RBTA acting weird.

[brandolando4]

Hey. Bought a RBTA from Divers Den when it arrived on Tuesday the water was super cold and I lost most of the snails and lost my cleaner shrimp. I acclimated the nem and it stuck to its rock relatively quick. 

 

 

The nem still hasn’t opened up and it looks like it’s mouth is puckered up and is spitting up it’s stomach. Everything else is doing fine including the maxima clam, the mini maxi nem and everything else. 

 

Is it a goner?

 

Anything I can do to try and make it happy?

 

 

 

[dandelion]

If I were you I would move it into a hospital tank. Mouth turning inside our is a worrisome sign, and when they die they can pollute your tank fast and kill all your inhabitants. 

 

What at are your parameters? How old is your tank?

[brandolando4]

All params at 0 ph 8.2 salinity at 1.024. Tank is 2 months old.  

[brandolando4]

Unfortunately I don’t have a hospital tank. 

[Tamberav]

I would just keep an eye on it. My BTA puckers sometimes when eating... nom nom. Other times it balls up for no reason then back to normal... then you would think it was dying but really it just had to poop.

 

Clam is in a 2 month old tank... oof.. not something I would ask for.

[WV Reefer]

That’s a lot of sensitive new critters for a tank that is not mature at all.  

[Brandon0921]

I've had a few nems now and I find during their acclimation period they do some very strange stuff, but its best not to panic.  What I consider typical behavior (and this is only from my own experience), is inflating and deflating daily, hiding in rocks, and slightly opened mouth even spitting out some zooxanathelle (brown stringy stuff).  IME its been best to leave them alone and keep your parameters and the environment around them as stable as possible to reduce stress.  If the behavior worsens over the course of a week or you find the nem face down, then it may be time to figure out a QT.  

 

Just my 2 cents based off my experiences.

[Brandon0921]

also, dont attempt feeding for at least 2 weeks, they will need their energy to recover from the move.  From your pictures, id say its recovering from a stressful event.  Wouldnt be worried yet.

[brandolando4]

 

8 hours ago, Tamberav said:

I would just keep an eye on it. My BTA puckers sometimes when eating... nom nom. Other times it balls up for no reason then back to normal... then you would think it was dying but really it just had to poop.

 

Clam is in a 2 month old tank... oof.. not something I would ask for.

My tank is stable with very old/cured live rock. People have kept them successfully in much younger tanks. 

 

Been reefing for ten years and very good at the water chemistry part. Just moved back from Hawaii so I’m a little rusty on the invertebrate troubleshooting (most are illegal there) hence  this nem post and the post a couple days ago about the clam mantle. 

 

Thanks for the help. 

 

Luckily its it’s not your tank....

[brandolando4]

5 hours ago, Brandon0921 said:

also, dont attempt feeding for at least 2 weeks, they will need their energy to recover from the move.  From your pictures, id say its recovering from a stressful event.  Wouldnt be worried yet.

Thanks!! He looks better. And my gut was just to monitor it because it is still very sticky.

[brandolando4]

5 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

That’s a lot of sensitive new critters for a tank that is not mature at all.  

Noted. Thanks for your opinion and your help with my original question. 

[WV Reefer]

1 minute ago, brandolando4 said:

Noted. Thanks for your opinion and your help with my original question. 

Thanks for the snark. 

 

A new tank is a valid concern for someone having Anemone and clam issues.  You gave no history on the tank set up so how are we as members to know that? After viewing your profile I can see that you are not new and my advice would have been different knowing all of that. Being snarky only discourages others from helping. 

[brandolando4]

And your comment was snarky? Lol. I was responding with the same tone.

 

Both issues have nothing to do with my tank. Clam was nipped on at LFS and like I said I lost nearly my entire LA order because it was improprerly shipped. 

 

Anyway not trying to start drama just needed some help. 

 

 

I really appreciate everyone giving input on what to do. Gonna just watch it 

 

Hopefully the nem makes it through. 

 

 

 

[Tamberav]

52 minutes ago, brandolando4 said:

 

My tank is stable with very old/cured live rock. People have kept them successfully in much younger tanks. 

 

Been reefing for ten years and very good at the water chemistry part. Just moved back from Hawaii so I’m a little rusty on the invertebrate troubleshooting (most are illegal there) hence  this nem post and the post a couple days ago about the clam mantle. 

 

Thanks for the help. 

 

Luckily its it’s not your tank....

 

If it is old rock then I am less concerned... more people seem to kill them in young tanks then keep them successfully. There is a billion dead/dying clam threads on this forum.

 

 I have had clams and they did well and went on to new owners when I moved but I always added them to pretty mature tanks. Was never in a rush but I can understand the excitement of being able to keep invertebrate again. 

[RobsNanoLagoon]

how is the flow ? Light ? nems tend to like medium flow with medium light in my experience, high flow and strong light makes them stress. obviously it depends on how big your nem is but from the picture you posted it looks like its medium sized and on top of your rock work. It will probably move somewhere it likes. But to answer your question, nems do this when they are stressed and or have ate a lot and poop stuff out. Even flow rock nems do it.

[mndfreeze]

The nem will definitely move on its own if its not happy with the flow or the lightning.