BTA Concerns

[dsfdbutterfly]

I have a large BTA. He is absolutely beautiful when open. Here lies the problem. I've done a lot of reading on them and it says that if they close a lot then there is stress. Mine has been closing twice a day. When open the foot is pink and the tips are a pretty green color. There is no loss of color or blanching on him. His mouth is not pushed out. I've had him for a week and a half. He is definately attached to a rock (most of his foot is hidden). He has intermediate flow around him. I have MH lighting. I was going to go get two 40w bulbs to cut down the time that the MH is on. I also have two atinic lights that are on before and after and moon lights for night. He is mostly in the light when open. I fed him a half piece of silverside 4 days ago. He ate that and nothing came back out. My mated percs have hosted to him and are absolutely in love. Nothing else in the tank is showing problems. In fact everything is growing at an alarming rate.

Is it possible that he is splitting? His left hand corner appears to have a ring around it and it also looks like the arms are moving out in a circle. I don't see a second mouth though and don't know how long this process takes. No one talks of this. When extended all arms have the bulb look to them and have the white ring. He never looks stringy except at night after the lights have gone off. Even then his arms are still full they just don't have the bubble on the end. My batteries are charged again on my camera so I will try to post pictures of both open and closed. He does this several times during the day so it shouldn't be hard to capture. Any help or tips would be great.

Angie

[dsfdbutterfly]

Ok, no one has anything for me. I have some pics that I hope I can attach. I hope this will generate some ideas. I'm up for anything so just shout it out k. Thanks.

Hope you can see them. Not so good at this uploading of pics and this was the biggest it would let me do.

Angie

[davejnz]

IME,its perfectly normal for BTA's to retract/expand during the course of a day/night.I wouldn't worry too much about it right now.Since you've only had it for a couple weeks,its still getting used to its new environment.For your lighting,BTA's don't really need intesnse lighting IME.My RBTA doesn't like direct 250MH lighting.Just let it be for a while,it will move about until it finds a place it likes.For feeding,I prefer mysis over silversides for BTA's.When healthy,their tentacles are very sticky.I just squirt a little mysis at it with a turkey baster and it sucks them right in.

[carpenterwrasse]

are there different types on mysis that can be purchased?

[davejnz]

I'm sure there are.I use the frozen cubes of mysis.I take a cupfull of tankwater,add a 1/2 cube of mysis,1/8tsp of cyclop-eeze,and an 1/8tsp of GoldenPearls.I'll pour a bit of it in the tank at night and wait for a feeding response(tentacles from LPS)then target feed with a baster or syringe

[Fatman]

Mine has stand procedure of closing and opening. Yours looks amazing btw. Mine close for the night usually about down to a 1/4 or 1/3 of their size. Then in the morning they begin to fill up a bit to 1/2 their size, and when the MH come on or by noon their usualyl fully open and just taking in the light.

[dsfdbutterfly]

Thanks guys. I think it just might be him getting use to his new surroundings. As of late he has been extending even further. He still closes up on himself but not as much. The clowns don't seems as upset when he does it either. I think he has choosen his spot in the tank as he hasn't moved since I placed him in there. It gives him indirect light from the MH. He also gets plenty of water movement from one of the heads when it turns on. His tenacles are getting stickier too so I will take that as a good sign.

Thanks fatman. I was hoping to start out with a smaller one and allow it to grow but when it got here it was just huge. I'll deal though cuz I like him so much.

I will try to pick up some mysis and cyclop-eeze. I was just told that bulbs like silverside. I was planning a varried diet anyway. I haven't heard of golden pearls though what is this?

[davejnz]

Angie,GP's is a very fine powdered pood.I use the small size(50microns).Its not necessary for anenomes.I feed my corals at the same time as my other inverts thats why i add it in the mix.There's nothing wrong with feeding silversides either,I just prefer mysis.