What's your bta experience?

[Clown79]

My clowns currently host a frogspawn for 3yrs. They have gotten too rough with it and its lost 1 head and another is on it's way out.

 

Because it won't open up fully now they are moving onto a neighboring frogspawn😞

 

I'm considering getting them a bta. My main concern is it moving around and destroying my other corals pr getting caught in a powerhead.

 

 

So what experiences have you had with your bta?

[LogicalReefs]

I haven’t had the best experiences with them but most of the time it was my fault (new tank). 

 

How about a goni? Those are nice and I had a clownfish host one before. They also can’t walk around your tank lol. 

[OPtasia]

If you get a BTA, make sure it's big enough or get a few of them so they can bounce from one to the other. Our tomato clown insists on loving it's BTA's to death. Softball sized BTA's are hosted immediately by our clown, but she eats all of the food out of it and nestles into it so much that nems stay constantly irritated and withdrawn. 

 

Other BTA's i've had were ignored by true ocellaris clowns and yeah they can and do move around until they find their ideal spot. Stinging is common.

[pgrVII]

Ive found mine to stay put(knock on wood) generally if i spot feed them every few weeks and my clowns are using it. Its definitely always easier if the bta is one of the first few additions. Zoas and palys seems to not really be bothered by them to much if they park next to them. Nems are pretty easy,just good flow,light and some food and they will live a long while. You can also cover your wavemakers with pantyhose if youre worried about impeller damnation. Just something extra to clean though. Hope this helps!

[Tamberav]

Mine never moves but now it will since you asked! 

 

I put it in moderate flow with a hole to put its foot in and good light. I gave it no reason to move as these are the things I find btas like. I don't feed mine... Ever.... Clownfish sometimes do though. 

 

The hole for the foot is a major need for these guys imo. 

 

I put it in my SPS tank like a mad man but then I used sand from a freshwater lake known to have tons of copper in my cold water tank and I topped off with untreated tap when lazy and put medications in my reef tank... Used copper in a QT and then used it as a DT... Treated live rock with CP and then used it in a DT....patched a hole in a leaky tank on the bottom... and I calibrate with rodi so I'm living pretty dangerous.... 

[Lawnman]

16 hours ago, pgrVII said:

Ive found mine to stay put(knock on wood) generally if i spot feed them every few weeks and my clowns are using it. Its definitely always easier if the bta is one of the first few additions. Zoas and palys seems to not really be bothered by them to much if they park next to them. Nems are pretty easy,just good flow,light and some food and they will live a long while. You can also cover your wavemakers with pantyhose if youre worried about impeller damnation. Just something extra to clean though. Hope this helps!

+1 

[Lawnman]

Love me some bubble tips it’s kind of my thing

 

[mitten_reef]

It will move, but the effects/impacts on corals are minimal, as long as it isn’t allowed to just sit there stinging the crap out of its neighbor. Mitigate moving by having a nice spot for foothold and medium flow. 

 

My BTA has split several times in my tank over the years, usually the little split wanders away from the “mother”. That’s when the power head got involved once recently. Unless you have something that’s overly powerful for the tank I don’t think nem will get “sucked in” that easily. That’s one in 7-8 splits for me.  My powerhead is tunze 6040, which is advertised to have obstruction sensor. while the nem didn’t survive that encounter, I think it saved my tank from becoming nem smoothie bowl. 

 

 

[Lawnman]

1 hour ago, micoastreefing said:

It will move, but the effects/impacts on corals are minimal, as long as it isn’t allowed to just sit there stinging the crap out of its neighbor. Mitigate moving by having a nice spot for foothold and medium flow. 

 

My BTA has split several times in my tank over the years, usually the little split wanders away from the “mother”. That’s when the power head got involved once recently. Unless you have something that’s overly powerful for the tank I don’t think nem will get “sucked in” that easily. That’s one in 7-8 splits for me.  My powerhead is tunze 6040, which is advertised to have obstruction sensor. while the nem didn’t survive that encounter, I think it saved my tank from becoming nem smoothie bowl. 

 

 

I had a 9” one go right into a MP 40. Chewed it up like a blender. Had little tentacles all over the tank for a few days. It clouded up the tank. Little carbon and a waterchange fixed it right up. 

[mitten_reef]

7 minutes ago, Lawnman said:

I had a 9” one go right into a MP 40. Chewed it up like a blender. Had little tentacles all over the tank for a few days. It clouded up the tank. Little carbon and a waterchange fixed it right up. 

wow, that really sucks man.  mine was about 3-4", and ended up as two big chunks, the trunk and half the head on the tank floor.  the smaller pieces got thrown about a bit - but no smoothie.  

 

some nice nem's you got up there.

[Joevember]

I bought one about 2 weeks ago, and it has yet to open up fully. But, the colors on it are better than any other coral I have. I have it in the middle of my tank on a piece of coral skeleton; I don't think they can move across the sandbed. Just in case it did, I made a guard for my powerhead.

 

I don't think my clowns will ever host it because it's too small and they have their minds set on rubbing up on my duncan.

[Humblefish]

The ones I've kept seem to grow faster/split more often in a high nutrient tank. They like being near the top, especially under MH lighting. Once they find their "sweet spot" they won't usually move from it until just before/during splitting. The mother will typically return to her "sweet spot" while the clone starts to wander the tank. This is when contact with corals/pumps becomes a real problem.

[Clown79]

Thanks so much everyone for the stories.

 

Very educational and entertaining.

 

Now it's time to decide if I wanna take the risk and try one.

[jservedio]

8 hours ago, Humblefish said:

The ones I've kept seem to grow faster/split more often in a high nutrient tank. They like being near the top, especially under MH lighting. Once they find their "sweet spot" they won't usually move from it until just before/during splitting. The mother will typically return to her "sweet spot" while the clone starts to wander the tank. This is when contact with corals/pumps becomes a real problem.

Same experience. Mine move in a 1-2 inch radius over months, but only move more than that to split. My maxi minis walk around their rock an inch or two every day all within a tiny area.