BTA gone?

[Susanedw]

I'm wondering if my bta is not alive anymore. It's all shriveled and just hanging. Not unusual but it does normally open up a bit, esp. in the evenings. It didn't last night and maybe not the night before. It's never acted right since day one (was kept in a basket floating on top of frag tank at lfs in just a few inches of water--I now know this isn't a good or healthy way to keep them). It was in hiding for most of its time in my tank (crevices), finally came out in back of tank after a good 3-4 weeks, but never really recovered. Never took food, never look nice and healthy.

How can I tell if it's gone? Will it detach?

I posted issues in another post titled water change as all of a sudden I have ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. I was believing maybe my tiger tail sea cucumber has died as I haven't seen it since I added it end of January. But if my bta is dead, that could be doing it too.

 

[spiraling]

I don't have experience in this but if it was my nem I would try to remove it into a qt tank asap. If it dies in your tank you can lose everything. Ammonia is really bad, and it could be affecting the nem badly if its not already coming from the nem.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

Is it "sticky" at all? If not, I would remove it. If it is at all sticky then I would try to save it.
If it is gone, don't replace it for a while. Anemones do best in well established tanks (a year or more) and yours is just not stable enough yet.

 

[DaveK]

When you have an anemone There are a few things you can look for to see if you have a problem.

It looks like "smoke" is coming from the anemone. This can mean it's spawning or more likely it's dead and what you see is masses of dead and decayed material coming out.

The center stomach area is sticking out of the anemone. This usually indicates a lot of damage has occurred.

There is damage to the base or sides of the anemone.

If the anemone is on a single rock, and you can easily remove the rock, you can give it the smell test. A normal healthy anemone will smell bad. A dead or one close to death will smell really rank and foul.

The anemone is all soft but doesn't expand. This usually means it not in good condition.

Some additional thoughts.

I don't entirely agree with @spiraling 's post about moving the anemone to a quarantine tank. This can be a sure way to kill your anemone. First off, anemones don't like to be moved and the shock of moving it could add to your problems. Second, quarantine tanks usually don't have the high quality water and lighting needed for an anemone. OTOH, you do protect your display tank to some extent.

 

[Susanedw]

Here is a picture. It's been like this for the last few days. Stuff does come out, but not like "smoke" but solid matter I figured was poop. It was like this before water parameters changed

 

[Susanedw]

Okay, new pic. I think it's gone and probably source of my tank ills

 

[Susanedw]

This is unbelievable. Checked it a couple hours ago and it was a bit more extended. So hold off on removing. Just before bed, I ck it, and this. It's actually moving up the rockwork. Maybe the water change freshened it? Which means something is still decomposing in tank.

Going to drive me nuts, this gbta