Tank Journal Archive

[Agent M]

I've just moved my Bubble tip anemones into a special holding container and here is why. This little guy in the middle of pic:

The BTA in the centre of the pic was disintegrating. I don't know if it will make it but I think its worth keeping it in the tank to find out for now.

I see a lot of posts online about people troubleshooting because their BTA is 'sulking' - and they are often told to leave it be and it will come out when its ready. What the?? This is not Anemone Psychology 101!! They don't know what is best for themselves. They don't move themselves to where the conditions are just right - they need to be placed there by us. And they certainly don't sulk :p

The reason this guy is disintegrating is because he climbed the glass to a spot where there was next to no flow and I didn't move him. A week later this is the result. I had to scrape him off the glass and give him a quick blast in the powerhead flow to get the goo and loose tentacles off him. So we'll see if he makes it or not. I haven't had this happen before so I don't know if the odds are good or bad but I will go with my gut and give him a chance.

So what do you think... was he sulking? Depressed and tried to commit suicide? Lol....

 

[Mr.Reeefer]

I've just moved my Bubble tip anemones into a special holding container and here is why. This little guy in the middle of pic:

View attachment 48360

The BTA in the centre of the pic was disintegrating. I don't know if it will make it but I think its worth keeping it in the tank to find out for now.

I see a lot of posts online about people troubleshooting because their BTA is 'sulking' - and they are often told to leave it be and it will come out when its ready. What the?? This is not Anemone Psychology 101!! They don't know what is best for themselves. They don't move themselves to where the conditions are just right - they need to be placed there by us. And they certainly don't sulk :p

The reason this guy is disintegrating is because he climbed the glass to a spot where there was next to no flow and I didn't move him. A week later this is the result. I had to scrape him off the glass and give him a quick blast in the powerhead flow to get the goo and loose tentacles off him. So we'll see if he makes it or not. I haven't had this happen before so I don't know if the odds are good or bad but I will go with my gut and give him a chance.

So what do you think... was he sulking? Depressed and tried to commit suicide? Lol....

Hi Agent,

i am not sure if you are using sarcasm regarding BTA's knowing where they want to be etc, so i will not comment, this internet communication can be tricky lol.

I have added 2 BTA's a few months ago now, one of them moved and found its spot within 2-3 days, has been there ever since and seems happy.

The other, still hasnt found its happy place, is constantly "sulking" and im sure if i hadnt been feeding it, it would be a goner by now, whether its going to make it or not, time will tell.

I have also had a white sabae nem, which after some time commited suicide as i like to put it, wouldnt come into the light, so i would move it into the light, it would move back, so i would move it, and it would move back, after some time of this going on, i said fuck it, no one can help you if you arent going to help yourself, lasted in the darkness for some time as i still kept feeding it, then in time it was gone. I blamed myself for it not lasting as i thought i hadnt provided the right conditions for it to be happy.

This time, i have one happy and one sad, what does this mean? I have no fucking idea!

 

[Agent M]

I was trying to inject some humour into it, but this phrase we like to use to describe what the anemones are doing 'sulking' is not what they are literally doing. They are not having a tantrum in the corner of our tanks and will come out when they are ready! ;)

Because I have kept my BTA's confined in a basket for so long, I have learnt that we can put them in the right conditons - ie. strong lighting, low - medium flow and they will thrive. Its when they are allowed to wander that they may end up in a less than ideal spot. They may move away from flow that is too strong, only to put themselves in a dark place with not enough light.

I think because they can move we assume they know where they are going. I'm saying that they don't,

We need to intervene when this happens and keep intervening until the BTA is in a place it can do well. Finding the right place on its own is pot luck for the anemone.

 

[Lesley]

Hi. It's an interesting topic I have been looking into. Moving BTAs. One of the main reasons I started worrying about them moving was the horror stories about them going through power heads and killing tanks. I have 7 btas of varying size and color and was really worried about this happening.

After reading and researching, and watching my few that have moved around, my thoughts are, a healthy BTA that just wants to find a different spot will not generally detach itself and move with the flow, they will tend to walk around with their foot always still attached to something. I have in fact I watched our red BTA move around for a 7 hr period one day after the move, through caves, over corals and around bommies, but never dislodging once, he did this during the day with lights on and eventually settled in a spot and hasnt moved now for a few months.
It amazed me how fast they can move around, every 10-15mins he was in a different spot. amazing really. He actually walked around.

It appears to be the struggling stressed BTA's that seem to actually lose their footing in the flow and float around the tank and stop on the first thing they can grab. I have a feeling that your guy may not have been well or too happy when he floated around and landed on the glass. I have bought many a bleached BTA, they are the ones that seem to "let go " and float around and sometimes land in the most inconvenient spots,

I've also notice interesting behaviors, particularly after water changes or heavy feeding, they seem to "sulk". I believe now that that what we consider sulking is when they are actually full and ready to dispel waste, some can do this quickly some take a lot longer. Ive had healthy BTA's take quite a few days, looking really shriveled up and horrid and then they open better than ever.

I currently have a sick BTA that someone has given to me, its foot is not strong and he is starting to "melt". So I decided I wouldn't risk the tank(power heads) and have had him in the sump for about a week now. Not great flow, but he is able to attach to a rock and stay attached, he is now eating frozen food and is making a good but slow recovery. He looked worse than the one in your picture.
I think with your food, care and lots of feeding he will be fine.
Good luck.

 

[Mr.Reeefer]

Hi agent,

Ok so you were being serious, now i can comment.

I have to say with my experiences and what i have read, i completley disagree, Im not saying your wrong and i am right, just that we have a different opionion to one another.

I tend to have similar experiences as lesley.

I believe all animals rely on instinct, most animals arent generally with there mother or parents very long before they are left on there own, especially in the ocean. I believe they know what they like and dont like, they know what to do and when to do it. Coral spawning for instance, i find it amazing how corals in an aquarium will generally spawn at the same time as in the ocean reef. We do not tell our corals or make them spawn when we want, they do it when it is right for them, im sure there is no calender in our aquariums with "spawn today" written on it, thats where i believe instinct or something alike kicks in.

That being said, i believe with Nems, they will roam for there right position, they will search for sufficient light, sufficient flow etc. I have found it hard to confine a nem to one spot if it doesnt like it there, even though i think its a great spot for it.

Why do nems commit suicide? starve themselves of light and refuse to eat, i have no idea, maybe it is the fact that they hate it where they are and want to die, i really dont know as it doesnt make sense to me, but they tend to do it.

Like i said in my previous post, i have 2 BTA's added one week apart, one is loving it in the tank, the other is not liking it in the tank, still roaming around and slowly loosing health. Why is one doing fine and the other isnt? Cant be the aquarium or both would be doing bad. Maybe this one just cant find its happy place in my aquarium, or is it waiting for me to find it for it? I dont know, all i know is, it has tried everywhere to find its happy place, been roaming for 2 months, but its not happy, i just dont think after all its efforts of trial and error to find its spot that i am going to have much luck finding it for it, and i have noticed that they are not to keen on having there foot removed from whatever there on to often and can make the situation worse and cause more stress.

Has me puzzled.

 

[Agent M]

@Lesley In most cases they go through powerheads when rocks are close enough to the glass for the BTA to gain access - they seem to be attracted to the flow directly around the outside of the powerheads - I am repeating what I have seen many say and photograph over the years, not my personal experience. However very occasionally, from what I have seen with mine, a healthy anemone will swell its foot, which loosens its hold on the rock and has the potential for it to be caught away with the current. Their foot acts as a counter weight and they almost always land the right way up, but you can see how it would be easy to be sucked through a powerhead while they are floating around. In 4 years I've seen my anemones swell their feet twice. They may do it more often but I have only seen it when home to look. I have never kept my anemones where they have access to a powerhead - I am a bit of a stress head and its one less stress to worry about.

If you have fine sand you can confine them to a particular rock. I currently have 1-2mm gravel and I've found they can travel across that.

The reason mine got on the glass is because he was put in a divided compartment in the tank that was bare glass to begin with, no rock or substrate. So he was free to roam all over the glass. All of the anemones (I have 12 BTA's now) were deliberately placed on the glass bottom of the tank and a few of them climbed upwards on the glass and divider. They all went to good spots but him. There was nothing obvious as to why he chose a dicky spot. I thought he would keep moving but he didn't. He is one of the smaller nems in the tank and last time I checked I had 11 but now have 12, so it is possible it was the one that split too.

 

[Lesley]

See it's really interesting. I watched my red bta , never nice did all of his foot at once time leave the rock. He would stretch his foot out suck onto rock and then drag his other half foot frim behind Just like a snail moving but had at least half a foot attached at all times. Thank you for info on the powerheads. We don't have any rock near them so crossing fingers ! Guy in the sump actually grabbed food tonight, first time since we had him I haven't had to hold it for 20 mins. Glad there's been some improvement. Thanks for info.

 

[lukusis]

I now have 4 green BTA's (had two, one has split twice).


Mine dont really wander much now and all congregate in the same spot. When I had two they wandered around and ended up on the same rock together.
They have moved to the area with the most flow and strongest light. I dont attempt to move them as they stay in the one spot and arent an issue :)

 

[Agent M]

@Mr.Reeefer I don't mind a healthy disagreement, I do take on what other people have to say and file it away - over time sometimes you can end up forming new answers out of all the bits you have heard over the years. There are a number of things about BTA's I still have no idea why and badly want to know! This damaged one today grabbed and ate one of its own broken tentacles after I blasted the debris off it with the powerhead - I'd love to know why it did that and why didn't the others nearby eat some too?

I agree that in a lot of cases we can rely on an animals instinct, especially when it comes to eating, however we are putting them in an artificially created environment where we decide what is available to them. Once they are in our tanks, they can't survive without our care.

I would say flow, lighting and a place it likes putting its foot would be the 3 main elements BTA's care most about. From what I've observed, I've come to the conclusion that a BTA is more interested in flow and having a place it likes putting its foot than lighting. It will sacrifice lighting in preference of those two things and die. I don't believe they are necessarily hiding from the lighting when they go underneath rocks - though it is possible.

As for why one of yours is doing well and the other isn't - I can offer no clues. I have introduced 4 different BTA's into my tank, and 2 survived and have split and been propagated by me. Identical conditions, healthy on introduction. One was even an aquacultured nem. My opinion is that the other BTA's may have killed them. I came to think that because I saw a time lapse video on Youtube of two BTAs swiping each other in battle - and mine declined very slowly over many months, just slowly shrank in size until they disappeared. If I see that again in future I will be separating them. My other thought is that there is probably a number of sub-species of Entacmaea quadricolour that haven't been classified yet and they may have differing needs. I know the two that I have grow to a small adult size, whereas I see people with BTA's the size of bread plates. There's no way I'd have the space for 12 if mine got that big.

Personally, if its been a couple of months and your nem hasn't settled in, I would be putting it in a breeder box as close to the light as I can get it, making sure enough flow is getting in to swish it from side to side gently without it being able to escape the box and feed it mushy foods a bit more until it recovers. Then I would rehome it or try adding it to the tank again. I believe if you do this it is more likely to survive than letting it continue to do its own thing. But perhaps it will turn out like the two I had that didn't make it, and shrink until it disappears.

Getting a nem off a rock is certainly no fun at all. It takes a few minutes of patience and there is a technique to it. I use a plastic card from my wallet to do it, my Medicare card was the lucky one that got picked today. Regardless of whether its on a flat surface or on a rock, it works the same. You start at an edge of the foot, moving no more than a millimetre at a time with a steady hand. As you touch the foot with the edge or corner of the card, the nem will retract its body and, conveniently, it will reduce the size of its foot and start to retract its foot away from the thing poking at it. This thickens the foot and makes it less fragile. It allows you to lift up that edge with the card and gently keep wiggling the card under going a millimetre at a time and keep changing the angle you are working at a little bit. Don't constantly push the card under the nem or you will damage it. Just little movements a bit at a time until it finally lets go completely or you can peel the last bit off. I try not to handle the body of the nem at all so as to not cause stress, just the foot.

 

[Mr.Reeefer]

@Agent M

Wow, interesting about the eating its own tentacle. If you do ever find out please keep me in mind to share the info.

I dont really think nems commit suicide, i just word it like that as it seems they are not willing to save themselves at times, if what you are saying is correct about importance to them for flow and there foot, it would make sense why they sometimes shade themselves and die, even though it doesnt make sense to me that at no time the fight for survival doesnt kick in and they come into the light to stay alive. Flow and a happy foot must be extrodinarily important to them.

I am not sure either, all i can think of is that my tank is pretty heavily stocked with corals and is limited for spots, maybe the ones available arent to its liking.

I like the sound of that, and im assuming this has worked for you previously so i am willing to give it a shot, it might work and it might not, but its worth the effort. Now i understand what you meant in your origional post.

I also use this technique, what i have found previously though is, i will move the nem into a nice spot using that technique, next day it has moved back, so i move it back etc etc, i have found repeatedly moving the nem by lifting its foot didn't help my situation and made the nem worse, i could tell this by the 3rd or 4th time i moved it, it took longer to grab onto the rocks with its foot, and eventually it just stopped grabbing onto the rock at all, however, i think using your technique to confine it to a good location with good feeding techniques should help, and if it doesnt, at least i can know i gave it my best.

Your origional post i agree with now and makes sense, basically these nems need to get there priorities right, which they dont, so we need to intervene since they are a bit stupid.

Thanks for the informative responses.

 

[Agent M]

Looking a lot better... here's hoping it makes a full recovery.

 

[ReeferRob]

I noticed one thing the last time ours split since I've been stuck at home, when they split 1 1/2 is always deflated. I noticed it the last time, but I kept a close eye on them this time. The "sulky" part moved under the rocks until it healed, the other 1/2 stayed in the group. Then it decided it wanted to leave so it ended up down in the filtre bag.

 

[Mr.Reeefer]

I noticed one thing the last time ours split since I've been stuck at home, when they split 1 1/2 is always deflated. I noticed it the last time, but I kept a close eye on them this time. The "sulky" part moved under the rocks until it healed, the other 1/2 stayed in the group. Then it decided it wanted to leave so it ended up down in the filtre bag.

having corals that walk around can be tricky business mate