a larger plastic bag and freeze them. I just place a shrimp into the frigerator about two days ahead of when needed to slowly thaw. I cut it up as needed into SMALL pieces. I hold the shrimp up against the BTA until it has SLOWLY grasped the piece with it's tentacles. I also dole out some shrimp to rest of my fishy friends, skunk cleaner shrimp, lawnmower blenny, yellow tang, pink skunk clowns. Try to find something like a strawberry basket to place over the BTA to keep the rest of those inhabitants out. Because no matter how much shrimp I give them, the BTA's is always more desirable and they WILL take his from him. Often I place a couple drops of Selcon in the sandwich bag with the shrimp so that it has time to be absorbed. I find a pair of scissors the easiest to cut the shrimp up.

[sasquatch]

Nice one there Charlie, Ilike the basket idea. Karma to you.Steve

[cheeks69]

sasquatch is right your Anemone is still acclimating to the tank and if healthy and you have proper lighting target feeding them is unnecessary at least in the beginning, if you continually try to feed the anemone you'll only stress it more. Is the Anemone sticky to the touch and do you notice a reaction when you touch it ? What is the color ? Have you noticed it expanding and shrink alot since you've introduced it ? Have you noticed it expelling anything out of it's mouth ? Do you have any clowns and are they trying to be hosted by the Anemone ?

[MarbleShark]

Is the Anemone sticky to the touch and do you notice a reaction when you touch it?

Yes and yes

What is the color?

It is a Green BTA and gets really cool fluorescent green at times and other times darker green.. it also has a bit of white in it. I will try and post some pictures later.

Have you noticed it expanding and shrink a lot since you've introduced it?

It has done it a few times but not much... maybe twice at the most.. once when I first put it in and once when the Mexican turbo decided to crawl around it.

Have you noticed it expelling anything out of it's mouth?

Nope.

Do you have any clowns and are they trying to be hosted by the Anemone?

No I was told that if I get the Anenome and the clown at the same time to be careful since the clowns might stress out the Anenome when she is trying to get acclimated to the tank.

I watched it under the moonlights last night and I could see the mouth and everything. The mouth was closed. I took a piece of thawed silverside and placed it on the Anenome and the whole thing like grabbed it. I did not get to see it eat it though but it was gone this morning. Do not know if it got it or if another fish got it.

[charlir1954]

at nite when my tank is darkened, only the cleanup crew is up. if all your room lites were out fast enough, your BTA ate it's food. my BTA started eating by the 3rd day.

[charlir1954]

actually Steve, I had to settle for using a small all plastic food strainer I found in a dollar store since I couldn't find one of those old fashioned berry baskets anymore. the berry basket wasn't my idea, Iv'e read about it before and Miss Woodstock had reminded me about it the other week while we were chatting.

[Warnberg]

Norm, I feed my anemone about once a month MAYBE... think of an anemone like a gator or snake... they can have one large meal and not need to eat again for months....

[MarbleShark]

So if it grabbed the food when I placed it on it then that is a good thing right?

[lcstorc]

Absolutely. Even if it did not get to eat it grabbing it is a good response.

[MarbleShark]

How often should I offer her a silverside?

[burning2nd]

i fed mine like 2 times a week when i first got it cause i wanted to make sure it was happy and full to aceppt the change over.

well then i fed it some more, it got big quick. so i backed off.

depending on the size of food determines the frequency


mine got big quick.

[cheeks69]

If you have strong lighting then you don't need to target feed if not then once a week would be more than enough.