BTA didn't eat silverside... yet

[danilew]

I've had a BTA in my 34g solana under a 150w MH sunpod for about 3 or 4 weeks now. The guy I got it from had it in his sump for a day before I was able to pick it up.

 

There wasn't much light down there in the sump, so the day after I got it I started feeding it silversides every 2-3 days. It has always "latched on" and eaten right away.

 

Last week, it started looking really healthy so I cut the feeding to once a week. Today marks a week after it was last fed, so I grabbed a silverside out the freezer, thawed it out and gave it to the BTA. It's been about 2 hours now and it still has not eaten it. The silverside is just sitting longways over the BTA's mouth.

 

About an hour ago, I pulled it out a little and tried to turn it vertically incase it was having issues eating it. Well that did nothing, the BTA just pushed it back down horizontally against it's mouth.

 

So... I don't know if I should muck with it anymore, or give it some more time. I don't wany a dead fish sitting in there to long, so at what point to I pull it out? After I pull it, do I try to cut it and feed again, or just toss it and tray again in a few days?

[nebthet]

Don't try to force it to eat what it doesn't want to.. It more than likely isn't hungry or is not interested in silversides any more. So many people have issues feeding them to anemones anyways. There have been a lot of evidence to show feeding silversides has damaged a lot of nems.

 

I used to feed my RBTA mysis all the time and now I don't feed it directly at all, I just let it catch whatever it wants from the water column and it is just as happy and healthy as it was when I was feeding.

[reef-luva]

...anemones are one of the most sensitive animals we have in our tanks.

Light, temp., salinity etc...and they adjust kinda slow as well.

I just bought mine from this very old Japanese cat in Korea town here in LA

and he had it for three weeks, with zero light, besides indirect room light

in this single tank with a power head...that's it.

I was slightly reluctant to by it, but I know the signs of a healthy speciman

and now he is doing great under a crap load of LED's.

I have an "arch" type rock formation and he has positioned himself underneath..

this was after he crawled every where first to find his spot.

 

Don't trip on him not eating, being in the dark he probably went into

a instinctual mode to store food, I'll bet you he is full right now.

[1fishmonger]

^ What Neb said Silversides are actually a very poor choice of food for BTAs. Mysis is a better choice but don't try to force it to eat. If it's not eating, try again in a week or two.

[danilew]

So I should pull it out and toss it?

 

Letting it "catch whatever" is an issue, it's the only thing in the tank right now except for a CUC. I'm moving in the next month or so and it will be going into my 12g with the clowns. However, the 12g doesn't get the MH until I move (don't want to hang the sunpod just to take it down in 3-4 weeks).

 

So... until then the BTA is stuck in the 34g all alone.

===============================

Update:

 

Just went to pull it out and the silverside has a mucusing coating surrounding most of it. So it looks like the BTA is slowing eating it.

 

Should I still pull it out or would that damage the nem somehow?

[reefernanoman]

So I should pull it out and toss it?

 

Letting it "catch whatever" is an issue, it's the only thing in the tank right now except for a CUC. I'm moving in the next month or so and it will be going into my 12g with the clowns. However, the 12g doesn't get the MH until I move (don't want to hang the sunpod just to take it down in 3-4 weeks).

 

So... until then the BTA is stuck in the 34g all alone.

===============================

Update:

 

Just went to pull it out and the silverside has a mucusing coating surrounding most of it. So it looks like the BTA is slowing eating it.

 

Should I still pull it out or would that damage the nem somehow?

[/quote

Stop feeding it silversides. I feed my RBTA small chunks of squid, which is much easier to digest. A 12g tank is way to small for a bta. it will outgrow your tank very fast. I have mine in a 75g tank. Keeping an anemone in such a small tank is very hard. Not trying to critizise you, but I have done those mistakes in the past. Cheers.

[nebthet]

If the bta has not digested the silverside 6hrs, then I would suggest taking it out, if the anemone's mouth is open. You don't want to forceably remove any thing from a BTA or any other anemones mouth if it is closed.

 

In the future though, avoid feeding anemone's silversides. The website, Karen's Rose Anemones, while she has had great success feeding whole silversides to her anemones, most people see their nems go downhill when they feed them.

 

If silversides is all you have to feed your BTA with, I suggest you cut and throw away the heads and tails. Then put the fish in a blender and make a paste for the BTA. Feed the bta, through a pipette, and only a teeny tiny little bit of it at first. I mean less than .50ml of the paste. Basically, the amount you can fit on the very end of a teaspoon amount, or half the size of an asperin.

 

Let the anemone wrap it's tentacles around the pipette when you go to feed it, and once the pipette is close to the mouth, and the anemone is mostly balled up, gently squeeze the food from the pipette and let it fall into the anemone's mouth.

All powerheads in your tank should be off when doing this.

The BTA should then move the food into it's mouth on it's own and eat the food.

After 15-20min you can turn your powerheads back on.

 

Eventually, once your BTA is back to being healthy, then it will be able to catch it's own food from left over feedings in your tank.

 

My tiny rose BTA was about the size of a toonie when I first got it at the end of June 2010.

This is what it looked like. It was small and bleached. I fed it by the methods I am giving you above, after I learned not to feed silversides, after mine refused to eat them too.

 

I did the same method with this very bleached almost dead sebae anemone, about the size of a toonie as well.

 

Today, both of these anemones have grown, have better color and are much healthier.

 

Also, if you are going to be putting the BTA in to a 12g with a pair of clowns, and no other corals, if can be done. But, you need to ensure that you are performing water changes twice per week if you are going to be feeding the anemone directly while it is in the tank, or have a good skimmer on there to help with the additional bioload. If you are not going to be doing additional direct feeding to the anemone and allowing it to catch any extra food the clowns miss (or in some cases, the clowns will feed the anemone with their left over food) then your weekly water changes will be ok. Just watch it's size because the more you feed them the faster they grow.