Saving Dying BTAs

[dpassar12]

To make a long story short. I sold 2 bubble tips, a green and a rainbow to a friend back in Nov 2107. Early March they sent me a pic and said they were going to toss the rainbow becasue they were pretty sure it was dead. They also told me the green one was starting to die as well. I told them to bring them back to me and I will try and revive them. I wish I had taken more pics along the way. I think the few that I do have are good enough to show the progress. 

 

The reason why I thought I could save them was a few years ago I had a neon green carpet that got sick. It stopped eating completely and it's mouth swelled up. Being a newbie, before I even new WAMAS existed, I decided to try and force fed it. I would literally put squid in it's mouth and force it in with my finger. I did the every few days for about a month and it recovered and is still doing great to this day.

 

Back the the BTAs. I figured i would try something similar. So here is a pic of the rainbow day before being delivered back to me in early March.

 

 

I wish I had a starting pic of the green, It was not as bad, probably because it was 2x the size of the rainbow. It still had some tentacles.  The rainbow was not attached when it arrived and the would not attach when I put it in the recovery tank (not a good sign). I built a small shelter with some rock to hopefully keep it from blowing into a powerhead in the first hour. 

 

The tank was a 60 gal frag tank bare bottom. Inhabitants were 1 small damsel, several rocks, 1 pincushion urchin. 2 mussels, another rainbow was in the tank part of the recovery and few shrooms. Light is BB.

 

Let the feeding begin.. 

 

Every 2 days I would put a very tiny piece of squid or shrimp into the mouth of the rainbow with a tweezer. I had to force it in because it did not have any tentacles to hold it.  The green one had tentacles but still had a hard time hold the small pieces of squid. I would manually close the rim around the food and that seemed to help with the green one. I used a tweezer because of the size of the BTAs and the size of the food. 

 

Action shots April ...

 

Rainbow..

 

Green

 

March as they healed I noticed the Rainbow was growing it tentacles back.. I was also walking around the tank on it own....

 

End of May glamour shots of both healthy and ready to go back home into a larger more stable tank.

 

 

Back home with clowns hosting in the green one. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by dpassar12

[YHSublime]

Nicely done. I think BTA's are more resilient than most hobbyists give them credit for. What was the issue with the tank that the person who bought them from you had? Lighting, water quality? 

[RW09903]

Glad you were able to save the anemones. I had a somewhat similar situation with a BTA. Long story short, the nem went surfing decided to ride the waves into a MP40. I thought it was toast. Rather than tossing it, I placed it my sump to heal. Now it's back in the display and about the size of a small dinner plate. 

[madweazl]

Who would have thunk-it! Nice job on nursing them back to health. 

[KingOfAll_Tyrants]

Well, Dan, you told me before that BTAs are generally very hardy.  Glad to see more evidence.     

[gmerek2]

Great save! I have found that when my tank is in that sweet spot for them, it’s *almost* like cutting up pulsing Xenia. I have even had a 1mm foot sliver sprout bubbles and thrive. I’m glad to see more propagated nem in Wamas recently as info is spreading and tanks get healthier with technology

[madweazl]

Great save! I have found that when my tank is in that sweet spot for them, it’s *almost* like cutting up pulsing Xenia. I have even had a 1mm foot sliver sprout bubbles and thrive. I’m glad to see more propagated nem in Wamas recently as info is spreading and tanks get healthier with technology

I have this problem with a green toadstool and pipe organ; there are bits popping up all over the place. Drives me nuts but the 150g will be getting setup soon so I can start again in that one LOL.